World

On Sunday, Filipino-US chess grandmaster Wesley So won this year's Tata Steel Chess Tournament, held in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, securing 9.0 points out of thirteen. Following closely in second place was current World Champion Magnus Carlsen with 8.0 points. Wesley So won five games and drew the remaining eight. A player gets a point for each win, half a point for a draw and no points for a loss. He is currently on a 56 lossless game streak. In the final round, Wesley So was paired against Russian grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi. Wesley So

A court in Celle, Germany sentenced sixteen-year-old German-Moroccan girl Safia S. to six years in prison on Thursday for an attempted murder. Safia stabbed a 34-year-old police officer in February last year using a vegetable knife in a train station in Hannover. Phone chats revealed Safia acted on the behalf of ISIL, the judge said, though the militant group did not claim any responsibility. The Federal Prosecutor Office sought the six year sentence for the juvenile a week prior. 20-year-old Mohamad Hasan K., who knew about Safia's plan, was

A rescue helicopter crashed in Abruzzo, Italy on Tuesday. All six on board died. The flight was taking a wounded skier from the Campo Felice ski resort in Rocca di Cambio to the regional capital, L'Aquila. It crashed near the resort. The mountainous site is around 100km (60 miles) from the scene of an avalanche last week at the Rigopiano hotel, where at least fifteen died and several remain missing. Rescue operations at the hotel, which is on the other side of mountain Gran Sasso, are ongoing. Rescuers diverted away from the scene to assist

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of the United Kingdom yesterday issued an update detailing progress on its response to the August 2015 crash at Shoreham Airshow that killed eleven. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) is expected to release a final report within months. It has issued a total of 21 recommendations to the CAA, which yesterday confirmed it has accepted all of them. Pilot Andy Hill, who survived but was seriously injured, faces a manslaughter investigation. The CAA says it has already implemented more than half the re

A Turkish cargo plane crashed just outside of Manas Airport in Kyrgyzstan en route from Hong Kong to İstanbul early on Monday morning. The crash destroyed approximately fifteen buildings and resulted in the death of over 30 people, including four crew members, according to the Kyrgyz emergencies ministry. A Kyrgyz official tentatively ascribed the crash to pilot error. The conditions at the time were foggy. The Boeing 747 plane was supposed to make a stop-over at Manas Airport on its way to İstanbul. The crash occurred in the village of Dacha

A Nigerian Air Force jet fighter mistook refugees for rebels yesterday, Nigerian military said, firing on a camp in Rann, Borno State. Dozens of refugees and aid workers died. The lowest estimate from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is of 50 dead. The BBC estimates at least 52 dead, while one Borno State official is attributed by AP as saying over 100 are dead. MSF say at least 200 were wounded. The Red Cross said at least six of its staff died and twelve more injured. The impoverished region, in the northeast of the nation, has suffered sever

In the latest of a series of prison riots in prisons across Brazil, dozens of inmates, mostly rival gangs, were reported dead at the State Penitentiary of Alcaçuz, a state prison located in Natal, the capital of the Brazilian state, Rio Grande do Norte. Reports vary but, as of Sunday, the death toll may have reached 26. According to the BBC, this figure is triple the initial reports. Prison authorities said that some victims were decapitated. Prison coordinator Zemilton Silva witnessed this happen to three men, and forensic report that there h

On Monday, the person responsible for changing the Hollywood sign in California to read "Hollyweed" as a new year's prank turned himself in to local authorities. 30-year-old artist Zachary Cole Fernandez surrendered himself, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said. According to LAPD, Fernandez went to the police station accompanied by his lawyer, where he confessed to have changed the sign and was bailed out shortly thereafter for US$1000. LAPD charged Fernandez with trespassing; earlier reports indicated vandalism charges were ruled out

A joint research team from the University of Calgary, American Museum of Natural History, and Florida State University announced on Monday that the eggs of non-avian dinosaurs such as the duck-billed dinosaur took as long as six months to hatch, far longer than had previously been believed. Bird eggs incubate for 11 to 85 days, about half the time of most other egg-laying vertebrates. Scientists had thought dinosaur eggs were more like those of modern birds than modern reptiles, but this long hatch time is far more reminiscent of monitor lizar

{{DISPLAYTITLE:UK documentary claims fire weakened RMS Titanic}} A documentary broadcast on Sunday on the UK's Channel 4 claims the RMS Titanic was weakened by a three-week fire before its infamous 1912 sinking. More than 1,500 people died when the vessel sank partway between Southampton, England and New York, United States. The disaster has long been thought down to a collision with an iceberg. Titanic: The New Evidence focuses upon research by Irish journalist Senan Molony, who spent 30 years investigating the accident. Based on photograph

The Helsinki District Court on Thursday sentenced Jari Aarnio, once head of the city's anti-drugs taskforce, to ten years in prison for smuggling hashish and related crimes. Aarnio, who maintains his innocence, was among thirteen defendants prosecuted over the import and distribution of Dutch hashish totaling about 800 kg in 2011–12. Ordered into immediate custody, Aarnio was convicted of all 22 charges he faced. Five were of aggravated drug offence, with other offences including official misconduct, threatening a suspect, and aggravated evide

Two hijackers seized an Afriqiyah Airways jet this morning, diverting it away from its domestic Libyan route to Malta. The men surrendered to Maltese custody. Flight 209, an Airbus A320, was flying from Sabha to Tripoli. Men identified as Suhaha Mussa and Ahmed Alid, armed with what appeared to be a grenade and two pistols, took control of the aircraft. The airline said a proposal to land in Libya was rejected by the hijackers, who took the plane to nearby Malta owing to fuel limits. After landing, the plane's engines were not shut off for aro