USA- Hoverbikes are an enticing idea. After all, who wouldn’t jump at the chance to ride a Star Wars speeder bike but in real life? The Army is so enamored with the idea that its trying to develop its own, but in the meantime consummate tinkerer Colin Furze has built one by himself. It looks incredible to ride, but maybe not to actually get around on.

Builder of apocalypse bunkers and jet-powered go karts, Furze is no stranger to extreme DIY engineering, but this is his first project to ever actually leave the ground. It certainly does that, but it’s a little hard to wrangle while it’s up there.

(Popular Mechanics)…[+]

GERMANY – The word “smombie” is one of the most recent additions to the German language. Last November, the term – a mashup of “smartphone” and “zombie”, referring to oblivious smartphone users staggering around cities like the undead – was voted Youth Word of the Year in Germany.

The disease is virulent. A recent study of 14,000 pedestrians in Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Rome and Stockholm found that 17% of people used their smartphone while walking. The heaviest users were 25 to 35-year-olds: almost a quarter of them exhibited smombie-esque behaviour.(theguardian)…[+]

IRAQI – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has called for the arrests of protesters who stormed the parliament, clashed with police and broke the barricades of Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone.

Abadi’s statement on Sunday came a day after hundreds of followers of the influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr tore down blast walls and poured into the parliament building, exacerbating a long-simmering political crisis. Videos on social media showed a group of young men surrounding and slapping two Iraqi legislators as they attempted to flee the crowd, while other protesters mobbed motorcades. Protesters were also seen jumping and dancing on the parliament’s meeting hall tables and chairs and waving Iraqi flags.”.(Al Jazeera)…[+]

USA – Supporters mourn Roman Catholic priest imprisoned for burning draft files in protest against Vietnam war. Daniel Berrigan, a Roman Catholic priest and prominent anti-war campaigner, has died at the age of 94.

Michael Benigno, a spokesman for the Jesuits USA Northeast Province, said Berrigan died on Saturday at a Jesuit infirmary at Fordham University. A peace activist, Berrigan authored more than 50 books, including several on religion and activism, as well as poetry collections. He won the prestigious Lamont Prize in 1957 for “Time Without Number”, a volume of his poetry. He and his younger brother, the Reverend Phillip Berrigan, in the 1960s became leaders of the anti-war movement against the US invasion of Vietnam. Berrigan was once imprisoned for burning draft files in a protest against the Vietnam war in 1968.(aljazeera.com)…[+]

USA – An antiseptic gel to help prevent umbilical cord infections in newborn babies, which was developed from a mouthwash, has been given the green light by European regulators.

GlaxoSmithKline developed the product, called Umbipro, with the charity Save the Children for use in developing countries. The gel will be sold at a not-for-profit price and could save 422,000 lives over five years, according to UN estimates. Scientists reformulated the chlorhexidine solution found in its Corsodyl mouthwash into a gel that can be applied to newly cut umbilical cords. There is a greater risk of infection – a major cause of newborn deaths – in developing countries across Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where more births happen at home and unsterile materials such as dung and ash are traditionally used on the umbilical cord stump.(theguardian)…[+]

NORTH-KOREA   –  North Korea sentenced a South Korean-born American citizen to 10 years of hard labor for subversion and espionage, a North Korean official told CNN.

Kim Dong Chul is the second American that North Korea has given a hard labor sentence in the past two months. In March, University of Virginia student Otto Frederick Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for allegedly removing a political banner from a Pyongyang hotel. CNN’s Will Ripley spoke to Kim in January, after he said he had been in detention for three months.  Kim said he moved to Yanji, a Chinese city near the Chinese-North Korean border that acts as a trade hub between the two countries, in 2001. From Yanji, Kim said he commuted daily to Rason, a special economic zone on the North Korean side of the border, where he served as president of a company involved in international trade and hotel services. According to Kim, he spied on behalf of “South Korean conservative elements” on the country’s nuclear and military program. “I was tasked with taking photos of military secrets and ‘scandalous’ scenes,” he said at the time.

.(CNN.COM/photo: img.washingtonpost.com)…[+]

U.S   – Scores of protesters took to the streets yesterday outside a Donald Trump campaign event here, drawing out police officers in riot and tactical gear and on horseback who sought to disperse the crowd.

The crowd gathered in the streets outside the OC Fair & Event Center as Trump addressed several thousand supporters at the Center’s amphitheater. At least one police car was damaged and several scuffles broke out amid the hectic scene. Protesters blocked a main intersection, impeding traffic, and officers with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and Costa Mesa Police Department worked to disperse the crowd, ordering protesters out of the streets. About 20 people were arrested, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department tweeted late Thursday night after the protests had cleared. Lt. Mark Stichter, the Sheriff’s Department’s public information officer, could not provide an official estimate on the number of protesters, but demonstrators could be seen filling the intersection of Fairview Road and Fair Drive.(CNN.COM/photo: www.trbimg.com)…[+]

USA – Jagged rocks installed to deter homeless encampments below a freeway overpass have sparked a debate between people arguing for compassion and residents demanding safer, cleaner streets. City crews installed the riprap next to the walls of the 5 Freeway overpass late last week at the request of Sherman Heights residents, who had complained that homeless encampments on Imperial Avenue had made it difficult and sometimes dangerous for pedestrians. “When we saw the rocks going up, we celebrated,” resident Ildifonso Carrillo said. Carrillo, a member of the Sherman Heights group Compassionate Solutions, said residents were fighting to improve the quality of life in their neighborhood. “We’re not anti-homeless,” he said. “We’re pro-resident.” Devonna Almagro, executive director of the Sherman Heights Community Center, said residents recently had approached Mayor Kevin Faulconer with concerns about the overpass when he was making an appearance in the neighborhood. ”

(latimes)…[+]

SYRIA   –  An airstrike that hit a hospital in Syria killed 27 people, including children and one of the last few pediatricians in Aleppo, rights groups said. Al Quds field hospital was hit by a missile from a fighter jet Wednesday, witnesses said. It’s unclear whom the fighter jet belonged to.

Fatalities in the attack included three children and three doctors, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The hospital was supported by Doctors Without Borders, which uses its French acronym, Médecins Sans Frontières. The hospital was “well known locally,” the charity group said. It’s not clear what type of support the facility received from MSF. The group condemned the attack. In recent months, northern Syria has been the scene of intense fighting, with government forces backed by Russian air power pursuing a major offensive on Aleppo. In February, CNN visited Aleppo and found a city under siege.(CNN.COM/photo: www.independent.co.uk)...[+]

THAILAND – Three British holidaymakers were ruthlessly beaten by a gang of men of Thailand, leaving them hospitalised. CCTV footage captured the extremely violent attack in the popular tourist resort of Hua Hin, where the elderly couple and their middle-aged son were celebrating Thai New Year. The row appears to escalate from nowhere, with one of the two men being punched to the ground. A melee ensues between passersby and the gang members, with the British woman, who is believed to be in her 60s, approaching one of the gang and appearing to try to reason with him. But the man instead punches her in the face and knocks her to the ground, while both are being kicked and punched. As she tries to sit back up, one of the gang kicks her violently in the jaw and knocks her out.(dailymail.co.uk)…[+]