---
title: "While you were sleeping: 21 January 2016"
description: "Attacks in Pakistan kill 20, a new planet on the cards for our solar system, and the NFL gets its first female coach."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "South Africa"
author: "John Stupart"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/johnstupart/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-01-21-while-you-were-sleeping-21-january-2016/"
published: "2016-01-21T05:53:07"
updated: "2016-01-21T06:02:17"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 619
---

# While you were sleeping: 21 January 2016

> Attacks in Pakistan kill 20, a new planet on the cards for our solar system, and the NFL gets its first female coach.

By John Stupart · Published 21 January 2016, 07:53 SAST · Updated 21 January 2016, 08:02 SAST

## Content

**"Mr Trump, you’re right, look back there in the press box. Heads are spinning, media heads are spinning. This is going to be so much fun.”**

**–****Sarah Palin**

| WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING |
| --- |

**Armed militants have stormed a university in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 20.**[Pakistani Taliban had originally claimed responsibility](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-01-21-10-militants-storm-pakistan-university-kill-at-least-20) for the attack, only to disassociate themselves from it later on. Nonetheless, reports of teachers fighting back to allow students time to flee only added to the sense of desperation during the attack.**Despite the ongoing gloom surrounding the world's financial markets, experts at Davos 2016 are confident this is not a repeat of 2008.**John Veihmeyer, global chairman of accounting group, KPMG, cautioned that [significant risks](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-01-21-davos-leaders-look-beyond-2016s-early-market-mayhem#.VqBXRRh94tU) remain, but the pessimism may be largely related to China's economic slump. This same downturn has also been termed by one former Barclays executive as a "healthy correction", however. The palatial ski resort environment may have something to do with this cloud of optimism in a financial world gone awfully bad.**Researchers may have discovered a ninth planet in our solar system.**[While not observed directly](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-01-21-researchers-find-possible-ninth-planet-beyond-neptune), it is believed the planet orbits Neptune and is roughly 10 times the size of Earth. A computer simulation model indicated the possibility of this planet by detecting possible gravitational effects in the area, which strongly suggests another planet.**The light sabres have only just been sheathed, but don't expect 'Star Wars: Episode VIII' anytime soon.**[Disney has postponed](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-01-20-disney-postpones-star-wars-episode-viii-release-cnbc) the next instalment of the now-restored series to December 2017. This is a full seven months later than previously announced. With no explanation yet for the delay, the force is not going to be with anyone anytime soon.**The NFL's Buffalo Bills have made history by hiring the first ever female coach.**[Kathryn Smith has just been appointed](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-01-21-nfl-bills-break-ground-with-first-full-time-female-coach) as their new head of quality control-special teams. While this is not at all close to a head coach position, Smith's appointment is historical in that she is at least the first female head *anything*to make it in the NFL. Transformation may be glacial in the league, but it appears to be shifting at the Bills.

| IN NUMBERS |
| --- |

**18**

The percentage of Davos 2016's attendees who are women.

| FACTS OF THE DAY |
| --- |

**Today is National Hug Day in the United States.** Don't forget to hug your local American today in celebration.

**Fact of the day: When****Mikhail Gorbachev enacted the 'Glasnost' reforms, so many secrets and outright lies about the Soviet Union were uncovered that school history exams for 1988 were cancelled.**

| WEATHER |
| --- |

Bloemfontein: min: 22° max: 30°, rainy
Cape Town: min: 21° max: 35°, cloudy
Durban: min: 22° max: 35°, cloudy

East London: min: 22° max: 33°, cloudy
Johannesburg: min: 16° max: 26°, rainy
Kimberley: min: 22° max: 28°, rainy
Nelspruit: min: 16° max: 30°, cloudy
Pietermaritzburg: min: 13° max: 28°, rainy
Polokwane: min: 14° max: 31°, cloudy
Port Elizabeth: min: 14° max: 30°, cloudy
Pretoria: min: 21° max: 30°, cloudy

| FINANCIAL DATA |
| --- |

Oil=$28.08 Gold=$1,101.89 Platinum=$820.10
R/$=16.81 R/€=18.34 R/£=23.87 $/€=1.09
JSE All Share=46,394.01 DJIA=15,727.91 FTSE 100=5,710.84: [Source](https://www.google.com/finance)

| The Daily Maverick Audio Show (now on iTunes) |
| --- |

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