While you were sleeping: 10 February 2016

Sanders & Trump win New Hampshire. Security Council to talk Syria, and Kenya fear Zika virus for Rio Olympics.

By John Stupart

10 Feb

"What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome."

– Friedrich Nietzsche

Story of the Day

Nkandla, the reckoning: Zuma's skin saving volte-face
After two years of deflections, denials and parallel investigations, President Jacob Zuma, through lawyers, on Tuesday conceded the Public Protector’s remedial actions are binding and other Nkandla investigations are invalid. What does it mean for a president under pressure? GREG NICOLSON reports from the Constitutional Court.

While you were sleeping

Sanders and Trump victors of New Hampshire
Bernie Sanders and the Orange Menace have emerged clear winners of the New Hampshire primaries. Sanders, a close contender in Iowa, won 59 percent of the Democratic vote, although counting is continuing. Trump managed 33 percent of the Republican ticket, with John Kasich a distant second. Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, was found in her control room, destroying panels with her lightsabre.
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Clean Power Plan axed by US Supreme Court
President Barack Obama's flagship Clean Power Plan has been denied the chance to curb emissions from coal and oil producers in the United States. Headed by coal giant state West Virginia and oil producing Texas, the legal effort to deny emissions restrictions has now cast doubt on the entire ability of the United States to curb carbon emissions from fossil fuel-related industries.
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Security Council to discuss Syria ahead of Munich talks
The United Nations Security Council is to discuss the ongoing humanitarian crisis emerging from the rubble of a Russian-backed offensive into Aleppo. This will be conducted ahead of planned talks in Munich and is scheduled for midday today. Considering Russia itself has veto power on the Security Council, this entire meeting is about as useful as an udder on a bull. The besieged rebels in Aleppo, it seems, are on their own, along with the many thousands of refugees.
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Google AI could be licensed drivers
The Artificial Intelligence literally driving Google's autonomous self-driving vehicles can be classified as legal drivers. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has said it is willing to interpret Google's self-driving AI chip as the legal 'driver', rather than the passenger inside. Considering the passenger could be anything from a toddler to a Labradoodle, this is likely a wise path to follow.
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Kenya considers Olympics withdrawal
Citing concerns about the Zika virus and its spread to the Rio Olympics, Kenya has announced that it is considering withdrawing from the event entirely. Although later conceding that it was too soon to tell whether a withdrawal would be necessary, Kenyan Olympic officials have stressed this was a tangible possibility should the virus reach epidemic levels in Rio by the time the sporting event comes around.
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In Numbers

3,716

The number of miles which French national Benoît Lecomte swam across the entire Atlantic Ocean. This took him 73 days. Some of which was spent being followed by a great white shark.

Facts of the Day

Today in 1996 saw IBM's Deep Blue, one of the earlier supercomputers, defeat chess champion Garry Kasparov.

Fact of the day: C.S. Lewis, Aldous Huxley, and John F. Kennedy all died on the same day.

Weather

Financial Data

BFN: min: 18° max: 33°, sunny
CPT: min: 19° max: 29°, cloudy
DBN: min: 21° max: 30°, sunny

EL: min: 18° max: 30°, sunny
JHB: min: 17° max: 29°, rainy
KIM: min: 20° max: 35°, cloudy
NLP: min: 17° max: 30°, rainy
PMB: min: 17° max: 29°, cloudy
PKN: min: 16° max: 29°, rainy
PE: min: 18° max: 29°, sunny
PTA: min: 18° max: 30°, rainy

Oil=$30.54 Gold=$1,187.68 Platinum=$929.65
R/$=16.03 R/€=18.09 R/£=23.18 $/€=1.12
JSE All Share=48,344.75 DJIA=16,102.21 FTSE 100=5,632.19 : Source