Every Wednesday you will find links and top-line summaries of current events around the globe.
Facebook receives $200 million investment from Russian firm [Reuters]
- Digital Sky Technologies has invested $200 million in Facebook, pegging its value at $10 billion
- The new valuation is $5 billion lower than when Microsoft Corp invested $240 million in Facebook in return for a 1.6 percent stake, in 2007
- Facebook now has more than 200 million active members, double the number it had just last August. About 70 percent of its members are outside the United States
Cavaliers Sell a Stake to Chinese Investors [New York Times]
- The Cavaliers said they agreed over the weekend to sell a 15 percent stake in the franchise and its Quicken Loans Arena to the group, which is led by Kenny Huang, a Chinese-born investor who has also brokered marketing deals with the Yankees and the Houston Rockets
- The NBA has been aggressively expanding its presence in China with exhibition games and a joint venture that aims to develop a Chinese basketball league and professional arenas
- China also has two fast-growing athletic gear companies, Li Ning and Anta, both of which have signed deals with NBA players or teams. The All-Star center Shaquille O’Neal, who plays for the Phoenix Suns, has a shoe contract with Li Ning.
Scientology on Trial in France [BBC]
- The Church of Scientology has gone on trial in the French capital, Paris, accused of organized fraud
- France regards Scientology as a sect, not a religion, and the organisation could be banned if it loses the case
- Scientology was founded in the United States in the 1954 by science-fiction writer L Ron Hubbard
Mexico arrests mayors, police chiefs in drug war [Reuters]
- Mexican troops rounded up 10 mayors and a string of police chiefs on Tuesday suspected of links to drug gangs in Western states
- Small towns in marijuana-growing Michoacan are under siege from rival cartels who want control of rural outposts along smuggling corridors
- Durango is part of the home territory of top drug fugitive Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, who is fighting a Michoacan cartel known as “La Familia” (The Family) for control of the area
Tamil Tigers Admit Leader is Dead [BBC]
- Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels have admitted for the first time that their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is dead
-The Tigers have stated they will now use non-violent methods to fight for the rights of Tamils as most of the Tamil Tigers senior leadership is believed to have been killed in the fighting
- Sri Lankan officials have said that more than 6,200 security personnel were killed and almost 30,000 wounded in the final three years of the war. Estimates for Tamil Tiger deaths vary from 15,000 to more than 22,000.
Photo from Associated Press
