This is our new Friday Digest! Every Friday, this weekly news round-up gives us the occasion to share with you news from various topics: politics to arts, entertainment, media, science, sports, fun and less fun news… This digest is a list of news published this week on the Internet (Friday to Friday), selected by the Sama Team, and it is by no means exhaustive.

If you want to suggest a news to be added in the next Friday Digest, contact us.

The list goes from oldest to newest news.  See you on Sunday, for our weekly Twitter Sunday!

China Fears Warming Effects of Consumer Wants
Premier Wen Jiabao has promised to use an “iron hand” this summer to make his nation more energy efficient. The central government has ordered cities to close inefficient factories by September, like the vast Guangzhou Steel mill here, where most of the 6,000 workers will be laid off or pushed into early retirement. Already, in the last three years, China has shut down more than a thousand older coal-fired power plants…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/05/business/global/05warm.html

SOUTH AFRICA: Nipping xenophobia in the bud
A series of meetings to educate residents about xenophobia in the informal settlement of Du Noon, Cape Town, will begin on 7 July and run until the final game of the FIFA World Cup on 11 July. On 27 June units of the South African army were deployed to the township in what police described as an “anti-crime operation”, after widespread reports had been circulating that foreign nationals…
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=89744

The Band From TV: Changing the World One (Musical) Note at a Time
Lots of celebrities have rock bands. They play for fun, to blow off steam, and just hang out—just like us ordinary garage rockers do. But in 2006, Greg Grunberg (Heroes, Love Bites) formed a unique celebrity cover band appropriately (and punnily) called The Band from TV (as in “banned” from TV). BFTV is a band with a mission; virtually all of their proceeds go straight to the charities…
http://www.seattlepi.com/pop/422431_138003-blogcritics.org.html

Scientists Warn Gulf Of Mexico Sea Floor Fractured Beyond Repair Video confirms it
A dire report circulating in the Kremlin today that was prepared for Prime Minister Putin by Anatoly Sagalevich of Russia’s Shirshov Institute of Oceanology warns that the Gulf of Mexico sea floor has been fractured “beyond all repair” and our World should begin preparing for an ecological disaster “beyond comprehension” unless “extraordinary measures” are undertaken to stop the massive flow of oil…
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-461896

Because every country is the best at something
Ideas, issues, knowledge, data – visualized!
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/because-every-country-is-the
-best-at-something/

Obama, Netanyahu to focus on peace talks
President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed into a White House meeting Tuesday with the same goal: trying to move the Israelis and Palestinians to resume face-to-face peace talks. Netanyahu on Sunday endorsed the U.S. call for direct talks between the two parties, just days after White House officials said Obama would push during the Oval Office session for those negotiations…
http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/a5050f4ad4f44dafab85bb41a15281cf/Article
_2010-07-06-US-US-Israel/id-bc1a0e3ea75c4798943dd92dbd53655f

NATO Airstrike Accidentally Kills Afghan Troops
NATO mistakenly killed five of its Afghan army allies in an airstrike Wednesday while the Afghans were attacking insurgents in the country’s east, officials said. An Afghan defense official condemned the latest ”friendly fire” deaths, which came at a time when international troops are trying to improve coordination with Afghan security forces in hopes of handing over more security to them…
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/07/07/world/AP-AS-Afghanistan.html

Square Pixel Inventor Tries to Smooth Things Out
Russell Kirsch says he’s sorry. More than 50 years ago, Kirsch took a picture of his infant son and scanned it into a computer. It was the first digital image: a grainy, black-and-white baby picture that literally changed the way we view the world. With it, the smoothness of images captured on film was shattered to bits…
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/smoothing-square-pixels

Apple Making New Push Into China
Although Apple is widely admired in China, most fans of its products here have been buying their iPhones, iPods and Mac computers from smugglers who operate through underground electronics markets. The company has few sales outlets in the country and only one Apple Store, a branch in Beijing. But with Apple set to open a flagship Saturday in Shanghai — one of its largest stores in Asia — the company is embarking on a concerted effort to raise its profile in the world’s biggest mobile phone market and tap more directly into China’s…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/technology/09apple.html

Emmy Awards Nominees 2010: ‘Glee,’ ‘Pacific’ Top Nominations
Glee,” the spunky TV musical comedy about high school misfits and the teachers who shepherd them, was a top Emmy nominee Thursday with 19 bids, including for best comedy series and stars Matthew Morrison and Lea Michele. “I’m in such shock,” Michele said from New York…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/08/emmy-awards-nominees-2010_
n_639201.html

Prominent Chinese Artist Incarcerated, Wife Says
Wu Yuren, an artist who helped lead an unusually bold public protest last winter over a land dispute, has been languishing in a Beijing jail for almost six weeks after having been beaten by police officers, his wife said on Thursday. Mr. Wu’s wife, Karen Patterson, a Canadian citizen, said in a telephone interview that the police were accusing her husband of assaulting an officer when…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/world/asia/09beijing.html

Iran halts woman’s death by stoning
A 43-year-old Iranian woman will not be stoned to death after an international campaign launched by her children. It is unclear whether the authorities have lifted the death sentence for alleged adultery against Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani or if she faces execution by another means. Mohammadi Ashtiani endured a sentence of 99 lashes after being convicted in May 2006 of conducting an “illicit relationship outside marriage”…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/08/iran-halts-woman-death-stoning