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!

NATO official: Bin Laden, deputy hiding in northwest Pakistan
Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are believed to be hiding close to each other in houses in northwest Pakistan, but are not together, a senior NATO official said. “Nobody in al Qaeda is living in a cave,” said the official, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the intelligence matters involved. Rather, al Qaeda’s top leadership is…
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/10/18/afghanistan.bin.laden/index.html

Truck drivers join French pension protests
The BBC’s Christian Fraser says forecourts are running dry despite the prime minister saying there is enough fuel in the system. French truck drivers are the latest group of workers to join the strike movement against government plans to reform the state pension system. They have staged several overnight protests, including a go-slow on motorways near Lille, Paris and Lyon…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11563423

Apple Mocks Smaller Tablets, Dashes Hopes For iPad Nano
Well, that’s that. I kind of had my hopes up for an iPad “suite” including a smaller and larger device, but no less a personage than Steve Jobs himself has dismissed any idea of there being a smaller iPad than the one currently on the market. Or rather, he suggested that they’ll work fine if they come with sandpaper to file your fingers down to the size needed to…
http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/18/steve-jobs-no-smaller-ipad/

Gunmen Dead After Attack on Chechen Parliament
Heavily armed gunmen burst into the Parliament of Chechnya in southern Russia on Tuesday morning, killing at least three people and wounding more than a dozen before they were killed, officials said. Investigators said that three men entered the Parliament building in Grozny, the Chechen capital, and opened fire close to the office of the Parliament’s…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/world/europe/20chechen.html

EA Buys ‘Angry Birds’ Publisher Chillingo For $20 Million, Doesn’t Get ‘Angry Birds’
According to Reuters, Electronic Arts just bought Angry Birds publishers Chillingo for $20 million in cash. Apparently early reports caused some confusion as to who actually owned Angry Birds and the difference between developer Rovio and publisher Chillingo. To clarify, Angry Birds developer Rovio Mobile has just tweeted the above, “We have not sold out…
http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/20/angry-birds-developer-we-have-not-sold-to-ea/

China ‘trying to block publication of UN Darfur report’
Beijing is trying to prevent the release of a report, which says Chinese bullets have been used against Darfur peacekeepers, unnamed UN diplomats say. The report is being discussed by a United Nations committee which monitors sanctions against Sudan, including an arms embargo on Darfur. Beijing says it is vaguely worded and full of flaws. Ceasefires and peace…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11593516

Researchers discover ‘cancer marker’ gene
US and French researchers said they have discovered a genetic marker that is present in at least 11 types of cancerous tumours and could lead to new tests and treatments for the disease. Researchers from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and France’s National Institute of Health and Medical Research said they found the follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)…
http://www.france24.com/en/20101021-researchers-discover-cancer-marker-gene-0

UN: 138 dead after cholera outbreak in Haiti
Haitian Health Ministry officials have informed the World Health Organization that 138 deaths are a part of a fast-moving cholera outbreak north of Port-au-Prince, a U.N. official said. Imogen Wall, the U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman in Haiti, said that in addition to the deaths, 1,526 cases are also part of the outbreak. All the cases have been reported…
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/10/21/haiti.cholera/

Is Zynga Trying To Patent Virtual Currency?
If we’re reading correctly, this patent filed in March is multiplayer gaming network Zynga’s application for the control of non-redeemable virtual currency and/or poker chips bought with real currency in virtual games, a.k.a US Patent Application #20100227675 for “Virtual Playing Chips in a Multiuser Online Game Network.” While at first glance it seems…
http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/22/zynga-virtual-currency/