This is our new Friday Digest! Each 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!

Origin of Wall Street’s Plunge Continues to Elude Officials
A day after a harrowing plunge in the stock market, federal regulators were still unable on Friday to answer the one question on every investor’s mind: What caused that near panic on Wall Street? Through the day and into the evening, officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission and other federal agencies hunted for clues amid a tangle of electronic trading records from the nation’s increasingly high-tech exchanges…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/business/08trading.html

Mark Ryden: ‘The Gay 90s: Old Tyme Art Show’
Fathered by figures like Big Daddy Roth and Robert Williams, a movement affectionately called Lowbrow by its adherents has been percolating out of the quasi-underground pop culture of Southern California since the 1970s. Lowbrow paintings typically feature illustrative technique and comically weird imagery. Mark Ryden is a master of the style. Painting and drawing with the skill of a Beaux-Arts academician, he creates funny pictures…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/arts/design/07galleries-003.html

Zimbabwe’s prisoners are left starving and sick through lack of money
Zimbabwe’s prisoners must be patient for their day in court. Some inmates are now being forced to rely on their alleged victims to chauffeur them from remand cells so they can face a jury, it emerged last week. News that the Zimbabwe prison service can no longer afford fuel to transport the accused will come as little surprise to anyone who has witnessed its descent into chaos. Hell Hole, an award-winning TV investigation last year…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/09/zimbabwe-prisoners-poverty-starving-sick

Can Theaters—And Studios—Survive Without Film Critics?
No, and here’s why. Critics are dead. That’s the line we keep hearing as cost-cutting at newspapers claims the local movie critic, replaced by syndicated reviews or not at all. Media stories about movie openings now refer to critics with an aggregated score from Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic, rather than individual names. Time and Newsweek have relegated most of their reviews to their websites. The three-decade TV warhorse…
http://www.boxofficemagazine.com/articles/2010-05-can-theaters-and-studios-survive
-without-film-critics

YEMEN: A young woman explains why she wears the niqab, the all-covering veil
When 20-year-old university student Layla Asda decided to wear the face-covering veil niqab, her father went ballistic. A relatively secular artist, he told her that the black cloak made her look like an old woman. Still she continued to wear it, even though her family opposed it. As the burka controversy rages on in Europe, some women in the Middle East feel inclined to speak out about why they choose to wear the all-covering veil…
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2010/05/yemen-a-young-woman-
explains-why-she-wears-the-niqab-the-all-covering-veil.html

Senegal beats the odds on maternal and infant deaths
In the crowded, dirt-poor, dusty urban sprawl of Dakar, behind the whitewashed walls of the Centre de Santé Dominique, windows are shuttered to the morning heat. A low moan seeps down a darkened hallway. A woman is in the throes of the dull ache of labour. Several others lie quietly on bare vinyl mattresses, or stand in the shadows, hands on the small of their backs, swayed by pregnancies nearing their end…
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/806912–senegal-beats-the-odds-on-
maternal-and-infant-deaths

Shepard Fairey says AP could “bankrupt” him
In an interview of Shepard Fairey by Iggy Pop for Interview Magazine, Fairey addressed his legal issues with the Associated Press. While it was good to hear exactly what Fairey’s argument is for fair use in this case and also his thoughts on copyright law in general (a topic I’m nearly as passionate about as art), the real bombshell is this quote from Fairey: “I think it’s fair use, but the Associated Press thinks it’s copyright infringement, and…
http://blog.vandalog.com/2010/05/shepard-fairey-ap-bankrupt/

US Envoy to Meet Burmese Opposition Leader
A senior U.S. envoy is scheduled to meet with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi Monday, one day after arriving in Burma for talks on the country’s upcoming elections. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs Kurt Campbell is making his first trip to Burma since last November, when he became the highest-level U.S. official to visit that country in years. Campbell flew to Rangoon Sunday and later held talks…
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/US-Envoy-to-Meet-Burmese-Opposition
-Leader-93247039.html

Iran Executes Five Activists, Sending Message to Critics
The Iranian government hanged five Kurdish activists, including a woman, on Sunday morning in the Evin prison in Tehran in what appeared to be an effort to intimidate protesters from marking the anniversary of last year’s huge anti-government rallies after the June 12 election. Sunday’s executions brought the total for the weekend to 11. Six men convicted of drug smuggling were hanged on Saturday. For the past few years, Iran has had…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/world/middleeast/10iran.html

Hugo Chavez Hires 200 People to Manage His Twitter Account
Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, who only recently signed up to Twitter, has rapidly risen up the rankings to become the top tweeter in the country, despite having previously described the service as a “tool of terror.” The leader has also hired hundreds of staff to reply to tweets. Chavez (“Presidente de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela. Soldado Bolivariano, Socialista y Antiimperialista” according to his bio), has, at the time…
http://mashable.com/2010/05/08/chavez-popular-twitter/

AFGHANISTAN: Running on drugs, corruption and aid
It is well known that the Taliban, local criminals and international drug cartels profit enormously from the drug trade; that corruption is rife; and that huge amounts of aid money are pouring into Afghanistan. Less clear is the effect of all this on government power and the rule of law on which humanitarian aid organizations depend to carry out their mandate. The drugs trade and corruption generate more money than lawful economic…
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=89078

Losing a Legend: Lena Horne Dies at 92
Lena Horne may not be a household name, but the jazz singer and actress’ legacy has had far-reaching efforts in Hollywood, on Broadway, and beyond. The great-granddaughter of a freed slave, she died this weekend at the age of 92, leaving behind new generations of ambitious performers and activists who will face fewer struggles thanks to efforts like hers. Weaving between roles as a performer, Horne got her start as a jazz singer…
http://womensrights.change.org/blog/view/losing_a_legend_lena_horne_dies_at_92

Rivals are invading its patch, but Nintendo is ready to go to war
Nintendo is preparing to unleash the full force of its development and marketing artillery against Apple after profits tumbled at the Japanese giant for the first time in six years. The reversal of fortunes, though flagged in advance by the company, throws the spotlight on threats to what once seemed a bulletproof business. Satoru Iwata, the Nintendo president, is understood to have told his senior executives recently to regard the…
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/
article7118570.ece

Virtual reality used to transfer men’s minds into a woman’s body
Scientists have transferred men’s minds into a virtual woman’s body in an experiment that could enlighten the prejudiced and shed light on how humans distinguish themselves from others. In a study at Barcelona University, men donned a virtual reality (VR) headset that allowed them to see and hear the world as a female character. When they looked down they could even see their new body and clothes. The “body-swapping” effect…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/may/12/virtual-reality-men-woman-body

Size of Oil Spill Underestimated, Scientists Say
Two weeks ago, the government put out a round estimate of the size of the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico: 5,000 barrels a day. Repeated endlessly in news reports, it has become conventional wisdom. But scientists and environmental groups are raising sharp questions about that estimate, declaring that the leak must be far larger. They also criticize BP for refusing to use well-known scientific techniques that would give a more precise figure…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/us/14oil.html

China’s school killings blamed on social tension
A spate of recent killings at primary schools in China can be blamed on deep-seated social tensions, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao says. The premier’s comments, made Friday during an interview with Hong Kong’s Phoenix Television, are the first official suggestion that the killings aren’t simply the acts of deranged men. Fifteen children have been killed and 80 others injured by men armed with cleavers, hammers or knives on five occasions…
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/05/14/china-killings-premier.html