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.

Axel Axgil, Gay Rights Pioneer, Dies At 96
Axel Axgil, whose struggle for gay rights helped make Denmark the first country to legalize same-sex partnerships, has died. He was 96. Axgil died in a hospital in Copenhagen on Saturday following complications from a fall, Danish gay rights group LGBT Danmark said. Axgil, born Axel Lundahl-Madsen, was among the founding members of the organization – one of the oldest gay rights groups in Europe…

UNESCO to Vote on Palestinian Membership
Palestinians expect to win full membership at the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO as early as Monday, in a vote that would boost their bid for international recognition as an independent state. Paris-based UNESCO is the first U.N. agency the Palestinians have sought to join since President Mahmoud Abbas applied last month for full recognition of Palestinian statehood by the General Assembly…

U.S. Cuts UNESCO Funding After Palestine Vote
UNESCO voted Monday to admit Palestine as its newest member – a move that placed the U.N. cultural agency at odds with U.S. law and prompted the Obama administration to announce that it would cut off its annual funding of the organization. The Palestinian push for membership to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization was viewed by many as a primer for a bid for full…

Eurozone debt crisis: Markets dive on Greek referendum
European markets have fallen following Monday’s announcement of a Greek referendum on the latest aid package to solve its debt crisis. Eurozone leaders agreed a 50% debt write-off for Greece last week as well as strengthening Europe’s bailout fund. But the announcement of a referendum has cast doubt on whether the deal will be able to go ahead. The FTSE 100 in London was down 3.2% while the Dax…

New signs of Syria-Pakistan nuke tie
U.N. investigators have identified a previously unknown complex in Syria that bolsters suspicions that the Syrian government worked with A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb, to acquire technology that could make nuclear arms. The buildings in northwest Syria closely match the design of a uranium enrichment plant provided to Libya when Moammar Gadhafi was trying to build nuclear weapons under Khan’s…

Extreme Weather Caused By Global Warming Is Going To Worsen, Scientists Say
For a world already weary of weather catastrophes, the latest warning from top climate scientists paints a grim future: More floods, more heat waves, more droughts and greater costs to deal with them. A draft summary of an international scientific report obtained by The Associated Press says the extremes caused by global warming could eventually grow so severe that some locations become “increasingly marginal…

Half of China’s millionaires want to leave
Nearly half of Chinese millionaires are thinking about leaving the country, while 14% have or are in the process of applying for emigration, according to a Hurun Research Institute and the Bank of China report. Their joint “Private Banking White Paper 2011” talked to individuals with assets of more than 10 million yuan (US$1.57 million) in18 cities to find out how China’s super rich manage their wealth…

WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange Extradition Appeal Lost
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Wednesday lost his appeal against extradition to Sweden to answer sex crime allegations, but may now take his protracted fight to Britain’s highest court. British High Court Judges John Thomas and Duncan Ousely rejected Assange’s claims that it was unfair and unlawful to send him to Scandinavia to be questioned over the alleged rape of one woman and the molestation…