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!

Political fallout for Obama amid oil spill disaster?
As the oil slick from the recent offshore oil rig disaster makes its way to Gulf Coast shores — expected to devastate the precious ecosystem and hurt struggling businesses — the seeds of political fallout for the Obama administration are beginning to sprout. Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh said on his program that the oil slick disaster is “Obama’s Katrina.” Not so, says Media Matters for America…
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/04/30/obama.oil.fallout

Rwanda Pursues Dissenters and the Homeless
A few months ago, Gasigwa Gakunzi was hanging around a ramshackle house where poor children pay to watch television when the Rwandan police arrested him for loitering. The next thing he knew, he said, he was taken away from his family and carted off to this remote island in the middle of Lake Kivu. Gasigwa, 14, now spends his days learning patriotic songs and how to march like a soldier…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/01/world/africa/01rwanda.html

Car bomb found in parked SUV in Times Square
A T-shirt vendor who noticed smoke coming out of a tinted, dark green sport utility vehicle alerted police to what turned out to be a potential bomb placed in Times Square. “We avoided what could have been a very deadly event,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg early Sunday morning. “It certainly could have exploded and had a pretty big fire and a decent amount of explosive impact.” President Obama, who was updated on the situation…
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/02/times.square.closure/

A 100-year struggle for human rights
In a perfect world, no one would be in chains, ethnic cleansing would be a dim memory, and wartime rape a grim chapter in the history books. When the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was born in 1948 after one of the most horrific wars the world has known, many hoped it would pave the way for an end to appalling violations of rights. But the declaration — drafted by Canadian John Humphrey — proved to be no panacea…
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/803156–a-100-year-struggle-for-human-rights

Lynn Redgrave, Actress and Playwright, Dies at 67
Lynn Redgrave, who as an actress upheld the tradition of her theatrically royal family on stage and on screen and as a playwright wrote about her family with probing affection and equally probing anguish, died on Sunday at her home in Kent, Conn. She was 67. The cause was cancer, said Rick Miramontez, a spokesman for the Redgrave family. Ms. Redgrave had a mastectomy and first underwent chemotherapy in 2003…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/arts/04redgrave.html

New Volcanic Ash Brings More Flight Disruptions
Aviation authorities closed airspace over Ireland, Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland on Tuesday as a new cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland revived memories of the devastating shutdown of Europe’s skies last month. Initially, at least, the closure seemed far more limited than the six-day disruption that spread chaos across the globe, with flights canceled from Sydney to New York, as a layer of fine, high-altitude ash forced the closure…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/world/europe/05ash.html

Webby Awards: 2010 Winners Include Roger Ebert, Jim Carrey, OK Go
The 14th annual Webbys, which celebrate Internet achievement, were announced Tuesday by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-member group of Web experts. Though Roger Ebert lost his ability to speak after surgery for cancer, he has found a new and powerful voice online. The film critic was chosen as person of the year by the Webby Awards. The Webbys also honored the rock band OK Go, famous for their…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/04/webby-awards-2010-winners_n_562490.html

Shatner’s singing a happy tune
If anyone has noticed the soaring share price of Priceline.com, it’s an easy bet that Canadian actor William Shatner had something to do with it. Unofficial word on Wall Street is that Shatner, who was initially paid in Priceline shares when he became pitchman for the Internet travel website startup in 1997, is now worth a cool $600 million. No wonder he looked so happy singing a duet of Total Eclipse of the Heart on Lopez Tonight…
http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/celebrities/2010/04/30/13774051.html

At $106.5 Million, a Picasso Sets an Auction Record
A painting that Picasso created in a single day in March 1932 became the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction on Tuesday night. In an overflowing salesroom at Christie’s, six bidders vied for “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust,” which depicts the artist’s mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter, reclining naked. When the canvas last changed hands, in 1951, it sold for $19,800. But this time, “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” brought…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/arts/design/05auction.html

Paris trouser ban for women could be lifted
The curious rule was first introduced in late 1799 by Paris’ police chief, and stipulated than any Parisienne wishing to “dress like a man” must seek special permission from the city’s main police station. This makes the laissez-faire French capital theoretically more hardline than Islamic states like Sudan in the fashion stakes. But a group of ten French MPs has now submitted a draft bill to parliament to remove the law…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/7677686/Paris-trouser-ban
-for-women-could-be-lifted.html

Sudan ex-slaves: Swapping school for bread
Khalid Deng is not sure how old he is but he has already experienced too much hardship for his tender years – he was born into slavery after his mother’s abductor raped her in a cattle camp in north Sudan. Then, two years after he was freed, he was fitted out for a school uniform, so he could start primary school but he has now left, saying he is too hungry to continue with his studies…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8647791.stm

Wade McGilberry Wins $1 Million Playing Baseball Video Game
Shh, don’t tell your kids. Wade McGilberry just won a million dollars playing a video game. The 23-year-old from Mobile, Ala., accomplished the feat in just an hour and a half, becoming the first to pitch a perfect game in Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.’s “Major League Baseball 2K10.” He and his wife, Katy, plan to pay off their mortgage and start a family with the winnings. “We are trying to be responsible with it. We are simple…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/05/wade-mcgilberry-wins-1-mi_n_564469.html

Will Female Peacekeepers Keep Haitian Women Safe?
Almost immediately after news broke of the 7.0 earthquake that devastated the tiny island of Haiti last January, reports surfaced of the vulnerability of Haitian women and girls to rape in the makeshift camps. Now, the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti reports that the United Nations is stepping up in response by dispatching a team of female peacekeepers to patrol the camps, where over one million now-homeless Haitians reside…
http://womensrights.change.org/blog/view/will_female_peacekeepers_keep_haitian
_women_safe

President of Nigeria Dies After Long Illness
President Umaru Yar’Adua of Nigeria, whose chronic ill health sapped initial promises of reform and led to a constitutional crisis in his country, died Wednesday night, the information minister said in a brief interview. He was 58. “He has died,” said the minister, Dora Akunyili, adding that Mr. Yar’Adua had expired at the presidential villa in the capital, Abuja. Mr. Yar’Adua suffered from kidney and heart ailments, and his health had been…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/world/africa/06nigeria.html

Zambia: Church Condemns Gay Activists
Some church and civil society organisation have condemned donors and political parties that want to champion the exclusion of the Christian Nation clause in the Constitution opting for a secular state that will promote homosexuality and gay rights. The Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia executive director Bishop Paul Mususu said it would be wrong for political parties and non governmental organisations to promote values that…
http://allafrica.com/stories/201005050727.html