Your trusted source

A fugitive Italian gangster's urge to show off his cooking skills has landed him in jail after seven years on the run. Italian police tracked down Marc Feren Claude Biart, 53, through the culinary videos he had uploaded to YouTube. While he carefully hid his face, he failed to disguise his body tattoos. The alleged member of the 'Ndrangheta crime gang was arrested in the Dominican Republic last Wednesday and has now been extradited back to Italy.

Source: bbc.com

Robert Lewandowski will miss out for Poland in Wednesday’s World Cup qualifying match against England, with the striker having sustained a knee injury in his nation’s last game. Captain Lewandowski scored twice as Poland beat Andorra 3-0 at home on Sunday, but the Bayern Munich man went off injured shortly after the hour mark. The 32-year-old will be out for up to 10 days.

Source: independent.co.uk

Canada is suspending the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for people under the age of 55 following concerns it may be linked to rare blood clots. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommended a pause on AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccinations for people under 55 for safety reasons and the Canadian provinces, which administer health in the country, announced the suspensions Monday.

Source: apnews.com

Barack Obama's step-grandmother, Sarah Obama, has died at a hospital in Kenya at the age of 99. Affectionately called Granny Sarah by the former president, Mrs Obama defended her grandson during his 2008 presidential campaign, when he was said to be Muslim and not born in the US. Her home became a tourist attraction when he was elected as the first black US president. Sarah Obama was the third and youngest wife of Barack Obama's grandfather.

Source: bbc.com

Thai authorities forced thousands of refugees fleeing air attacks by the army in neighbouring Myanmar to return to southeastern Karen state, two activist groups said on Monday. Thousands fled over the weekend after fighter jets attacked villages near the Thai border held by an ethnic armed group that had attacked a military post in the wake of a Feb. 1 coup by Myanmar’s army. David Eubank, founder of the Free Burma Rangers, said 2,009 people had been forced to return to the Ee Thu Hta displacement camp on the Myanmar side of the border at 6:15 p.m.

Source: reuters.com

Donald Trump turned up at a wedding at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida over the weekend and railed against Joe Biden, China and Iran. The former president hopped on the mic at the ceremony and wasted little time in getting political. He referenced the situation at the border with Mexico and raised yet more questions about November's presidential election, which he lost.

Source: bbc.com

Veteran Alabama meteorologist James Spann was on the air covering Thursday’s deadly spate of tornados when he learned his own home had been struck by a twister — yet he kept right on broadcasting. Spann — who works for the ABC affiliate in Birmingham — did take a short break from the camera to check that his wife was OK.

Source: nypost.com

Jordan is planning to create a virus-free “golden zone” for tourists that will include Wadi Rum, Petra and the Dead Sea. Sakher Dudin, minister of communications and media affairs, told local media that travel into the zone will be restricted. The rule will apply to tourists as well as local suppliers and tourism staffers, he added.
Source: arabnews.com

A French court has fined one of the country’s biggest pharmaceutical firms €2.7m (£2.3m) after finding it guilty of deception and manslaughter over a pill linked to the deaths of up to 2,000 people. The privately owned laboratory Servier was accused of covering up the potentially fatal side-effects of the widely prescribed drug Mediator. The former executive Jean-Philippe Seta was sentenced to a suspended jail sentence of four years.

Source: theguardian.com

Kurdish-led security forces have made arrests inside a camp in northern Syria holding family members of Islamic State group members. The operation at al-Hol camp was aimed at rooting out IS followers after violent incidents, some fatal. Several dozen people are reported to have been killed there this year. An IS recruiter and eight others were arrested at the camp, which also houses refugees and internally displaced people.

Source: bbc.com

and a down duvet 'to ease the journey to the realm of the dead'. Two 7th century warriors at an ancient burial ground in Sweden were laid to rest with comfy bedding stuffed with feathers from a variety of birds, research shows. New microscopic analysis of the bedding shows traces of feathers from local geese, ducks, grouse, crows, sparrows, waders and even eagle owls.

Source: dailymail.co.uk

The Czech Republic’s richest man, billionaire Petr Kellner, was killed in a helicopter crash in Alaska, his financial group PPF said on Monday. He was 56. PPF said five people died in the crash, whose circumstances were being investigated. Kellner was a towering business figure of the Czech post-communist era, with his wealth estimated at $17.5 billion according to Forbes.

Source: reuters.com

Hindus threw colored powder and sprayed water in massive Holi celebrations Monday despite many Indian states restricting gatherings to try to contain a coronavirus resurgence rippling across the country. Holi marks the advent of spring and is widely celebrated throughout Hindu-majority India.
Source: apnews.com

The Ever Given "has successfully floated after the ship responded to the pulling and towing maneuvers," the chairman of the Suez Canal Authority said in a statement early Monday. The stern of the ship was now 102 meters (334 feet) from the shore.

Source: nbcnews.com

Five thousand rock fans enjoyed a real-as-can-be concert after passing a same-day coronavirus screening to test its effectiveness in preventing outbreaks of the virus at large cultural events. Performance at Palau Sant Jordi concert hall in Barcelona on Saturday night recalls pre-pandemic times. The only rule inside the show was the strict use of the high-quality face masks provided by the concert organisers.

Source: theguardian.com

Hundreds of Cubans took to Havana’s famous seaside drive on Sunday in a colorful caravan of cars, motorcycles and bicycles to demand the United States lift its 60-year-old embargo on the Caribbean island nation. The caravan was part of a weekend of small protests and caravans in more than 50 cities around the world, including in the United States, supported by local authorities in hopes of influencing the Biden administration to change U.S. policy and to counter a campaign by Cuban exiles to keep the embargo in place.

Source: reuters.com

The Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), warned prime minister-designate Saad al-Hariri on Saturday against sidelining President Michel Aoun and other parliamentary blocs in talks over cabinet formation. Hariri and Aoun have been at loggerheads over the formation of a cabinet for months, dashing hopes of a reversal of Lebanon’s deepening financial meltdown.

Source: reuters.com

If you're looking to maximize the amount of fat burned in your next workout, think about having a coffee half an hour before you get started – as a new study suggests it can make a significant difference to fat burning, especially later on in the day. Researchers found that 3 milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body weight – about half a single dose of caffeine, commonly held to be about 6 mg/kg – can boost the rate of fat burning during aerobic exercise, based on results gathered from 15 male volunteers.

Source: sciencealert.com