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!

Racist messages pose quandary for mainstream sites
Although you rarely hear racial insults on Main Street these days, there’s a place where unashamed bigotry is all too easy to find: tossed off in the comments sections of some of the Internet’s most popular websites, today’s virtual Main Street. Internet anonymity has removed one of the strongest barriers to the type of language that can ruin reputations and end careers…
http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/eee902782ea04602823f92b22b67c045
/Article_2010-09-25-US-Online-Racism/id-03fd383e352643fcb38c35e2874180f4

Mideast Peace Talks Hit Settlement Roadblock: Abbas Says Israel Must Choose
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday there will be no peace deal with Israel unless the Jewish state stops settlement construction in areas the Palestinians claim for their future state. “Israel must choose between peace and the continuation of settlements,” Abbas said in his address to the U.N. General Assembly’s annual ministerial meeting…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/25/mideast-peace-talks-hit-s
_n_739286.html

Thirty years of China’s one-child policy
Yang Zhizhu knew the dire consequences of breaking China’s one-child policy. He would be stripped of his professorship at a Beijing university and hit with such a large fine that his family would be destitute. But when he found out that his wife, Chen Hong, was pregnant for the second time aged 38, they decided they could not let the opportunity pass…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8024862/Thirty-
years-of-Chinas-one-child-policy.html

Kashmir: India and Pakistan’s bitter dispute
Violent protests erupted this summer in India’s Kashmir region, resulting in the worst bloodshed in a decade. Many of the demonstrators want independence from India, while New Delhi has always said the unrest is fueled by Pakistani-sponsored extremists. Here is a brief look at the dispute. Kashmir is a Himalayan region that borders India, Pakistan and China…
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/09/25/india.kashmir.explainer
/index.html

Japanese Premier Rejects China’s Demand for Apology
Tensions between China and Japan over the arrest of a Chinese trawler captain took another turn for the worse Sunday as Prime Minister Naoto Kan of Japan rejected China’s repeated demand that Tokyo apologize and offer compensation for the incident. The Chinese authorities also flexed their muscles on a wider front, becoming more assertive on trade policy, even as they…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/world/asia/27japan.html

Should Facebook, Twitter be banned at work?
Are Web 2.0 applications money makers or time wasters? The results of a global survey by computer anti-virus giant McAfee suggests it’s both. A survey of 1,000 executives from 17 countries stretching from Japan to India, the UK to Brazil, found that three of four organizations use social media sites for marketing and customer service, or for “crowdsourcing” instead of…
http://business.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/27/should-facebook-twitter-be-
banned-at-work/

Segway Chief Dies in Segway Crash
A wealthy British businessman who owns the company that makes the two-wheeled Segway has been found dead in a river in northern England after apparently falling off a cliff on one of the vehicles, police said Monday. The body of 62-year-old Jimi Heselden and a Segway personal transporter were found in the River Wharfe and he was pronounced dead at the scene…
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/09/27/world/europe/AP-EU-Britain-
Segway-Death.html

Disney, Muslim worker agree on hijab substitute
Disney is allowing a Muslim employee at its Orange County park to wear a specially designed headscarf after initially objecting to her religious head covering, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said Monday. Noor Abdallah, 22, was told she couldn’t wear the hijab while working as a vacation planner at a Disneyland Resort Esplanade ticket booth…
http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/f02866e54f4149c297ea6f51ff09935f/Article_
2010-09-27-US-Disney-Muslim-Worker/id-e6b0a8bd9dae41379fdd656c48701673

On Basic Religion Test, Many Doth Not Pass
Researchers from the independent Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life phoned more than 3,400 Americans and asked them 32 questions about the Bible, Christianity and other world religions, famous religious figures and the constitutional principles governing religion in public life. On average, people who took the survey answered half the questions incorrectly…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/us/28religion.html

Blackberry launches Playbook rival to iPad
Blackberry has announced its answer to Apple’s iPad with a device called the Playbook. The company unveiled its tablet computer to much anticipation at its developer conference, Devcon, in San Francisco. It is one of the first business-centric devices in the tablet market. Analysts said that the release was a clever move by the Blackberry maker Research In Motion whose…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11416190

Coral reefs sending a warning signal
I work at an inland university in chilly upstate New York. Around here, many people feel a little global warming is good and there is really nothing that they can see or hear that will make them feel differently. News of warming sea surfaces and bleached coral reefs inspire little response when there’s a chill in the air and the ocean is hundreds of miles away…
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/09/27/harvell.coral.reefs/index.html

Aliko Dangote, Nigeria’s first billionaire cements his fortune
Worth an estimated $2.1bn, Aliko Dangote is one of the richest men in Africa. The Dangote Group, which he started in 1977, trading in commodities and building materials, is now a multi-billion dollar conglomerate spanning West Africa. Today, the business covers flour, sugar, pasta, clothing and cement which made Dangote Nigeria’s first billionaire in 2007…
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/09/28/nigeria.rich.dangote/index.html

Al-Qaeda terror plot targeting Europe uncovered
Western intelligence agencies are tracking a significant al-Qaeda plot to carry out commando-style raids on cities in Britain, France and Germany. It is thought teams of jihadists plan to seize Western hostages and murder them – in a manner similar to the siege of two Indian hotels in Mumbai. The plot is believed to be in its early stages…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11432849

Nobel committee warned not to award peace prize to Chinese dissident
Awarding the Nobel peace prize to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo would contradict its founding principles, China’s foreign ministry said today. Its comments came after the director of Norway’s Nobel Institute, Geir Lundestad, said a senior Chinese official had warned him that giving the author the award would affect relations between the two countries…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/28/nobel-peace-prize-liu-xiaobo

Woman sentenced to death by stoning could now be hanged instead
Confusion surrounded the fate of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani yesterday, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, who now faces execution by hanging for the alleged murder of her husband, according to some reports. The government says no final decision has been taken in a case that has generated outrage around the world, as the adultery and…
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/woman-sentenced-to-
death-by-stoning-could-now-be-hanged-instead-2092545.html

Child bride horrors last a lifetime
Reem al Numeri is 14-years-old and recently divorced. She was 11 when she says her father forced her to marry a cousin more than twice her age. Reem says she has been stigmatized by her divorce and now lives the life of an outcast. Without a husband or father to support her, she cannot attend school. Her story has echoes of Nujood Ali — the Yemeni girl whose story
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/10/01/yemen.child.brides/index.html

Scepticism over plan to ‘free’ Aung San Suu Kyi
Could detained Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi be released after polls scheduled to take place next month? Activists have questioned a report that says Burmese officials have declared their intention to release the Nobel laureate when her current term of house imprisonment concludes on 13 November. But a news agency report quoted two unidentified…
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/scepticism-over-plan-to-free-
aung-san-suu-kyi-2094528.html