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.

Crackdown or Negotiation? Russian Protests Pose a Dilemma for Putin
Mercenaries, goateed liberals, jackals who scavenge for money at foreign embassies in Moscow — those are some of the things Vladimir Putin has called Russia’s opposition. But he’s never before had to reckon with them as a significant threat to his rule. That may now have to change. On Saturday, in the biggest act of popular resistance ever to Putin’s government, tens of thousands of protesters rallied across…

Paris court convicts Carlos the Jackal
A French court has convicted the Venezuelan-born terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal of organizing four deadly attacks in France in the 1980s and sentenced him to life in prison. Carlos, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, is already serving a life sentence in a Paris prison for a triple murder in 1975. France does not have the death penalty. In Thursday’s verdict, the court found Ramirez guilty of charges…

“Herewith, Hope It Serves. As Always, Christopher.”
Editing Christopher Hitchens, who died Thursday at the age of 62, was the easiest job in journalism. He never filed late—in fact, he was usually early, even when he was clearly very sick—and he managed to make his work seem like a great lark. His weekly e-mails always read the same jaunty way: “Herewith. Hope it serves, As always, Christopher.” The feeling that his work was anything but a grim chore was confirmed…

Japan’s Prime Minister Declares Fukushima Plant Stable
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda of Japan has declared an end to the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl, saying technicians have regained control of reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. “Today, we have reached a great milestone,” Mr. Noda said in a televised address to the nation. “The reactors are stable, which should resolve one big cause of concern for us all.” The declaration…

Russia’s Mars probe will crash to Earth in January
A Russian spacecraft bound for a moon of Mars and stuck in Earth’s orbit will come crashing back next month, but its toxic fuel and radioactive material on board will pose no danger of contamination, the Russian space agency said Friday. Between 20 and 30 fragments of the probe with a total weight of up to 200 kilograms (440 pounds) will survive the fiery plunge and shower the Earth’s surface, Roscosmos warned…

Looks like ‘game over’ for BlackBerry
The best time to buy a stock and make a lot of money off of it is often when the company is universally hated. When so many investors think a company is doomed, it doesn’t take much to move the stock higher again. The BlackBerry maker is now absurdly cheap based on any conventional metric. Shares fetch less than 3 times earnings estimates for its next fiscal year. The company is trading at about a third of…

Christopher Hitchens dies at 62 after suffering cancer
British-born author, literary critic and journalist Christopher Hitchens has died at the age of 62. He died from pneumonia, a complication of the oesophageal cancer he had, at a Texas hospital. Vanity Fair magazine, which announced his death, said there would “never be another like Christopher”. He is survived by his wife, Carol Blue, and their daughter, Antonia, and his children from a previous marriage…