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.

Soul-Searching in France After Official’s Arrest Jolts Nation
The arrest in New York of one of France’s leading global figures and a possible next president, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, on charges of attempted rape produced an earthquake of shock, outrage, disbelief and embarrassment throughout France on Sunday. The country woke up to the tawdry allegations that Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62, a leading Socialist and the managing director of the International Monetary Fund…

International Criminal Court seeks Khadafy’s arrest for crimes against humanity
The International Criminal Court prosecutor has asked judges to issue an arrest warrants for Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy and two other senior members of his embattled regime for crimes against humanity, accusing them of deliberately targeting civilians in their crackdown against rebels. Luis Moreno-Ocampo says Khadafy, his son Seif al-Islam Khadafy and intelligence chief Abdullah Al Sanousi ordered…

Endeavour Lifts Off on Its Final Launch
Endeavour blasted off on NASA’s next-to-last shuttle flight, thundering through clouds into orbit Monday morning as the mission commander’s wounded wife, Gabrielle Giffords, watched along with an exhilarated crowd well into the thousands. NASA is winding down its 30-year-old shuttle program before embarking on something new. The event generated the kind of excitement seldom seen on Florida’s Space Coast…

War crimes prosecutor seeks arrest of Gadhafi
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor sought arrest warrants Monday for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, his son and the country’s intelligence chief for authorizing the killing of civilians in a crackdown on anti-government rebels. Gadhafi’s government denied the allegations. The call for the inquest was the first such action in the Netherlands-based court linked to the Arab uprisings. It opened another potential…

Ai Weiwei in ‘good physical health but mentally conflicted’
Detained artist Ai Weiwei seems to be in good physical health but mentally conflicted and tense, his wife has said after seeing him for the first time in six weeks. Lu Qing said she was taken to see her husband for about 20 minutes on Sunday afternoon, the first contact friends and relatives have had with the 53-year-old Chinese artist and activist since officials stopped him at Beijing airport on 3 April. It is not clear where…

Sudan carries out air strikes in Darfur: U.N.
Sudan has carried out air strikes against two villages in Darfur and restricted the movement of aid groups in the troubled western region due to “ongoing” operations, the international peacekeepers said. Violence in Darfur, scene of an insurgency pitting mostly non-Arab rebels against government troops backed by largely Arab militias, has fallen from its peak in 2003 and 2004 but a surge in attacks since December…

IMF chief jailed on Rikers Island, charged with attempted rape
The head of the powerful International Monetary Fund will spend the next few days in an 11-by-13-foot cell at New York’s Rikers Island jail complex, a far cry from the $3,000-a-night luxury suite where he allegedly chased a housekeeping employee naked down a hallway and sexually assaulted her. A haggard-looking Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a man who has helped bail out desperate countries in need of cash…

Chemical-infused watermelons explode in China
Watermelons have been bursting by the score in eastern China after farmers gave them overdoses of growth chemicals during wet weather, creating what state media called fields of “land mines.” About 20 farmers around Danyang city in Jiangsu province were affected, losing up to 115 acres of melon, China Central Television said in an investigative report. Prices over the past year prompted many farmers to…

Rwanda genocide: Ex-army chief given 30-year sentence
Former Rwandan army chief Augustin Bizimungu has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in the 1994 genocide. The UN war crimes tribunal for Rwanda also convicted ex-paramilitary police chief Augustin Ndindiliyimana but released him for time already served. Two other senior generals were each sentenced to 20 years in prison. Some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the…

Journalist detained in Syria released by Iran
Missing journalist Dorothy Parvaz, who was held by Iranian authorities after being detained in Syria, arrived in her company’s home base of Qatar on Wednesday after winning her freedom. Parvaz’s fiance, Todd Barker, said she called him early Wednesday from Qatar as she was clearing customs. Her employer, Al Jazeera, confirmed the release, saying she is “safe and well and back with us” in the…

Von Trier ‘persona non grata’ at Cannes after Nazi row
Lars Von Trier: “I understand Hitler but I think he did some wrong things yes absolutely but I can see him sitting in his bunker”. The Cannes Film Festival has banned director Lars Von Trier after he claimed to be a Nazi and that he sympathised with Adolf Hitler. In a statement issued on Thursday, organisers said the Danish film-maker was now “persona non grata”. The director issued an apology on Wednesday for…

Bail Granted to Ex-I.M.F. Chief in Assault Case
A judge granted Dominique Strauss-Kahn bail on Thursday, allowing the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund to be freed from Rikers Island to stay in a Manhattan apartment while his sexual assault case is pending. Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers filed a new application for his release in State Supreme Court on Wednesday night, reiterating their client’s earlier offer to put up $1 million cash…