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.

Misrata survivor: ‘Oh God, it’s like a horror movie’
The United Nations’ humanitarian chief is expected Monday to brief the Security Council on fighting between Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s forces and rebels, including the heavy toll it has taken in the port city of Misrata. Survivors in Misrata — the only city in western Libya held by rebels — described what the carnage inflicted by indiscriminate shelling has wrought: crushed bones, burns and amputations…

Malik Obama’s ‘Barack H. Obama Foundation’ Raises Questions
A charity organization founded by President Barack Obama’s half brother is raising eyebrows, prompting one watchdog group to file a request for an official investigation. The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) has asked the IRS to investigate the Barack H. Obama Foundation, which collects donations in Kenya and Virginia, the New York Post reports. Abon’go Malik “Roy” Obama started the Barack H. Obama…

Is Microsoft About To Overpay For Skype?
The deal buzzards are swirling around Skype, and Microsoft may end up with the prize. Om first reported the rumor, which is now getting major play by the WSJ. Microsoft is in final negotiations to buy Skype for $7 billion, according to the WSJ report. The final price might go closer to $8 billion. Google and Facebook were also sniffing around Skype, which put off its IPO earlier this year to buy more negotiating time…

Japan’s Nuclear Future in the Balance
The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant has done more than spew radiation into the air and sea and force tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes. It has blown a big hole in Japan’s energy policy, which had assumed that nuclear power would supply a growing part of the country’s needs. Prime Minister Naoto Kan and other government officials said over the weekend that Japan would…

Osama Bin Laden’s Compound Recreated In ‘Counter Strike’ Video Game
An independent developer recently made waves for designing a video game level based on Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound. The developer, who calls himself Fletch, created the level as an add-on for the first-person shooter game “Counter Strike: Source.” The level is set in a compound resembling photographs of the bin Laden hideout, which last week became the site of a U.S. Navy SEALs…

A Revolution’s Namesake Is Contraband in China
Do not be lulled by its intoxicating fragrance or the dainty, starlike blossoms whose whiteness suggests innocence and purity. Jasmine, a stalwart of Chinese tea and the subject of a celebrated folk song often heard while on hold with provincial bureaucrats, is not what it seems. Since Tunisian revolutionaries this year anointed their successful revolt against the country’s dictatorial president the “Jasmine Revolution,”…

Film ‘Staging Hope’ Premieres in Washington
Last Wednesday, Politics on Film kicked off its third annual film festival with actress and activist Melissa Fitzgerald’s documentary “Staging Hope: Acts of Peace in Northern Uganda.” “Staging Hope” documents a two-week theater program, run by a group of American actors, for 14 Ugandan youth from the Labuje IDP camp in northern Uganda. Through the intensive drama workshop, the Ugandan teens were able…

Uganda “Kill The Gays” Bill Could Get Vote This Week
The notorious bill moving through Uganda’s legislature that would render homosexuality a crime punishable by death in some cases may come up for a vote this week, the AP reported Monday. The main backer of the bill, Ugandan lawmaker David Bahati, told the AP that the death penalty clause is “something we have moved away from.” But there has been no official announcement that it has been dropped…

A Rite of Torture for Girls
People usually torture those whom they fear or despise. But one of the most common forms of torture in the modern world, incomparably more widespread than waterboarding or electric shocks, is inflicted by mothers on daughters they love. It’s female genital mutilation — sometimes called female circumcision — and it is prevalent across a broad swath of Africa and chunks of Asia as well. Mothers take…

Blast Kills at Least 70 Military Cadets in Pakistan
More than 70 paramilitary soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up Friday morning at a military training center in northwest Pakistan, a local police chief said. The bombing was the first major terrorist attack since the American raid in Abbottabad on May 2 that killed Osama bin Laden. It was not immediately clear if the attack was in revenge for the Americans’ action. Local officials said that it was likely…

John Demjanjuk guilty of Nazi death camp murders
A German court has found John Demjanjuk guilty of helping to murder more than 28,000 Jews at a Nazi death camp in World War II. He was sentenced to five years in prison, one year less than prosecutors had asked for, but will be released pending a possible appeal. Prosecutors said the Ukraine-born Demjanjuk, 91, was a guard at Sobibor camp in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1943. He denied serving as a guard… 

SEALs who killed bin Laden concerned for their safety
The Department of Defense is looking into ways to “pump up the security” for the team of Navy SEALs who helped kill Osama bin Laden after the commandos expressed concern for their safety and the safety of their families, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday. Gates made the comment in response to a question at a town hall meeting at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. A Marine asked what measures were…