Black, Gay Woman elected as Chicago Mayor in historic vote

  • In a historic first, a gay African-American woman was elected mayor of America’s third largest city Tuesday, as Chicago voters entrusted a political novice with tackling difficult problems of economic inequality and gun violence.
  • Lori Lightfoot, a 56-year-old former federal prosecutor and practicing lawyer who has never before held elected office, won the Midwestern city’s mayoral race in a lopsided victory.

British PM calls for another Brexit extension

  • British Prime Minister Theresa May will ask the European Union for a further, short extension to Article 50 to avoid the U.K. crashing out of the EU on April 12.
  • Theresa May to hold talks with Labour leader Corbyn after MPs fail to identify a route forward they could agree on
  • This would potentially allow for a joint approach to the declaration on future relations which would keep the legal treaty governing the U.K.’s relations intact, she has insisted.

Brunei introduces stoning to death for gay sex, adultery

  • Brunei on Wednesday introduced harsh new sharia laws, including death by stoning for adultery and gay sex, despite a storm of global criticism from politicians, celebrities and rights groups.
  • Rape and robbery are also punishable by death and many of the new laws, such as capital punishment for insulting the Prophet Mohammed, apply to non-Muslims as well as Muslims.

Air pollution killed 1.2 million people in India in 2017, says report

  • China and India together were responsible for half of the total global attributable deaths from air pollution in 2017, a new global study released Wednesday has revealed.
  • The report notes air pollution exposure collectively reduces life expectancy by 20 months on average worldwide. 
  • Across the world, air pollution is responsible for more deaths than many better-known risk factors such as malnutrition, alcohol use and physical inactivity, states the report.

Dark matter not made up of tiny black holes: Study

  • Dark matter is not made up of primordial black holes smaller than a tenth of a millimetre, say scientists who have put the theory put forward by the late Stephen Hawking to its most rigorous test to date.
  • About 85 per cent of the matter in the universe is believed to be made up of dark matter. Its gravitational force prevents stars in our Milky Way from flying apart.