Brazil's former president LULA - jailed for 9.6 years.

Lava Jato judge, Sergio Moro, sentenced the former leader to nine years and six months in prison for passive corruption and money laundering.

In a surprising turn of events, federal judge Sergio Moro, sentenced Brazil’s former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to nine years and six months in prison for passive corruption and money laundering on Wednesday, July 12th.

The former leader is charged with accepting million-dollar renovations on a beachfront apartment from large construction and engineering firms in exchange for ‘advantages’ in public contracts, including those with state-owned oil giant Petrobras.
“The transfer [ownership] of the apartment and the renovations, as well as the payment of storage costs, would represent an undue advantage in a corroboration of corruption and strategies used for this transfer and payment would constitute a money laundering offense,” read the verdict handed down by Moro.

The largest icebergs ever recorded has broken free of Antarctica.

One of the largest icebergs on record has broken away from an ice shelf in Antarctica.

Researchers who have been monitoring a huge crack in the larsen C Ice Shelf,   which had left a vast iceberg more than a quarter the size of Wales “hanging by a thread”, say the rift has finally completed its path through the ice.

The final breakthrough happened between Monday and Wednesday and was detected in data from Nasa’s Aqua MODIS satellite instrument.

“Some of the ice may remain in the area for decades, while parts of the iceberg may drift north into warmer waters.”
Although the iceberg weighs a trillion tonnes, it was already floating before it calved away so will have no immediate impact on sea level.

The Sri lankan government forgives elephant owners.

In recent times, the most talked about was the illegal possession of elephants.This is a nasty undertaking, the government accuses. In spite of this, there is a problem with how to act in this manner, in what manner the law has been analyzed.

 Sri Lanka’s government says it is ready to forgive the owners of poached elephants and give them a chance to apply for license

A group of wealthy businessmen, a Buddhist priest and other social higher-ups on trial in Sri Lanka for allegedly keeping illegally captured elephants may get their animals back — legally.

Sri Lanka’s government says it is ready to forgive the owners of poached elephants and give them a chance to apply for licence provided they can prove in court that they did not know the animals that were confiscated from them had been illegally captured from the wild.

Dambulla cave temple temporarily closed

The archaeological advisory board of Sri Lanka has decided to temporarily close down the historic Rangiri Dalule Cave temple in Sri Lanka, declared as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Local and foreign tourists will be closed until the cave complex is re-informed.


A sacred pilgrimage site for 22 centuries, this cave monastery, with its five sanctuaries, is the largest, best-preserved cave-temple complex in Sri Lanka. The Buddhist mural paintings (covering an area of 2,100 m2 ) are of particular importance, as are the 157 statues.