Twenty Things: Did You Know...?

Civilians fleeing Mosul carrying injured children/REUTERS.

News nuggets picked from the press.

1. Six Arab countries including Saudi Arabia and Egypt have cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of destabilising the region.
2. Dozens of civilians have been killed in Mosul while fleeing a district held by so-called Islamic State in the Iraqi city. A Reuters TV crew found the bodies of men, women and children lying in a street in the Zanjili district.
3. Abdirahman Mohamed, a 17-year-old boy has been stabbed to death in a street attack - the eighth teenager to be stabbed to death in London so far this year.
4. About 1,000 people were injured in the Italian city of Turin after a firecracker provoked a stampede on Saturday night, police say.
5. Police in the Philippines say they have identified an attacker who killed at least 36 people when he set fire to a casino in Manila on Friday.
6. The US warned it will not accept China's militarisation of man-made islands in the South China Sea, as the UN Security Council expanded targeted sanctions against North Korea in response to a series of missile tests conducted by Pyongyang this year.
7. British student Benjamin Griffin is fronting a drive to get Western students to study in North Korea.
8. Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested "patriotic" Russian citizens might be engaged in hacking.
9. Being a practising Jew was a crime punishable by death in the times of the Spanish Inquisition.
10. US broadcaster CNN has ditched a comedienne from its New Year programme after she posed with a fake decapitated head of President Donald Trump, while comedian Bill Maher has apologised for using the N-word on live television.
11. NBA superstar LeBron James has talked about the ordeal of suffering racism after the "N-word" was spray painted on to his Los Angeles home. "No matter how much money you have, no matter how famous you are... being black in America is tough," he said.
12. US actress Chloe Moretz says she's "appalled and angry" over the "body shaming" marketing for her new animated Snow White film, Red Shoes & the 7 Dwarfs. Stories about "body shaming" are nothing new - but more and more celebrities are starting to fight back against the trend.
13. Just 1.8% of ballet exam candidates are boys, says the Royal Academy of Dance.
14. An Irish policeman and a nun have been filmed testing their football skills in Limerick.
15. Bike polo was an Olympic sport at the beginning of the last century.
16. Elections have their own lexicons.
17. Video-recording sunglasses from the company behind Snapchat have gone on sale in the UK.
18. A strong strain of cannibis known as skunk caused a user to cut off his own penis under its influence.
19. People are drinking fewer alcoholic drinks, according to a new industry report tracking consumption worldwide.
20. A new targeted treatment for ovarian cancer has shown "very promising" results in women in the advanced stages of the disease.

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