While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, July 16 edition

Protesters throw petrol bombs as Greek parliament debates bailout

Greek anti-establishment protesters threw dozens of petrol bombs at police in front of parliament on Wednesday ahead of a key vote on a bailout deal, in some of the most serious violence in over two years.

Police responded with tear gas, sending hundreds of people fleeing in central Syntagma Square.

Earlier, thousands took to the streets of Athens in a series of otherwise peaceful marches during the day to protest against the new bailout deal that saved Greece from bankruptcy but will impose more reforms on a country already deep in crisis.

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US House members concerned over Malaysia trafficking rating

Dozens of members of the US Senate and House of Representatives wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday expressing "grave concern" that Malaysia may be upgraded in this year's US list of human trafficking offenders.

"A premature upgrade of Malaysia would undermine the integrity of the TIP (Trafficking in Persons) report process and compromise our international efforts to fight human trafficking," 19 US senators, 17 Democrats and two Republicans, said in a letter sent to Kerry on Wednesday.

Separately, more than 100 members of the House, also including Democrats and Republicans, had signed a letter being prepared in that chamber on Wednesday and expected to be sent to Kerry on Thursday.

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Flyby close-ups of Pluto show icy mountain ranges over 3,000m high

Icy mountain ranges can be seen rising from Pluto's surface, according to the first close-up images released Wednesday from Nasa's New Horizon's spacecraft after its historic of flyby of the dwarf planet.

The mountains' elevation reaches 3,400m, the US space agency said, or about as high as the Rocky Mountains.

Scientists were also stunned to see a close-up section of Pluto that showed no sign of craters, despite its home in the Kuiper Belt, the region beyond Neptune where cosmic debris is constantly pelting Pluto and its five moons.

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Hacking forum Darkode dismantled in multi-nation operation

A hacking forum described as the world's most savvy English-speaking online watering hole for criminal computer gurus has been smashed, US and European officials said Wednesday.

A total of 28 people were arrested and 12 were charged.

Darkode, as it was called, was a password-protected forum where hackers and other cyber criminals conferred to buy, sell, trade and share ideas and tools for breaking into people's computers and other devices, the officials said.

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Pope Francis surpasses 22 million Twitter followers

Pope Francis surpassed 22 million Twitter followers on Wednesday on his multiple accounts, joining the ranks of tech-savvy entertainers and world leaders who command tens of millions of eyeballs on social media.

According to the site Il Sismografo, the pope pulled in 29,000 new followers each day during his recent eight-day trip to South America, versus his already impressive average of 20,000.

Of the nine accounts in languages such as French and German, his Spanish language account is the most popular - with just over nine million followers - while the English account comes in second with around 6.5 million followers.

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