Where in the world? Ferguson, USA

The city of Ferguson erupted this week after the grand jury's decision to not indict Officer Darren Wilson for the killing of Michael Brown.

Announcement

President Obama called for protests to be peaceful ahead of the grand jury announcement however things would soon turn sour with Attorney General Eric Holder being asked to intervene once again.

During the trial Officer Darren Wilson claimed that he followed his training and that Micheal had attacked him resulting in him firing at Micheal. In his first interview since the trial Darren Wilson claims he wouldn't do anything different and his attorneys say he has accepted that his career in law enforcement is over.

After the verdict was handed down Michael Browns mother broke down crying, she would later speak out saying she felt as if she had been shot.

Response

Protests sprung up across the states after the judgement was handed down with thousands flooding the streets of Los Angeles and New York, there were even protests as far a field as London consisting of several thousand. As protests grew more violent a police car was set on fire and another was flipped over outside of Ferguson City Hall. During protests a driver was caught on camera driving into a group of protestors dragging a women in front of the car.

With a second night of protests planned an anti-government militia travelled to Ferguson and said they would be willing to use lethal force to protect the city's business. The National Guard was called out by Missouri Governor to guard against fresh riots with over 400 people being arrested.

While outrage turned to violence in Ferguson many celebrities took to social media with Rihanna to Lena Dunham giving their condolences. Towards the end of the week as protests began to dwindle an uneasy calm fell on Ferguson with no one knowing what will trigger the next outburst.

Technology Far and Near

This week technology allowed man to travel to the outskirts of our world while closer to home it was fighting for it's freedom.

Far

The ESA made history when the Rosetta spacecraft managed to successfully land it's robot craft, Philae, on the surface of Comet 67P. There was a slight hiccup when the anchoring harpoons didn't fire causing the probe to bounce and re-land technically making it both the first and second successful landing. A little further out in space scientists believe they may have figured out how Jupiter's infamous red spot got it's colour.

On the human front of space exploration, investigations into the crash of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo has revealed that the surviving pilot didn't realize his copilot unlocked the space plane's re-entry system early. 3 space station crew, one from Russia one from the United States and one from Germany, returned home after 5 and a half months on board the International Space Station landing their Soyuz capsule in Kazakhstan.

And finally when it comes to orbiting our place in the universe Elon Musk confirmed plans for his company SpaceX to launch satellites in 2-3 months to provide internet access but this was over shadowed when the Chinese revealed plans to create a satellite facility in Antarctica raising concerns of the militarisation of continent.

Near

Closer to home the worlds two largest polluters, the US and China, made progress by agreeing on cutting green house gas emissions and also agreeing to drop tariffs on a wide range of technology products.

But soon it was back to the usual debates with President Obama stepping in to give his support to Net Neutrality but while your access might be free for the time being it's also been revealed that US authorities have been snagging large amounts of data via mobile phones using fake cell towers on planes. But it's not only the American Government as we discovered when Germany's foreign intelligence agency reported that it wants to spend $375 million to spy in real time on social networks outside of Germany.

And lastly the FBI was busy after it managed to uncover and arrest the creator of under world website Silk Road 2.0 causing the TOR project member to figure out where they went wrong but while the FBI may have had success on one front they lost out when a judge said the public had the right to know about the FBI's facial recognition database.

From the Noblest of Minds to the Deadliest of Diseases

The annual Nobel Prize awards were announced with breakthroughs in Physics, Chemistry and Medicine, however, the week was plagued with more bad news as Ebola stretched it's legs spreading beyond it's original confines.

Nobel Prizes

The awards in the technological fields spanned photography, GPS and LED's. Starting with Physic's the Nobel Prize went to scientist's Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano of Japan and Shuji Nakamura from America for their invention of blue light emitting diodes used in everything from homes to billboards. In the field of Chemistry the Nobel Prize went to Eric Betzig and William Moerner of America and Stefan Hell of Germany for their work on capturing images on the nano scale helping to study individual molecules inside cells.

Lastly the Nobel Prize in Medicine went to British-American scientist John O'Keefe and Norwegian couple May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser who discovered the brains "inner GPS" which helps people orient themselves and navigate the world around them. With the prizes under their belts here's what they can expect in their future as Nobel Prize winners according to past winners.

Ebola

As Ebola rampages through Western Africa a small trickle of the disease made it's way to other parts of the world with the US confirming it's first case of Ebola. Since then President Obama has promised to revamp airport screening to tackle the issue at it's entry point. With Ebola on the world's door step a San Antonio based company has developed a "germ-zapping robot" which may be effective in combating the spread of Ebola.

And finally, outside of Western Africa and the US the husband of a Spanish Nurse has become the first person to contract the disease outside of West Africa and is currently in quarantine.

Need to Know - #BringBackOurGirls

On April 15 a group of Boko Haram members, a Nigerian Terrorist Group, kidnapped 273 school girls, aged 12 - 15, from a Government Girls Secondary School in northern Nigerian town of Chibok and marched them into the jungle and have not been seen since.

Kidnapping

Even though the abductions took place on April 15 it took weeks from the Nigerian government to respond. Instead a hash tag was created on Twitter alerting the international public to the abduction sparking immediate outrage.

During the initial abduction some girls managed to escape running for their lives. Those that escaped described the ordeal as "too terrifying for words," After the first abduction another 8 girls were kidnapped just hours after U.S. President Barack Obama had promised to send officials to assist in the search.

At one point the Boko Haram leader threatened to sell the girls as bride slaves saying 'I Kidnapped Your Girls, I Will Sell Them'. Later the leader of Boko Haram claimed the girls had been converted to Islam and demanded the release of prisoners. Boko Harem then tried to negotiate a swap, the kidnapped girls for prisoners, but was rejected by the Nigerian government.

Weeks after the abduction a video was released by Boko Haram of the girls praying and wearing full length hijabs. A mother of one of the kidnapped girls managed to identify her daughter in the video footage.

International Response

The initial reports brought waves of support from celebrities like Anne Hathaway, Angelina Jolie, Emma Watson and more all the way up to First Lady Michelle Obama who pleaded for the return of the girls in her Mothers Day address. Various public protests have appeared including activists in Chicago who rallied calling for the return of the girls.

Pressure followed when U.S. President Barack Obama sent a team to search for the missing girls. Australia has since implemented bans on Boko Haram based on Australian terrorist laws.

A report by Amnesty International claims that the Nigerian army had 4 hours warning prior to the abduction but failed to act.