Zynga Inc. Goes Public On Thursday – Zynga Inc., whose games now reach 60 million active players, daily, and 232 million active players every month, is going public. In one of the busiest weeks on Wall Street, Zynga, according to its SEC filing, is planning to offer 100 million shares this week in an IPO. Zynga’s games, like FarmVille, are best known on Facebook, but you can find them on other platforms like Google Plus, MySpace, and Yahoo. [yahoo]

Pictures Of China’s Warship Emerge – A commercial US satellite company says it has managed to take a picture of China’s first aircraft carrier during its sea trials in the Yellow Sea. If confirmed, it would be the first known photo of the former Soviet vessel recently refitted by Beijing. Don’t panic.. [bbc]

Eurozone Wrecks SA Prospects – There’s a real risk that South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth could flatline next year, from the expected 2.8%, commentators warn, as the country’s largest trading bloc, Europe, enters the long, painful road of rescuing itself from sovereign-debt shackles. [mail&guardian]

Madeleine McCann: Police Looking At “8 Important New Leads” – Scotland Yard detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are examining eight “important” new leads, it was claimed yesterday. Spanish private investigators have handed over 30 boxes of documents which could yield a breakthrough. [nzherald]

Obama Annouces The End Of The Iraq War – President Barack Obama marked the end of the U.S. war in Iraq with a salute to American troops at a military base central to the fight and a pledge to support veterans who are returning home to face a difficult economy. A promise to end the conflict in Iraq was a central element of Obama’s campaign for the presidency in 2008. [bloomberg]

Scientists Break Data Transfer Speed Records – Researchers are claiming a new world record for data transfers over long distances. Data was moved back and forth at a combined rate of 186Gbps (gigabits per second), fast enough to transfer two million gigabytes of data or 100,000 full Blu-ray discs in one day. It could pave the way for networks with standard speeds of 100Gbps. [bbc]

Man Proposes To Weather Presenter Girlfriend Live On Air [Video] – Congratulations Jenna Lee Thomas and Eric Wright on the news of their upcoming marriage in August 2012. How do we know Jenna Lee Thomas and Eric Wright are getting married? Well it’s all thanks to the cunning plan cooked up by Mr. Wright that saw him proposing to his weather girl girlfriend live on-air last week. [huffpo]

NASA Builds 6-Foot Crossbow To Harpoon Comets – Landing on a 150,000 mph comet surface sounds like risky business, so engineers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center are working on a harpoon gun that can spear the heart of the comet, collect a sample of subsurface dirt in its tip and reel it back into the hovering craft. [wired]

Royal Family Announces World Tour – Members of the royal family are being dispatched on tours around the world next year as part of commemorations of the Queen’s diamond jubilee, although the monarch – by then 86 – will be confining herself to visits around Britain. Most parts of the Commonwealth will receive a royal visit, though some may regard themselves as luckier than others in who they get. [guardian]

Matt Damon Punishes Bourne Ultimatum Script Writer – In the new issue of GQ (US), the action star goes off on screenwriter Tony Gilroy for his “Bourne Ultimatum” script. “It’s really the studio’s fault for putting themselves in that position,” Damon tells GQ of the third “Bourne” script situation. “I don’t blame Tony for taking a boatload of money and handing in what he handed in. It’s just that it was unreadable.” [marquee]

10-Year-Old Strangles 4-Year-Old After Argument – A ten-year-old boy in Sweden has confessed to killing a boy of four by strangling him with a skipping rope after an argument. According to Swedish news reports, he had been in a fight with several other children who had chased him out of a play area. [skynews]

Did Putin Lock His Wife In A Looney Bin? – Amid election discrepancies and in the wake of rumored affairs and spousal abuse, the wife of despotic Russian leader Vladimir Putin has gone missing. Where’s Lyudmila? Flash, gossip column of The Daily, reports that Putin’s long-suffering wife “hasn’t been seen in public” since a June trip to Scotland and England. [gawker]

Elizabeth Taylor Pearl Sells For $11.84 Million – A huge pearl once worn by European royalty and last owned by Elizabeth Taylor sold for a record $11.84 million at a blockbuster auction in New York on Tuesday. “La Peregrina,” depicted in art works over the centuries and coveted by kings and queens, was bought for Taylor by her actor husband Richard Burton in 1969. [luxuo]