AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau
A man puts the final touches on a giant figure showing German Chancellor Angela Merkel , next to France's President Francois Hollande during preparations for the 131st Nice carnival parade , Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015 in Nice, southeastern France. The Carnival, running from Feb. 13 until March 1, 2015, celebrates the "King of Music".
1. Blackbox data recorders show that an engine flameout caused a Taiwan plane to crash shortly after takeoff.
2. An intelligence officer who was asked to give testimony in the mysterious murder of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman has vanished.
3. Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis told his German counterpart Thursday that right now Greece is like Germany in the 1930s, just before the Nazis came to power.
4. SpaceX will make a second attempt Sunday to land a Falcon 9 rocket on a floating ocean platform.
5. Ecuador has declared a state of emergency in the Galapagos Islands one week after a cargo ship carrying 45,000 litres (10,000 gallons) of fuel ran aground.
6. Electronics retailer RadioShack has filed for bankruptcy.
7. At least two key investors of the Sochi Olympics, the most expensive games in history, have unloaded properties built for the event at a total cost of $3 billion (£1.96 billion).
8. Scientists have found a 10 million gallon "bath mat" of oil on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico left over from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster.
9. Amy Pascal will step down from her post as co-chairwoman of Sony Pictures after her entire email inbox was leaked online as part of the massive Sony hack in December.
10. Marina Picasso, the granddaughter of famed Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, plans to sell off 10,000 of her grandfather's works that she inherited.
And finally ...
A new law in Japan would force employeers to make sure workers take their vacation days.