News Headlines - 12 March 2016

▽Far right and refugee crisis pile pressure on Angela Merkel | The Guardian

With three German states voting on ‘Super Sunday’, the chancellor’s Christian Democrats are braced for a rough ride

▽EU referendum: Barack Obama to urge Britons to back remain vote on UK visit | The Independent

Barack Obama will jet into the UK next month and use his star power to convince Britons they should vote to stay in the European Union.

▽Mars mission set to launch to study gases and storms - Houston Chronicle

The ExoMars 2016 mission - a collaboration between the European and Russian space agencies - is set to blast off from Kazakhstan on Monday... After a journey of seven months, the ExoMars spacecraft will arrive at Mars in October. Three days before arriving, the lander, named Schiaparelli after the 19th-century Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, will separate from the orbiter.

▽Could a new plastic-eating bacteria help combat this pollution scourge? | The Guardian

In a report published in the journal Science, a team of Japanese researchers described a species of bacteria that can break the molecular bonds of one of the world’s most-used plastics - polyethylene terephthalate, also known as PET or polyester.

▽Everton 2 Chelsea 0: Reality bites for Chelsea as Romelu Lukaku seals win

The Chelsea striker was sent off for two yellow cards, the second of which was for a head thrust into Gareth Barry’s head and neck that might even have seen the striker attempt to bite his opponent, although the evidence was inconclusive. If the Football Association decides that the offence did take place then it will be the last we see of Chelsea’s trouble-maker in chief for some time.