Weekly Review
The Islamic State captured at least 230 people in the Syrian town of al-Qaryatayn and threatened to behead a man for protesting the arrests of Muslim Brotherhood–affiliated women in Egypt. Nineteen girls held hostage by the group in Mosul, Iraq, were executed for refusing to have sex with soldiers, and the United Nations confirmed the authenticity of an Islamic State pamphlet listing the prices of its sex slaves. “The girls get peddled,” said one U.N. official, “like barrels of petrol.” Read more...
In Missouri, St. Louis County authorities declared a state of emergency after an armed man was shot by police during an exchange of gunfire at a protest commemorating the one-year anniversary of the death of Michael Brown.[1] Police in Houston arrested a gunman who broke into his ex-wife’s home and killed her, her husband, and the couple’s six children.[2] In Antioch, Tennessee, a man armed with a hatchet, pepper spray, and a pellet gun injured three people at a movie theater before being shot and killed by police.[3] In Colorado, James Egan Holmes was sentenced to life in prison for killing 12 people and injuring 70 at a movie theater in the town of Aurora in 2012.[4][5] The relatives of 16 victims of a 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed six adults and 20 children, reached a $1.5 million settlement with the estate of the gunman’s family.[6] Republican efforts to defund women’s health-care provider Planned Parenthood succeeded in the states of Alabama, New Hampshire, and Louisiana, and, following the first major presidential primary debate of the 2016 election season, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump criticized moderator Megyn Kelly for asking him tough questions. “There was blood coming out of her eyes,” he said, “out of her wherever.”[7][8][9][10]
An atheist blogger in Bangladesh was hacked to death, allegedly by Islamic militants.[11] In India, the government blocked and subsequently unblocked access to 857 pornographic websites, and monsoon rains led to the derailment of two trains, killing at least 24 people.[12][13] In Myanmar, the death toll from floods surpassed 100.[14] A typhoon in Taiwan killed at least six people and left over 3 million people without power before making landfall in China and killing 17 people.[15][16] Malaysian officials confirmed that Boeing 777 wreckage found on Réunion is debris from missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.[17] The Islamic State captured at least 230 people in the Syrian town of al-Qaryatayn and threatened to behead a man for protesting the arrests of Muslim Brotherhood–affiliated women in Egypt.[18][19][20] Nineteen girls held hostage by the group in Mosul, Iraq, were executed for refusing to have sex with soldiers, and the United Nations confirmed the authenticity of an Islamic State pamphlet listing the prices of its sex slaves, advertising women over 40 for $41 dollars and girls between one and nine years old for $165. “The girls get peddled,” said one U.N. official, “like barrels of petrol.”[21]
A 25-year-old surveillance video depicting the perpetrator of an unsolved heist involving $500 million worth of paintings was released.[22] Former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling divorced his wife, whom he previously referred to in court as a pig, and Kermit the Frog divorced Miss Piggy.[23][24][25] Pope Francis stated that those who divorce and remarry should be accepted by the church. “Divorced and remarried people,” read a Vatican headline, “not excommunicated.”[26] Over 380 people in 26 U.S. states were made sick by cilantro contaminated by a parasite, software developer John McAfee was arrested for possessing a handgun while high on Xanax in Tennessee, and a shirtless man in possession of methamphetamine was arrested after covering himself in mud and swinging from vine to vine in the monkey exhibit at the Santa Ana Zoo in California. “I am Tarzan,” he said.[27][28][29] An employee of an Iowa Taco Bell was asked to stop cooking methamphetamine, the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a semi-submarine carrying 16,000 pounds of cocaine, and a drone airdropped heroin and marijuana into an Ohio prison.[30][31][32] In Norway, where almost all members of an airBaltic flight crew failed a Breathalyzer test, a sex offender escaped from prison on a surfboard.[33][34] A California Whole Foods pulled $6 bottles of asparagus stalks in water after ridicule on social media. “Asparagus water,” one Twitter user commented, “just sounds like another name for pee.”[35][36]
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