In The News

“Today’s news is tomorrow’s history.”Judy Croome

If you haven’t had time to watch the news this week or catch up on what has happened around the world, here are a few news headlines from the week:

Ukraine Ceasefire Deal Reached
A deal aimed at ending the fighting in eastern Ukraine has been agreed, following marathon talks in Belarus.
The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France announced that a ceasefire would begin on February 15.

Read more about the history of Ukraine and Russia’s relationship in The Driving Force of the Ukraine Crisis by Mark McCarthy.

Funeral set for 3 Muslims killed in North Carolina
Deah Shaddy Barakat, a 23-year-old dental student, his wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21; and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, of Raleigh, were honored by thousands in a candlelight vigil at Chapel Hill, N.C., were buried Thursday in Raleigh as authorities try to determine whether they were killed in a dispute over a parking space or whether religious hatred played a role.

The three Muslim students were killed with shots to the head at their apartment in Chapel Hill. Neighbor Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder and is being held without bond.

Obama’s ISIS Fight Sent to Congress
President Barack Obama on Wednesday made the case for Congress to formally authorize the use of military force in the war against ISIS, declaring that congressional passage of the measure makes the U.S. “strongest” in the fight, and that “ISIL is going to lose.”

Family of U.S. Aid worker, Kayla Mueller, confirms her death

Kayla Mueller, the American woman taken hostage by the self-declared Islamic State, has died, her family and the White House said in separate statements. The Islamic State said Mueller, 26, died after Jordanian airstrikes against the militant group targeted the building in Syria where she was being held. Jordan is part of the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State. There has been no official confirmation about how Mueller died. Mueller, an aid worker from Prescott, Ariz., was captured Aug. 4, 2013, as she left a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria.

Brian Williams, the NBC Nightly News anchor, suspended with 6-month leave
NBC News said Tuesday it has suspended its chief anchor and managing editor Brian Williams immediately for six months without pay, forgoing the option of firing the embattled newsman for now due to his popularity and past work at the network. Williams took himself off the air Saturday after soldiers revealed that his account of being on a Chinook helicopter that went down during the U.S. invasion of Iraq was not true.

Medical Mysteries: Chinese Baby Born Pregnant with Twins
A newborn girl in China came out of her mother’s womb to be found “pregnant” herself with twins. The Chinese baby born in Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Hong Kong had to undergo surgery at 3 weeks old to remove the fetuses that were believed to be at 8 to 10 weeks of gestation. Doctors claim this is the first documented case of fetus-in-fetu in the city, an extremely rare condition that occurs in one in 500,000 births. The mother of the 9-pound girl was suspected to have been pregnant with triplets, but the surviving baby interred her siblings inside her body. The two fetuses each had four limbs, a spine, rib cage, intestines, and anus, but were different in weight. The twins weighed 14.2 grams and the other 9.3 grams, and each had an umbilical cord connected to a single placenta-like mass.

Readers of iAt: What other headlines caught your attention this week?