Dorothy Abernathy, regional media director of The Associated Press, shares 10 things you need to know Friday, March 25, 2016. Look for full stories on these late-breaking news items and much more in West Virginia newspapers.
1. MAN DETAINED IN PARIS SUBURB RAID WANTED SINCE JANUARY
Officials say Reda Kriket, 34, has connections to the suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud.
2. UN: ‘NO DRAMA, NO WALKOUTS,’ BUT NO PROGRESS IN SYRIA PEACE TALKS
While a shaky truce continues to hold in the war-torn country, there is also no visible progress on a lasting settlement.
3. WHY SEATTLE IS SANDERS COUNTRY
The presidential candidate’s brand of democratic socialism may take some explaining in some parts of the United States, but not in this Pacific Northwest city.
4. BLASPHEMY CASES ON THE RISE IN EGYPT
Egyptian Christian teens satirizing the Islamic State group are convicted and given prison sentences for mocking Islam.
5. PROSPECTS OF TALIBAN PEACE TALKS DIM AS FRONT LINES SHIFT
Recent battlefield gains by insurgents and a Kabul government suspicious of Pakistan’s intentions in facilitating such negotiations are creating pessimism.
6. ‘HELICOPTER MONEY’ MAY BOOST ECONOMY
The term was coined by economists who theorize that if global central banks just print money and hand it to people it could get the economy going.
7. WHAT IS HOLDING UP FLINT WATER DEAL
A bipartisan congressional effort to solve the water crisis in this Michigan city is being stalled by the objections of a single senator from Utah.
8. SEEING HOLES IN EFFORT TO BRIDGE ‘WORD GAP’
It remains unclear if a Rhode Island city’s high-tech experiment to improve the vocabularies of poor children is a national model or just an interesting concept.
9. ‘THE WALTONS’ CREATOR DIES
Earl Hamner Jr., who drew upon his Depression-era upbringing in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to create one of TV’s most beloved family shows, is dead at 92.
10. TOP SEEDS WIN AT NCAAs
No. 1 seeds Oregon and Kansas and second-seeded Oklahoma and Villanova all advance to the Elite Eight.
