10 things you need to know today: October 21, 2014

(Image credit: (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, Pool))

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1. Oscar Pistorius sentenced to five years for manslaughter
2. Turkey allows Kurdish fighters to enter Syria to fight ISIS
3. Indiana suspect confesses to seven killings
4. Apple predicts a busy holiday season thanks to strong iPhone sales
5. Report accuses Ukraine of using controversial cluster bombs against separatists
6. Suspect in Hannah Graham case indicted on 2005 rape charge
7. Total CEO dies in Moscow plane crash
8. ISIS launches simultaneous attacks in northern Iraq
9. New Yorkers protest The Death of Klinghoffer opera
10. Oscar de la Renta dies at 82

last updated 13 January 2015

1. Oscar Pistorius sentenced to five years for manslaughter

South African double-amputee track star Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to five years in prison on Tuesday for killing his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine's Day in 2013. Pistorius, who said he thought an intruder was in his bathroom when he fired through the door and killed Steenkamp, was acquitted of murder but convicted on Sept. 12 of the South African equivalent of manslaughter in the U.S. legal system. The judge said the sentence struck a "delicate balance" between mercy and justice.

Turkey said Monday that it was letting Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters cross its border into Syria to fight Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, forces trying to take over the Syrian border town of Kobani. The announcement marks a major shift for Ankara, which had been criticized by Kurds and the U.S. for declining to provide military aid to Kurdish forces defending Kobani. A day earlier, the U.S. airdropped weapons to Kurds in Kobani as an international coalition steps up its efforts to battle ISIS.

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A convicted Indiana sex offender, Darren Deon Vann, has confessed to killing seven women, police said Monday. Vann, 43, told police that he had "messed up" by killing Afrika Hardy, 19, an alleged prostitute whose body was found at a Motel 6 on Friday. Vann then led officers to the bodies of six other women who had been killed in Gary, Indiana. Police said Vann made other statements that led them to believe there were "possible other victims."

Apple shares rose by 1.3 percent after hours on Monday after the company forecast a strong holiday quarter after seeing its iPhone sales increase by 16 percent, which was more than expected. Apple also saw its best growth in Mac computer sales in years. Despite the positive news, iPad sales continued a three-quarter slide. Declining demand for all kinds of tablets have raised questions about Apple's growth prospects, and increased pressure from investors for a new device to reinvigorate the company.

The Ukrainian military appears to have fired widely banned cluster bombs into the separatist-held city of Donetsk, according to a human rights report released Monday. Witnesses, victims, and physical evidence suggested that cluster munitions had been fired from the direction of army-held territory on Oct. 2 and Oct. 5, killing at least six people, including a Swiss Red Cross employee. If confirmed, the use of cluster bombs could be an obstacle in peace talks.

Jesse Matthew, the suspect in the disappearance of Virginia college student Hannah Graham, was charged Monday with the 2005 kidnapping and rape of a woman in suburban Washington. Investigators searching for Graham found human remains last weekend. The Virginia Medical Examiner's office in Richmond is trying to identify them. Graham was last seen on Sept. 13, leaving a Charlottesville bar with Matthew.

Christophe de Margerie, CEO of French oil company Total, was killed on Monday when the business jet he was taking to Paris crashed into a snowplow at a Moscow airport. Three crew members on the jet and the plow's driver also died. De Margerie, 63, was respected in the industry for returning the company to stability since taking over in 2007, and increasing its petroleum reserves in every year but one. He also successfully defended the company against corruption allegations tied to the U.N.'s oil-for-food program in Iraq.

ISIS forces renewed their offensive in northern Iraq on Monday with 15 nearly simultaneous attacks on Kurdish forces. ISIS also launched fresh attacks against forces guarding the strategically important Mosul Dam, including a truck-bombing that killed six Kurdish peshmerga fighters at one of the checkpoints surrounding the dam. Airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition had halted ISIS attempts to capture new territory recently, and a peshmerga general said he expected strikes soon on two villages the Islamist group seized on Monday.

Hundreds of people protested outside New York's Metropolitan Opera on Monday, saying a controversial show about the murder of a disabled Jewish man by Palestinian gunmen in 1985 glorifies terrorism and is anti-Semitic. Former mayor Rudy Giuliani called the opera, John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer, "a distorted work," and Rabbi Avi Weiss said it was "radioactive" and "inspires violence." The Met's general manager, Peter Gelb, said the opera was not anti-Semitic, calling it "a brilliant work of art that must be performed."

Fashion designer Oscar de la Renta died Monday eight years after being diagnosed with cancer. He was 82. De la Renta had been a fixture in haute couture since the 1960s, when his designs were worn by then-first lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Later, first ladies Betty Ford, Nancy Reagan, Hillary Clinton, and Laura Bush wore his gowns. Most recently, Amal Clooney wore a wedding dress designed by de la Renta when she married actor George Clooney in Venice three weeks ago.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.