10 things you need to know today: September 22, 2014

1. MAVEN spacecraft reaches Mars orbit

NASA's MAVEN spacecraft entered Mars' orbit on Sunday night after a 10-month, 442-million-mile trip. Maven — or the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution craft — will explore the planet's upper atmosphere to help scientists understand more about the history of its climate. Mars is now a cold, dry environment where liquid water can't exist, but it has surfaces that once had water flowing over them. MAVEN is expected to help unravel the mystery of why the once warmer planet dried up.

CNN

2. Kurds halt ISIS advance in Syria

The number of Syrian Kurds fleeing into neighboring Turkey to escape an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) offensive might have risen above 100,000, the United Nations said Sunday. Sixty-six thousand had crossed into the country in the first 24 hours after Turkey opened the border gate on Friday. Syrian Kurdish fighters, aided by young Kurds from Turkey, said Monday that they had kept the Islamist extremists from advancing on the city of Kobani, which ISIS also tried to take in July.

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Reuters

3. British hostage's wife makes appeal to ISIS for his release

The wife of British ISIS hostage Alan Henning has issued a plea for his release, calling her husband a "peaceful, selfless man." Henning's wife, Barbara, reportedly sent messages to the extremist group, but she has received no response. Henning, she said, left his family and his job as a taxi driver to travel to Syria "with his Muslim colleagues and friends to help those most in need." Henning was shown in a video last week after the beheading of fellow Briton David Haines.

Irish Examiner

4. Volunteers help look for missing Virginia student

An estimated 1,000 volunteers fanned out across Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday and Sunday to search for missing University of Virginia sophomore Hannah Graham. "I have two daughters of my own and I would hope that if one of them was missing, everyone would come out," volunteer Marci Stewart said. A man reportedly seen with Graham in a bar on Sept. 13, the night she disappeared, showed up at a police station requesting a lawyer, then got in a car and sped away. Police issued arrest warrants on reckless driving charges.

USA Today The Associated Press

5. Climate march organizers estimate crowd at 311,000

Organizers of the People's Climate March held in New York City on Sunday are calling the event the biggest demonstration ever in favor of action against climate change. Thirty-five crowd spotters collected data that was then analyzed by a Carnegie Mellon University mathematician, who estimated the crowd at 311,000. Marchers carried signs with messages such as, "There is No Planet B." Leading environmentalists, including former Vice President Al Gore, attended, as did United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who will preside over a U.N. climate summit this week.

MSNBC The New York Times

6. Rockefeller heirs' philanthropy ditches oil investments

The heirs to John D. Rockefeller's massive oil fortune plan to announce Monday that their $860-million philanthropic organization, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, is joining a movement to divest from fossil fuel companies. The news is being called a watershed moment signaling that the divestment movement has gone mainstream. Over the past several years, 180 institutions, from philanthropies to pension funds, have signed on, as have hundreds of wealthy individual investors.

The New York Times

7. Rifle allegedly carried by Pennsylvania police-shooting suspect found

Investigators have recovered one of the weapons believed to have been used by a sniper who killed one Pennsylvania state trooper and wounded another on Sept. 12, authorities said Sunday. Trackers found the AK-47 assault rifle and some ammunition abandoned in the woods. It wasn't immediately clear if the weapon was the one used in the ambush. An assault rifle and .308 rifle with a scope were missing from the family home of the suspect, survivalist Eric Frein, police said.

The Associated Press

8. Secret Service considers new security measures after White House incident

The Secret Service reportedly is considering several new measures to increase security at the White House following a scare on Friday in which a man got through the front door carrying a folding knife. The possible steps include keeping tourists off of sidewalks along the White House gate, and screening visitors a block away from the entrance gate. Relatives say the man who jumped the fence, identified as Iraq war veteran Omar Gonzalez, has post-traumatic stress and meant no harm.

The Washington Post

9. Government and rebels agree to a ceasefire in Yemen

Yemen's transitional government signed a peace agreement with Shiite rebels on Sunday in a bid to end sectarian violence that led to the prime minister's resignation. The fighting between Shiite Muslim rebels, called Houthis, and Sunni militias supporting the government killed 140 people. The accord calls for an immediate ceasefire and the establishment of a technocratic government within weeks, following consultations with all sides, United Nations envoy Jamal Benomar said.

Los Angeles Time

10. Alibaba sells additional shares pushing its IPO haul to $25 billion

The underwriters of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's initial public offering of stock have issued 48 million more shares, bringing the total raised by the IPO to a record $25 billion — beating Agriculture Bank of China's $22 billion and Visa's $19.7 billion. Alibaba's stock price soared by 38 percent on Friday, its first day trading on the New York Stock Exchange. That gave Alibaba a market value of $231 billion, larger than the combined value of Amazon and eBay.

Reuters