10 things you need to know today: April 9, 2014

(Image credit: (AP Photo/Jessica Hill))

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1. Tumblr warns users against "Heartbleed" bug
2. UConn women win the school a second 2014 NCAA basketball title
3. Australian ship detects more underwater signals in search for missing plane
4. Toyota announces another massive recall
5. More mothers stay at home
6. Spain rejects Catalonia's bid for an independence referendum
7. Obama's aunt dies
8. Pistorius, facing cross-examination, says he "made a mistake"
9. Foreign profits held abroad by U.S. firms skyrocket
10. Comic-book icon Archie gets death sentence

last updated 26 January 2015

1. Tumblr warns users against "Heartbleed" bug

A flaw in OpenSSL, one of the internet's main encryption methods, has left two-thirds of the internet's websites vulnerable to security attacks. Tumblr urged users to change the passwords for all of their online accounts after the discovery of the bug, known as Heartbleed. The bug allows hackers to access the memory on any server running OpenSSL, a system symbolized by a tiny padlock intended to signify that sensitive information is safe.

The University of Connecticut women's basketball team trounced Notre Dame 79-58 Tuesday night to win its second consecutive NCAA basketball title. The victory capped a perfect season and gave UConn a record ninth women's championship. Earlier in the tournament, UConn coach Geno Auriemma said, "We're in a league of our own." The victory gave UConn both the women's and men's basketball titles — the men won theirs a day earlier.

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An Australian ship detected two more underwater "pings" consistent with an airplane's black box recorder in the southern Indian Ocean on Tuesday, raising hopes that missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 might soon be found. "I think we are looking in the right area," said an Australian official. On Wednesday, the Australian air force is also dropping 84 sonar buoys normally used to hunt submarines to speed up the search effort before the black box's transmitter batteries fade.

Toyota said Wednesday it was recalling 6.39 million vehicles around the world to correct various flaws affecting steering, seats, and other parts. The problems affect 27 Toyota models, including the RAV4 SUV and the Yaris subcompact. The recall was the second largest ever for the Japanese automaker. The move came on the heels of Toyota's recall of more than nine million vehicles to fix sticky accelerators linked to deadly crashes.

The number of American women staying home to raise children has risen over the last decade, reversing a longtime trend, according to a study released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center. In 2012, 29 percent of U.S. mothers with children under 18 were at home with no outside job, up from 23 percent in 1999. Twenty percent were traditional stay-at-home moms with working husbands, just under half the figure recorded in 1970.

Spanish lawmakers on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a request by Catalan authorities to hold a Nov. 9 referendum on independence. After a seven-hour debate, 299 members of Parliament voted no, with only 49 in favor. Spain's prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, said permitting such a move would spell "economic disaster" for Spain, and for the Catalonia. The region, in eastern Spain, already exercises a measure of autonomy.

President Obama's aunt, Zeituni Onyango, died Monday night in a Boston nursing home, her immigration lawyer said Tuesday. Onyango, 61, was a native of Kenya, the half-sister of Obama's father. She was nearly deported after being denied asylum in 2004, then granted asylum in 2010. Onyango's lawyer, Margaret Wong, said Onyango was an "elegant" woman who fought for her legal status "after her vilification by the press."

Oscar Pistorius faced a heated cross-examination at his murder trial on Wednesday, with a South African prosecutor telling the double-amputee track star, "You killed Reeva Steenkamp. Say it." Pistorius, who says he thought his girlfriend was an intruder when he shot her to death, replied, "I made a mistake." The testimony came two days after Pistorius broke down in tears describing the killing at his house on Valentine's Day last year.

A new report by a private research firm, Audit Analytics, found that foreign profits held overseas by U.S. corporations to avoid taxes rose to $2.1 trillion in 2013, nearly double the figure for 2008. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said Tuesday that the numbers highlighted the need for tax reform. Wyden has in the past called for repealing a law letting firms defer taxes on foreign profits until bringing the money to the U.S.

Archie Comics announced Tuesday that it would kill off the famous red-headed comic book character in No. 36 of Life with Archie, the comic book series that tells the story of Archie's life as an adult. He reportedly sacrifices himself to save a friend in the issue, due out in July. But Archie fans, never fear: The famous comic book character will still live on in the main Archie series and the zombie-themed Afterlife with Archie.

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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.