10 things you need to know today: October 11, 2013

(Image credit: (AP Photo/Peter Dejong))

last updated 8 January 2015

1. Chemical weapons inspectors win the Nobel Peace Prize

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which this week oversaw efforts to begin destroying Syria's chemical weapons arsenal, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The watchdog group, formed in 1997, is the enforcement arm of the Chemical Weapons Convention, an arms control treaty enacted by the U.N. The pick came as a surprise — many people expected Pakistani teen Malala Yousafzai to win for her advocacy of girls' education before and after being shot by a Taliban gunman. [Washington Post, USA Today]

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Republicans said Thursday they would support lifting the $16.7 trillion debt limit for six weeks to avoid an unprecedented federal default, provided Democrats agree to negotiations on the GOP's budget concerns. President Obama rejected the proposal, however, because it would not also end the government shutdown. Nevertheless, House Republicans said both sides agreed to keep meeting after fruitful talks at the White House late Thursday. [New York Times, Reuters]

Scott Carpenter, the second American to orbit the Earth, died this week in a Denver hospice after a September stroke. He was 88. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said Thursday that Carpenter was one of "the pioneers who set the tone for our nation's pioneering efforts beyond Earth." Carpenter was one of the last two surviving Mercury 7 astronauts from the 1960s. Now only John Glenn, who entered orbit first, is left. [Associated Press]

Utah officials have agreed to pay the National Park Service up to $1.67 million to temporarily reopen five national parks — Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, and Zion — in the state despite the federal government shutdown. The deal would open the parks, as well as two national monuments and a recreation area, for 10 days, starting Saturday. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said the parks are "the backbone of many rural economies." [CNN]

Former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was sentenced to 28 years in prison for corruption on Thursday. The stiff sentence — one of the longest ever imposed on a U.S. politician — further tainted the image of a city that was once the thriving home of the American auto industry, but is now flat broke. Prosecutors pushed for the 28-year term by arguing that Kilpatrick's bribery and extortion made the city's financial crisis worse. [Reuters]

Police arrested former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf on new charges Thursday hours after a court ruled to release him from house arrest on bail. Defense lawyers said Musharraf, who returned in March from four years in exile hoping to make a political comeback, was preparing to leave the country, but now faces new charges for his alleged role in the death of a radical cleric killed in a 2007 raid on an Islamabad mosque. [Associated Press]

Cleveland rapist Ariel Castro, who held three young women captive for 10 years, might not have committed suicide — he might have died choking himself for a sexual thrill, according to a review by prison authorities. A coroner dismissed the theory, saying the autopsy clearly indicated suicide. The prison report also said guards skipped rounds several times the day Castro was found dead with a sheet around his neck and his pants at his ankles. [CBS News, CNN]

The mother of Kenneth Bae, a U.S. citizen imprisoned in North Korea, is in Pyongyang and expects to be allowed to visit her son on Friday. Bae, a tour operator and Christian missionary, was arrested in November, accused of plotting against the North Korean government, and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. "I don't really know what to expect for my trip," Myunghee Bae said. "All I know is that I want to see my son." [BBC News]

The tribute episode to Glee's late co-star, Cory Monteith, aired on Thursday, with the members of the glee club mourning the death of Monteith's character, quarterback-turned-singer Finn Hudson. Monteith overdosed on heroin and alcohol in July, but the script made no mention of how Hudson died. In the show, Finn's grief-stricken stepbrother Kurt (Chris Colfer) says that detail doesn't matter: "One moment in his whole life — I care more about how he lived." [Today]

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.

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