10 things you need to know today: July 22, 2013

(Image credit: REUTERS/Paul Hackett)

last updated 8 January 2015

1. DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGE ENTERS HOSPITAL IN EARLY STAGES OF LABOR

The Duchess of Cambridge, the former Kate Middleton, has gone into labor and checked into St. Mary's Hospital in London, Kensington Palace said Monday. The duchess arrived by car with her husband, Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge. Members of the press have been camped for days outside the hospital awaiting the birth of the royal baby, the couple's first. The new addition to the royal family will be third in line for the throne. [New York Times]

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A shallow, magnitude-6.6 earthquake struck a farming area in western China's Gansu province early Monday, killing at least 54 people and injuring 300. The quake hit outside the city of Dingxi, destroying thousands of homes in the hilly, surrounding region but causing only limited damage in the city itself. In 2008, an earthquake in Sichuan province killed 90,000 people and left millions homeless. [Associated Press]

A registered sex offender has been arrested in connection with the murders of three women whose bodies were found wrapped in plastic in a poor Ohio neighborhood over the weekend. The suspect, 35-year-old Michael Madison, was not immediately charged, but East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton said Madison was a "sick individual." He was allegedly influenced by a serial killer, Anthony Sowell, who once terrorized the same county. Authorities fear there might be more victims. [CNN]

New York Times statistician Nate Silver is leaving the newspaper to join ESPN, the sports network controlled by Walt Disney Co. Silver first applied his math skills to baseball before turning his attention to elections with his FiveThirtyEight blog — named for the number of votes in the Electoral College. Silver attained national fame and attracted a surge in the Times' web traffic with his pinpoint accuracy in the 2012 presidential election. [New York Times]

European Union governments agreed Monday to list the military wing of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. The move marks a major policy reversal reflecting growing concerns about Hezbollah's activities in Europe; it was blamed for an attack that killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian at a Black Sea resort in Bulgaria last year. The blacklisting could mean visa bans and the freezing of assets of individuals and groups linked to Hezbollah. [Haaretz]

A Norwegian woman has been pardoned and told she can leave Dubai, where she has been stuck for months facing charges filed against her after she reported she had been raped. The woman — interior designer Marte Deborah Dalelv — told police she was attacked during a night out in March. They charged her with having extramarital sex, drinking alcohol, and perjury. Her alleged attacker received a 13-month sentence — for having extramarital sex and drinking, not committing rape. [BBC News]

Detroit officials go to federal court this week in a battle with retirees over the city's bankruptcy petition. Detroit's emergency manager, Kevyn D. Orr, and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) approved the filing Thursday, but groups representing 20,000 local-government retirees facing pension cuts got a county court to effectively freeze the case. A federal judge will hold hearings early in the week on whether the bankruptcy can proceed so Detroit can discharge its $18 billion debt. [Washington Post]

Cincinnati Zoo scientists are trying to mate their female Sumatran rhino with her little brother in a desperate attempt to help save the species from extinction. Conservationists at a recent crisis summit in Singapore concluded that there might be only 100 of the two-horned, hairy rhinos left in their native Southeast Asia. Their numbers have fallen by as much as 90 percent since the mid-1980s due to poaching for their horns and the destruction of their habitat. [Columbus Dispatch]

Kenyan-born British cyclist Chris Froome won the 100th Tour de France on Sunday. Froome, 28, was the second Briton in a row to take cycling's biggest race. His Sky teammate Bradley Wiggins became the first British Tour de France champion last year, but skipped this year's race because of illness and injuries. Froome promised his victory wouldn't be stripped away over doping charges as Lance Armstrong's were. "This is one yellow jersey that will stand the test of time," he said. [Associated Press]

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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