10 things you need to know today: May 2, 2013

(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

1. THREE FRIENDS OF BOSTON BOMBING SUSPECT ARRESTED

Police arrested three college friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Wednesday, and accused them of throwing away evidence and making false statements to investigators. Azamat Tazhayakov, Dias Kadyrbayev, and Robel Phillipos — all 19 years old — allegedly went to Tsarnaev's dorm room after FBI photos of the suspects were released, removed a backpack with fireworks, and emptied it of its explosives powder. Investigators say the three men knew nothing about the bombing beforehand. [NBC News]

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North Korea said Thursday it had sentenced Kenneth Bae, a tour operator from Washington state, to 15 years of "compulsory labor" on charges that he plotted against the communist regime's government. Bae was arrested while traveling in November. South Korean activists speculate that he might have been found with pictures of hungry children. The case could complicate U.S. efforts to get Pyongyang to stop threatening war and open talks about its nuclear and missile programs. [Washington Post]

Bangladeshi authorities on Thursday suspended the mayor of a municipality for approving construction of a factory complex that collapsed on April 24. The move came as shock over the rising death toll — which reached 430 people as several bodies were pulled from the rubble on Thursday — has prompted global calls for safer working conditions and better pay in factories making clothing to export to the West. Pope Francis likened the conditions the victims worked in to "slave labor." [Reuters]

Former CIA chief David Petraeus, who resigned last year after admitting to an extramarital affair, has a new job. The former four-star general is going to teach part-time at the University of Southern California. Petraeus, who once commanded coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, will participate in seminars on foreign relations, leadership, and other topics, university officials say. Petraeus has also accepted a visiting faculty position at the City University of New York. [Los Angeles Times]

The Obama administration on Wednesday appealed an order by a federal judge to drop age limits on over-the-counter sales of morning-after birth control pills. The move came a day after the Food and Drug Administration lowered minimum age for buying one of the contraceptives, Plan B One-Step, without a prescription from 17 to 15. The appeal suggests the government is determined to expand access to emergency contraception, but not as much as doctors and activists want. [CBS News]

Kentucky police on Wednesday called the fatal shooting of a 2-year-old girl by her 5-year-old brother a tragic accident that happened when the children's mom stepped outside for just a few minutes. The boy had received the 22-caliber, one-shot Crickett rifle for his birthday. "It's just one of those nightmares," Kentucky State Police Trooper Billy Gregory said, "a quick thing that happens when you turn your back." [CNN]

President Obama is expected to continue filling out his second-term cabinet on Thursday by nominating Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker as his next commerce secretary. Pritzker, heiress to the Hyatt Hotels fortune, is a longtime Obama supporter who led record fundraising for this 2008 campaign. Obama is also expected to announce that he's naming Michael Froman, deputy national security adviser for international economics, as U.S. trade representative. [Bloomberg]

Archaeologists say they have found concrete evidence to confirm stories that Jamestown colonists resorted to cannibalism to survive the "starving time" winter of 1609-10, when 60 of the 300 people hunkered down in a fort besieged by Powhatan Indians died. The researchers presented the reconstructed skull of a 14-year-old English girl found at the site of the fort that had crisscrossing cuts, typical of animal butchery at the time, suggesting her tongue and brains had been removed to be eaten. [USA Today]

A Pennsylvania woman has resurfaced in Florida 11 years after she mysteriously disappeared — leaving behind a job and two children, then 8 and 12. Police say Brenda Heist, 54, was considered "missing and possibly deceased" after police failed to turn up clues about what happened to her. She was last seen after dropping off her children at school. She told authorities she was going through a divorce, and joined hitchhikers headed to Florida on a whim, then lived for years on the streets. [CNN]

Rapper Chris "Mac Daddy" Kelly — part of the 1990s duo Kris Kross known for the hit song "Jump" — died Wednesday afternoon at age 34. Kelly was found unresponsive in his home and taken to Atlanta Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Police are investigating the death as a drug overdose. The official cause of death is expected to come from an autopsy scheduled for Thursday morning. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

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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