The world at a glance . . . United States

Los Angeles

Movie sets burn: A huge fire ravaged sections of the 400-acre back lot of Universal Studios in Hollywood last weekend, destroying sets used in Back to the Future, Spider-Man 2, and Transformers. Master prints of hundreds of classic films, including early pictures starring Charles Boyer and Dorothy Lamour, were also destroyed. “It’s going to take quite a while to assess what was really lost,” said Jan-Christopher Horak of the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Fire officials said the blaze was accidentally sparked by workers using a blowtorch on the roof of a movie set building facade. The back lot, which is both a working studio and a popular theme park, reopened for business this week.

Sacramento

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Marriage referendum on ballot: Conservative activists in California succeeded this week in putting a referendum banning gay marriages on the November state ballot. The measure was prompted by the California Supreme Court’s recent ruling that the right to same-sex marriage is guaranteed under the state constitution. A coalition of religious and social conservatives gathered 1.1 million signatures on a petition calling for the state constitution to be amended to define marriage as a union between “a man and a woman.” Same-sex weddings are scheduled to begin in California later this month. It’s unclear how passage of the referendum would affect the legal status of those unions.

Durham, N.C.

Kennedy surgery successful: Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts this week underwent risky and delicate surgery to remove a malignant brain tumor, and doctors said the three-and-a-half-hour procedure was “successful and accomplished our goals.” Kennedy was partly anesthetized but awake during the operation, as surgeons monitored his responses to help ensure that no crucial brain tissue was removed. Neurosurgeon Dr. Allan Friedman said the 76-year-old torchbearer of the storied political dynasty should “experience no permanent neurological effects from the surgery.” After the operation, Kennedy strolled the hospital halls and reportedly told his wife, “I feel like a million bucks; I think I’ll do that again tomorrow.” Even after successful surgery and follow-up radiation and chemotherapy, Kennedy’s prognosis remains grim; most patients with his type of tumor survive two years or less.

Eldorado, Texas

Sect families reunited: Some 440 childrenfrom a breakaway Mormon sect were reunited with their parents this week, two months after they were seized by Texas police, who suspected they were being abused. The children were removed in April from the Yearning for Zion Ranch, a haven for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a polygamist splinter group in which teenage girls marry much older men. A Texas judge ordered the children returned to their parents after the parents agreed to cooperate in an ongoing child-abuse investigation and take child-rearing classes. During their time in state custody, many children of the traditionalist sect were exposed to modern-day pleasures for the first time. After being returned to her parents, one child asked if she could have pizza delivered to the ranch.

Washington, D.C.

A seagoing gulag? A human-rights organization this week accused the U.S. of operating a network of prison ships on which terrorism suspects are held incommunicado and abused. Reprieve, a British human-rights advocacy group, based its accusations on a report pieced together from Pentagon disclosures, testimony from released prisoners, and European governmental sources. The report alleges that as many as 17 Navy ships are being used as “floating prisons,” and that some prisoners have been handed over to Arab and African governments known to torture prisoners. “They choose ships to try to keep their misconduct as far as possible from the prying eyes of media and lawyers,” said Reprieve legal director Clive Stafford Smith. The U.S. Navy denied its ships were being used as “detention facilities,” but acknowledged that some prisoners were held on ships for “a few days” at the beginning of their confinement.

Discovery reaches destination

The space shuttle Discovery arrived at the International Space Station this week, delivering a school bus–size laboratory, replacement parts for the station’s toilet, and a Buzz Lightyear action figure. The seven shuttle crew members and the three space station astronauts teamed up to attach the Japanese Kibo laboratory to the space station and install a new pump in the space station’s toilet, which had been malfunctioning for two weeks. Buzz Lightyear, one of the heroes of the hit Disney movie Toy Story, will be featured in experiments televised to U.S. schoolchildren as part of a NASA science-education program.