By Elizabeth Cohn

Syrian Revolts Escalate

This past week, the violence in Syria has escalated so much that people are beginning to flee. The United States Embassy in Syria has been evacuated for the safety of the people. Both Russia and China blocked any United Nations Security Council actions to condemn Syria by using their vetoes, protecting Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad. The eleven month crisis is becoming deadly for all those in the country as the violence now has killed over 6,000 people. Just last week, a Syrian general was killed during the violence by what Syrian Arab News Agency is calling a group of armed terrorists.

GOP Primaries Continue

As the campaigning continues, the field is narrowing with every passing primary. Mitt Romney is the current front-runner after winning Maine, New Hampshire, Florida, and Nevada, even despite his dismal week losing three primaries in a row. However, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum still think they have the power to win the nomination because they are hanging in the race. This past week, Republicans have gained another party issue on which to build their platforms and voting blocks in President Obama’s birth control issue with Catholic hospitals. The next upcoming primaries are in Arizona and Michigan.

Whitney Houston Dies at 48 Years Old

Singer Whitney Houston was found dead in a hotel room on February 11th at 3:55 pm (California time). The singer, although world-renowned and famous from a very young age, struggled with addiction problems throughout her short life of 48 years. She was found by her bodyguard in the Beverly Hills hotel the night before the 54th Grammy Awards and her last performance was said to be a pre-Grammy show earlier this week.

Washington Boys Laid to Rest

When you turned on the news this past week, you were bound to hear about the terrible tragedy in Washington state that claimed the lives of two innocent boys and their father, who caused the double murder-suicide. The boys, Braden and Charlie Powell, were laid to rest following a funeral service six days after their gruesome deaths. Their father destroyed their bodies with hatchets and then lit their gasoline doused house on fire. This story may come as a surprise if one did not know that the father was the only suspect in the disappearance of Susan Powell, his wife and the boys’ mother, back in 2009. The boys were beginning to talk about the night their mother disappeared and their father took them camping in below freezing temperatures at midnight. This story, if not tragic enough, came to a devastating end this past week, now having claimed the lives of two innocent children.

President Obama’s Birth Control Plan Backfires

This past week, President Obama issued a new plan that would require religiously affiliated institutions (such as hospitals and universities, although churches were excluded) to provide female employees with birth control or contraceptive methods as part of health care plans. This plan has been the topic of many heated debates, specifically among the Catholic population in the United States, seeing as Catholic hospitals forbid the use of contraceptive or anti-pregnancy methods such as abortions and birth control pills. The new plan would have these places paying for birth control, but after the backlash Obama received from the public, he came out with a compromise saying that the insurance agencies would have to pay for these contraceptives. This issues promises to be a major hot topic in the upcoming primary season among both Republicans and Democrats, focusing on the issue of religious freedom and government involvement in religious life.