Mary Chastain

A Saudi Arabian court in Al-Qatif sentenced a 32-year-old woman to 70 lashes and a fine of 20,000 Saudi Riyals ($5,333.33) after she insulted her husband on the WhatsApp mobile app.

Russian President Vladimir Putin finally emerged in public on Monday after a mysterious ten-day disappearance. Speculation grew as Putin canceled multiple public appearances over the weeks, though Putin indulged none of them on Monday, safe a remark that “it would be boring without gossip.”

Police in India released images of four men who allegedly gang-raped a 71-year-old nun inside her convent at the Convent of Jesus and Mary. Authorities arrested ten people possibly connected to the rape.

Deputy National Security Advisor Tony Blinken announced a plan to provide the Syrian opposition with $70 million in non-lethal aid. If Congress approves the aid, the grand total of aid to Syria in the past four years will amount to $400 million.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s absence from the public eye this month has spawned a bevy of rumors about what could prevent him from being seen in public. One rumor gaining traction on social media and in Russia arrives via Switzerland tabloid Blink, which is reporting that Putin, 62, is attending the birth of the child of his alleged girlfriend.

Admiral William Gortney, the commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, warned the Senate Armed Services Committee that Russia is a threat to America’s safety.

Russians on social media have begun circulating rumors that President Vladimir Putin is ill or dead, after Moscow postponed a meeting with Putin and the Kazakh and Belarusian presidents on March 12. Russian government spokesmen have denied all rumors, claiming Putin is doing well, but the rumors persisted after a Kazakh official also claimed Putin was ill.

A female Quran teacher is on the hot seat after she told some female students at a middle school they “deserve rape” when they attended class without a headscarf.

Russia and North Korea continue to develop increasingly close ties. The regimes announced a program this week titled the “year of friendship.” The deep links between the two countries could cause more strains in an already vulnerable relationship between Russia and the West.

Russian media went into a frenzy when former Chechen policeman Zaur Dadayev confessed to the murder of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, but now Dadayev claims authorities forced him to confess and tortured him in the process.

The Kurdish town of Kobane opened up the first school since the town was liberated from the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in January.

Russian President Vladimir Putin claims he was not involved in the deaths of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko and opposition leader Boris Nemstov. However, in the span of two days, he bestowed special honors on the prime suspect in Litvinenko’s death, Andrei Lugovoi, and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who praised Nemtsov’s murderer.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un took time on March 8 to celebrate International Women’s Day with speeches and public events, handing out makeup to a crowd of pilots as gifts for their wives.