News on the Go: Feb. 18, 2014

Taylor Williams

Penn State University named Eric Barron, a former professor and dean and president of Florida State University, the new president of Pennsylvania’s largest university on Monday. The school, known for the Jerry Sandusky scandal, and its athletic department, expects Barron to bring the experience of managing a major state university with him.

In today’s society, weekend — long computer programming events known as hackathons have reached an all — time record with 1,500 events planned around the world. Hacking, which used to be known as a type of crime, now consists of techies getting together to build a creation while losing sleep at the same time. Hackathons are becoming larger not only in the literal sense but also in the sense of what they are focusing on.

Ethiopian Airlines jetliner, flying to Italy from Addis Ababa, went into a dive and released oxygen masks from the ceiling. The plane’s co-pilot locked the pilot from the cockpit, took over the plane full of terrified passengers, and headed toward Geneva, Switzerland, before asking for political asylum. Authorities say the co-pilot is more likely to be in a prison cell.

This week, Pope Francis will meet with his cardinals to deal with the difficult issues the church is facing, including the rejection of some Catholics on the church’s teaching on sex, contraception, gays and divorce.

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