J.K. Rowling has announced she will be adapting her wizarding world novel “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” as a movie. Warner Bros. said the “Harry Potter” author will write the screenplay to the film, which is expected to be the first of a series. The book is a guidebook of sorts that is set in the same magical universe as the “Harry Potter” series, but the movie will be set 70 years earlier and begin in New York. (read full story here)

Twitter has filed for its initial public offering of stock, it announced in a tweet on its own Twitter account Tuesday. The documents related to the IPO are sealed, but the company said it “confidentially submitted an S-1 to the [Securities and Exchange Commission].” Rival social network Facebook went public in May 2012.

Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that Syria’s verbal pledge to destroy its chemical weapons is not enough. In talks with Russia, Kerry said the turnover of weapons must be complete, verifiable and timely, and there should be consequences if Syria did not comply. Russian president Vladimir Putin maintained in an opinion piece that Syrian president Bashar Assad was not behind the chemical attack that has prompted the United States’ threats of military action. (read full story here)

Three people have died in flash flooding in Colorado, evacuating about 400 students and closing the University of Colorado at Boulder because of water damage. The heavy rains that have pounded the area all week are set to continue into Friday and have cut off remote towns, washed out roads and strongly hit the cities of Boulder, Denver, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Aurora and more.

Contact Carrie Blazinga at [email protected].