1. Japan committee approves bills

    Lawmakers held up protest placards* and surrounded a committee chairman to show their opposition as security bills* that would broaden Japan’s defense options passed a key vote on July 15.

    The dramatic demonstration reflected popular concern that the government’s legislation could draw the nation into war.

    Japan’s lower house of parliament on July 16 approved the legislation.

    The multiple legal changes would allow Japan to defend a “close ally” in combat* for the first time in the post-WWII era, even if Japanese forces are not directly under fire.

    2. Stampede kills 27 in India

    At least 27 people were killed and dozens injured on July 14 in a stampede* during a Hindu religious bathing festival on a river bank in southern India.

    The stampede occurred in Andhra Pradesh state as tens of thousands of people pushed forward to bathe in the Godavari River on the first day of the Pushkaralu festival.

    The stampede was triggered by some pilgrims who were trying to retrieve* their shoes, which had fallen off in the rush to the river bank, police said.

    3. Video shows drug lord’s daring escape

    Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman paced nervously in his cell before bending down behind his shower’s short wall and vanishing, according to newly released security footage of his jailbreak*.

    The video released on July 14 shows Guzman walking back and forth three times before crouching into the shower.

    The small hole on the shower floor that Guzman slipped into late Saturday is not seen in the close-circuit camera, which is monitored 24 hours a day. It also does not show the moment he takes off a monitoring bracelet*.

    4. NASA’s spacecraft gets Pluto close-up

    NASA’S New Horizons spacecraft got humanity’s first up-close* look at Pluto on July 15.

    Confirmation of mission success came 13 hours after the actual flyby* and, after a day of both jubilation* and tension, allowed the New Horizons team to finally celebrate in full force.

    According to NASA, the spacecraft the size of a baby grand piano swept to within 7,700 miles of Pluto at 31,000 mph. It was programed to then go past the dwarf planet* and begin studying its far side.

    5. 115 killed in Iraq market bombing

    An attack by the Islamic State group on a crowded marketplace in Iraq’s eastern Diyala province has killed 115 people, including women and children.

    The mostly Shiite victims were gathered to mark the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan*, which ended on July 17 for Iraqi Shiites and a day earlier for Iraqi Sunni Muslims.

    Police said a small truck detonated* in a crowded marketplace in the town of Khan Beni Saad on July 17, which quickly turned celebrations into a scene of horror, with body parts scattered across the market. At least 170 people were injured in the attack, police officials said.

    6. Over 400 arrested in crackdown on IS

    Saudi Arabia announced on Saturday it has broken up an Islamic State group-linked network and made more than 430 arrests.

    The IS jihadist group has claimed several deadly attacks in the Sunni-dominated kingdom.

    Authorities have “managed over the past few weeks to destroy an organization, made of a cluster of cells, which is linked to the terrorist Daesh organization,” the interior ministry announced, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

    The alleged members were engaged in a “plot managed from areas of unrest abroad, with the aim of sowing sectarian sedition* and spreading chaos,” the ministry said.(SD-Agencies)