Jamaica's Usain Bolt won the Olympic gold medal in the men's 100 meters Sunday, MPR reported. He ran the 100 meters in 9.63 seconds, beating his previous Olympic record speed by .06 seconds and missing the world record speed by .05 seconds.
Another runner from Jamaica, Yohan Blake, won the silver medal in the race, the New York Times reported. Justin Gatlin of the U.S. won the bronze medal.
The Red Cross now considers widespread conflict in Syria to be a civil war, the Star Tribune reported.
The conflict had been contained in specific parts of the country. Recently the United Nations investigated a large attack between the Syrian government and its opposition in the city of Hama, the New York Times reported. Hama is one of the areas that previously contained the conflict, according to the Star Tribune.
An organization in Israel concluded a pageant for Holocaust survivors Thursday where 14 women told their survival stories to an audience of around 500, the New York Times reported.
The competition has been thought of as exploitation by a group of 54 Holocaust survivors' organizations. Others found it "trivializing" and controversial, the New York Times reported.
Around 300 women registered to be a part of the competition. The winner, Hava Hershkovitz, said so many women participated because they wanted "to show that we're still here," the Star Tribune reported
Unarmed monitors for the United Nations have been "locked down" in Syrian cities as violence escalates.
The U.N. said the work was suspended to protect the monitors, who are caught in the middle of a crossfire between government and rebel forces in Syria, the Star Tribune reports.
Head of the mission, Gen. Robert Mood, said the situation would be reviewed daily until conditions improve enough to end the suspension, NPR reports.
The monitors were part of a peace plan that has yet to be upheld fulling in the fighting country.
