Morning Must Reads: September 12

4 minute read

Twitter for Terrorists

Militant groups like Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria have flocked to Twitter and other social networks with sophistication, raising questions for both those companies and the Obama Administration as it aims to “degrade and destroy” the threat

Pistorius Judge Issues Verdict

Judge Thokozile Masipa found South African athlete Oscar Pistorius guilty of culpable homicide in the shooting of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp

The View from Iraq

A trip through Baghdad with Secretary of State John Kerry reveals just what a large gamble President Obama is making in the fight against ISIS

U.S. Threatened Yahoo With Massive Fines Over User Data

The company faced a $250,000-a-day fine in 2008 if it did not comply with requests for user information, newly released legal documents show; Yahoo put up an unsuccessful fight, however, and later began providing user data to the NSA program PRISM

Police: Escaped School Shooter T.J. Lane Captured

Authorities in Lima, Ohio, said T.J. Lane, 19, escaped Thursday night from a prison with two other inmates but police tweeted around 2 a.m. that they had apprehended the convicted killer of three students: “We got him…… One more to go”

SNL Names Michael Che as ‘Weekend Update’ Co-Anchor

NBC announced comedian Michael Che will co-anchor Saturday Night Live‘s Weekend Update segment with Colin Jost this upcoming season, replacing anchor Cecily Strong, who will continue to appear on the show as a repertory player

Poor Countries Do Most of the World’s Peacekeeping

Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Fiji, Ethiopia, Rwanda and the Philippines provide a staggering 39% of all U.N. forces — troops likely to be less well trained, under-supplied and ill-equipped — while member-nations of the Security Council provide just 4%

San Diego Cabbies Cry Foul Over Body Odor Test

Body odor is among 52 criteria that officials at San Diego International Airport use to judge taxi drivers, a practice that cabbies say is discriminatory, as anyone who flunks the smell test is told to change before picking up another customer

Madoff Son Leaves $15 Million in Will to Fiancée, Family

Andrew Madoff, the son of convicted fraudster Bernie Madoff, left a will following his death from lymphoma earlier this month that gives his children, estranged wife and fiancée more than $15 million in properties; there is no mention of his mother

World’s First Player-Powered Stadium Lights Launch in Rio

The world’s first soccer field with floodlights powered by player movement were unveiled in Brazil this week; the technology is called Pavegen and harvests energy from players’ footsteps using tiles made from 80% recycled material that capture kinetic energy

The Biggest, Baddest Dinosaur Ever Has Been Discovered

The intriguing tale of the Spinosaurus’ discovery spans nearly a century, and the way it was reconstructed is almost equally unusual; people will get a chance to see it up close at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C., starting Sept. 12

HP Fined $58.7M for Bribery of Russian Government

Hewlett-Packard Co. pleaded guilty to felony charges that former employees bribed Russian government officials for a contract, and the company has been fined $58.7 million; the U.S. alleged HP paid $2 million to get a technology contract

We will hold an #AskTIME subscriber Q&A today, Friday, September 12 at about 1 p.m. with Michael Crowley, TIME’s chief foreign affairs correspondent, who is traveling this week in the Middle East on the plane of Secretary of State John Kerry.

Please submit your questions beforehand to Crowley about the coming war with ISIS, President Obama’s coalition building and any other topic on Twitter using the #AskTIME hashtag or in the comments of this post. We depend on smart, interesting questions from readers.

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