Global Week in Review: Netflix Pays Millions to Stream African War Film

Plus, Islamic State militants 'bulldozed' ancient Iraq site.

Netflix Pays Millions to Stream African War Film - Islamic State militants 'bulldozed' ancient Iraq site and more global news. — Patrice Peck Netflix recently made waves in the entertainment and technology industry when news broke of its nearly $12,000,000 acquisition of rights to the highly-anticipated film Beasts of No Nation, The Root reports. The African war drama, which stars Idris Elba, will stream on Netflix worldwide during its theater release later this year. Based on Uzodinma Iweala’s 2005 book of the same name, the film centers on the life of a young African boy who becomes a child soldier. “It could be a game changer,” Amy Kaufman, a producer on the film, said. “This has the potential to change the way people perceive how movies and art are delivered to them.”(Photo: Harper Perennial)
Islamic State Militants 'Bulldozed' Ancient Iraq Site - Iraq’s tourism and antiquities ministry accused the Islamic State of “bulldozing” the ancient city of Nimrud on Thursday, AFP reports. Last month, the jihadists destroyed artifacts in Mosul’s museum with sledgehammers and torched its library. "Their plan is to destroy Iraqi heritage, one site at a time," said Abdulamir Hamdani, an Iraqi archaeologist from Stony Brook University in New York. "Hatra of course will be next,” he added, referring to a 2,000-year-old UNESCO-listed site.(Photo: David Lees/Corbis)
South Korea Officials Investigate Attack on US Envoy - An anti-U.S. activist in South Korea reportedly slashed the nation’s U.S. ambassador on Thursday, AP reports. Mark Lippert suffered deep gashes on his face and hand, along with damaged tendons and nerves. Suspect Kim Ki-jong, a 55-year-old with a long history of anti-American and violent protests, told cops he was protesting annual U.S.-South Korean military drills that begin on Monday. He could face charges, including attempted murder, assaulting a foreign envoy, obstruction and violating a controversial law that prohibits praise or assistance for North Korea, according to police.(Photo: Yonhap, Kim Ju-sung/AP Photo)Nigerian Refugees Fleeing Boko Haram Risk Lives to Cross Lake to Chad Camps - AP recently reported on a Chadian refugee camp that has become home to more than 6,000 Nigerians who have fled Boko Haram’s violence. The UN and Chad’s government jointly run the camp, which sits on the edge of the Sahara Desert. The article also spotlighted Kellogg Abakar (not pictured), a 30-year-old woman who escaped the Jan. 3 massacre on her hometown of Baga with some of her children. Then-pregnant, Abakar had to deliver her child before boarding a boat to safety in neighboring Chad. "If I had stayed there they would have killed me too,” she told AP.(Photo: Jerome Delay/AP Photo)

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Netflix Pays Millions to Stream African War Film - Islamic State militants 'bulldozed' ancient Iraq site and more global news. — Patrice Peck Netflix recently made waves in the entertainment and technology industry when news broke of its nearly $12,000,000 acquisition of rights to the highly-anticipated film Beasts of No Nation, The Root reports. The African war drama, which stars Idris Elba, will stream on Netflix worldwide during its theater release later this year. Based on Uzodinma Iweala’s 2005 book of the same name, the film centers on the life of a young African boy who becomes a child soldier. “It could be a game changer,” Amy Kaufman, a producer on the film, said. “This has the potential to change the way people perceive how movies and art are delivered to them.”(Photo: Harper Perennial)

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