World: Hundreds of migrants are missing and feared dead in the Mediterranean north of Libya after their 66-foot boat capsized. It was loaded with 700 people and only 28 survivors have been confirmed.

This is the biggest disaster so far as North African migrants try to reach Europe in overloaded and unseaworthy boats. Just last week 400 people died in a similar accident. Exact numbers are often hard to verify because the bodies frequently sink before they are found.

The migrants are aware of the danger, but fleeing regional wars and harsh dictatorships, they often feel they have no choice but to risk their lives to escape.

Religious War: The Islamic State has released new video shot in eastern and southern Libya that appears to show the execution of Ethiopian Christians. The scenes take place in the desert and along a beach that was left bloodied as a line of men was beheaded near the surf.

A man with an American accent pointed a pistol toward the camera and said, “You will not have safety even in your dreams, until you accept Islam. Our battle is a battle between faith and blasphemy, between truth and falsehood.”

The significance is that this seems to have happened in areas not previously thought to be under ISIS control. The Islamic state is spreading through the southern Mediterranean.

Nation: Walmart suddenly closed five stores in four states last week, laying off thousands of workers, and the given reason seems murky.  The chain claims that all the stores have had severe plumbing problems and will be closed for six months of repairs. But reporters have been unable to find the work permits that would be required.

The cities are: Brandon, Florida; Pico Rivera, California; Livingston, Texas; Midland, Texas; and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Some Walmart workers say those stores were targeted because they were centers of employee unrest about wages.

>An outbreak of HIV infection in Indiana’s rural Scott County near the Kentucky border has reached 130 cases, 24 of them identified in the past week. Health authorities blame the epidemic on needle drug users sharing syringes.

Indiana does not allow needles exchanges, but. Gov. Mike Pence has ordered a temporary exception as more than 5,000 clean syringes have been distributed.

20 Years: Hundreds of mourners gathered today to mark the 20^th anniversary of the Oklahoma City terrorist bombing that killed 168 people. Former President Bill Clinton was there. Army veteran Timothy McVeigh, who placed the truck bomb in front of the Alfred Murrah Federal Building, was executed. His accomplice Terry Nichols is serving life in prison.

The Obit Page: A. Alfred Taubman, the shopping center magnate and philanthropist who spent a year in jail for price fixing when he was 77, has died at age 91. The son of German-Jewish immigrants, Taubman entered real estate and shopping development after serving in World War II. He got the idea to put the parking lot in front and the stores at the back of the lot, and the American shopping center was born. At his death his company owned 19 regional shopping centers.

He owned the Sotheby’s auction house and went to prison for a commission-fixing scheme with his rival Christie’s.

Taubman, who was Jewish, stopped using his first name during the war. It was Adolph.

Dept. of No Further Comment: Tweeting his opinion on the Republican field of presidential candidates, writer Stephen King said, “Cruz, Paul and Rubio, all running for President. Hey, I thought I was supposed to write the horror stories.”

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