Nicole John, the 17 year-old daughter of the US ambassador to Thailand, fell 22 stories to her death at a Manhattan house party last week. Her death's been ruled an accident. But the hand-wringing over her lifestyle's only begun.

A board member of Germany's central bank told the German paper Welt am Sontag that "all Jews share a certain gene." As you might imagine, everyone is feeling just great about a powerful German just sharing his opinion about Jews.

[The Fonte Nova stadium is imploded in Salvador, Brazil on Sunday. A new stadium for the 2014 World Cup will be built in the same location. But better! Promise. Pic via AP.]

[Barack Obama holds an umbrella for Michelle during their trip to New Orleans to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. To be fair, that is a pretty huge umbrella. Photo via AP]

A Las Vegas woman who went missing in April, Billie Jean James, was found dead in her home this week by her husband, who spotted her feet sticking out from a pile of junk. Welcome to Extreme Hoarders: Death Trap.

Julian Assange's attempt to spin his creepy romancing of two Swedish women into a Pentagon smear campaign was a huge mistake. Now Assange's role as the head of the secret-sharing website WikiLeaks is in doubt. It's about time.

Did you know airplanes have automated messages that notify passengers when they are falling into the sea? A British Airways flight recently told passengers, "We're about to crash," prompting widespread panic. Then the flight attendants were like, "Psyche!"

This weekend marks the fifth anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the Gulf Coast and left hundreds of dead bodies floating in the wrecked streets of New Orleans. To celebrate, Katrina hero Michael Brown is "speaking out."

[The Taliban hinted on Thursday that they might attack foreigners doing aid work in Pakistan. Here, Pakistani villagers stand on the remains of an embankment washed away by heavy flooding in Thatta near Hyderabad. Pic via AP.]

[A bird flies past a cloud of smoke coming from a fire at a paint factory in Jandira, Brazil. No one was hurt, except for my soul, which shed a single tear at this image. Pic via AP.]

Michael Enright, the drunk filmmaker accused of stabbing a cabdriver in Manhattan after asking "Are you Muslim?", worked well with both American soldiers and Muslims while in Afghanistan. So what happened? Was it his "intense experience" in the war-torn country?

How fun was former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's corruption trial, which ended with the jury deadlocked on 23 of 24 charges? So fun they're going to try again in January—but without his brother Robert, whose charges were dropped.

Huguette Clark is an heiress with a $500 million fortune and a 42-room apartment on Fifth Ave. Too bad she hasn't lived there in 20 years. Are her lawyer and accountant trying to take her for all she's worth?

Billionaire Clinton pal Ron Burkle is trying to get his model-caressing paws on Barnes and Noble, the bookstore where you love to sit right on the carpet and read, which is gross. Anyhow. B&N says Burkle will "destroy"(!) it.

[A Pakistani villager sleeps on an embankment surrounding by floodwater in Sarjani near Thatta, in southern Pakistan. Some 800,000 people are stranded, and waters are expected to rise even further this week. Pic via AP]

Hey, America: Time to get excited! Why? Because a year and a half from now you could be eating the very first genetically-modified animal approved for public consumption: The AquAdvantage® salmon! Assuming it passes the approval process, which began Wednesday.

Vladimir Putin, the world's favorite He-man/Russian President shot a gray whale with a crossbow while riding in a rubber raft earlier today. This is getting ridiculous. How will he ever outdo himself now?

Barbara Walters is planning to launch a panel-style talker like The View but geared toward men. Ideal hosts include Bryant Gumbel, comedian Alec Mapa, BET's Jacque Reid, former Fox News host E.D. Hill, and one other. Maybe Obama is interested?

A Polish man was shot in the head five years ago. Only, he was really drunk, and didn't realize until doctors X-rayed him. This year. Think back to all the times you've been drunk: Have you maybe been shot before?

[Bono, frontman for the rock band U2, and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev walk near the Black Sea in the resort town of Sochi after drowning Adam Clayton. Pic via AP.]