Good morning. Here are some of the stories we're following today:
1. Al Shabab calls for attacks on U.S., U.K., Canadian malls
The terrorist group al Shabab released a video Saturday calling for attacks on shopping malls in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., explicitly naming The Mall of America. The Minnesota mall — which is America's largest — said in a statement that it had heightened security measures, as did other malls that were named by al Shabab. The FBI said there was no specific, credible threat but that the agency has been working with malls in recent months to mitigate attacks. Al Shabab carried out a days-long siege on the Westgate Mall in Kenya in 2013, which left at least 67 people dead and 200 injured. Read more in NEWS.
2. South braces for sleet, freezing rain and snow
Winter storm alerts stretched 2,000 miles from California to North Carolina on Monday, as the South and southern Plains dealt with a mix of snow, freezing rain and sleet. Texas was getting hit hard by the winter weather, which left more than 1,000 flights canceled at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, and in preparation for a messy day, almost 700 schools were closed their doors or had class delayed. Meanwhile, parts of southern Utah and Colorado's Rockies could get up to 2 feet of snow, and Tennessee was dealing with flooding as rising temperatures melted the snow and ice they were piled with last week. Read more in WEATHER.
3. Families beg for three schoolgirls not to cross border to Syria
Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15, were last seen by their families Tuesday morning before they took a flight from London's Gatwick Airport to Istanbul. London's Metropolitan Police fear the girls are attempting to, or already have, crossed the border into Syria to join ISIS. On Sunday, Begum's sister, Renu Begum, begged her to come home, and the day before all three families appealed for the girls to contact them. "Everyone is missing you," Abase's family said in a statement. Read more in NEWS.
4. Child soldiers, or 'cubs,' shown in latest ISIS video
A new video released by ISIS shows child fighters or "cubs" in a training camp, and one of the instructors in the video indicates that some of the 80 children featured are foreign children. NBC News has previously reported about ISIS' recruitment of boys and its staging of camps to train them as soldiers. They are used as human shields, suicide bombers and enforcers. Read more in NEWS.
5. Wesleyan students hospitalized after possible Molly overdoses
Eleven students from Wesleyan University in Connecticut were hospitalized Sunday after possibly overdosing on what police are calling a "bad batch of Molly." Two of the students are in critical condition and two are in serious condition. Molly (MDMA), also known as ecstasy, is "a synthetic, psychoactive drug that ... produces feelings of increased energy, euphoria, emotional warmth and empathy toward others, and distortions in sensory and time perception," according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Read more in NEWS.
6. And the Oscar goes to...
"Birdman" scored four statues, including best picture and best director, and "The Grand Budapest Hotel" tied it with four of its own. The four main acting awards all went to first-time winners. Read more in ENTERTAINMENT.
And now this ...
Your iPhone plus a 3-D printer equals you, hanging out in a digital environment.
