The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Katie Halper:

Necklacing Returns to South Africa, Tutu Calls for Peace, and History Repeats Itself

Ted Kennedy’s Malignant Brain Tumor: Sad News, But the Work Goes On

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Nicole Hughes:

Bush’s Food Aid Package Promotes Use of GMOs

Gas Prices Exceed Those of 1973 Oil Crisis

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Andy Kondrat:

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Could Cost US 38 Trillion Annually

USDA Budget Squeeze Forces Agency to Stop Tracking Pesticide Use

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Jon Popham:

Brooklyn Bridge Birthday Celebration!

Smokey the Bear: Environmental Icon

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Giulia Rozzi:

Suicide Tourism in New York City

Kristin Davis and Her Solar Powered Home

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Gina Telaroli:

Media That Matters Film Festival Premieres on May 28th

Top 10 Ways Indiana Jones Saved the World: Part #1

Necklacing– in which a rubber tire, filled with kerosene, is forced around a victim’s chest and arms and set on fire– was a common form punishment imposed by “people’s courts” Apartheid-era South Africa. The practice was first captured by the late photographer Kevin Carter. And Archbishop and peace activist Desmond Tutu once intervened to stop a man who was about to be necklaced. Tragically, nearly 20 years later, Tutu must, once again, call on South Africans to stop this brutal practice. Before the victims were suspected collaborators (with the apartheid regime) and criminals. Now refugees from Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique, who flee violence and poverty in their own countries are the victims. They are being blamed for taking jobs and driving up crime rates. 42 people have been killed, 28,000 people have been displaced by the violence and more than 400 have been arrested.

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We want to tip our hat, or skull cap, to South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu who has fought against apartheid and for social justice. Last night the Archbishop attended A Celebration of Courage, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission’s (IGLHRC’s) annual gala awards ceremony at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. He was presented with an OUTSPOKEN Award for “his leadership as a global ally of the LGBTI community whose outspokenness has contributed substantially to advancing the rights and understanding of LGBTI* people everywhere.”The Nobel Prize winning Archbishop is no stranger to awards or to giving speeches. But this was Tutu’s “first time” addressing people at an LGBTI event. Tutu “condemn[ed] the persecution of LGBTI people, apologize[d] on behalf of his Church for ostracizing gay people,” and explained he could not remain silent “when people were frequently hounded…vilified, molested and even killed as targets of homophobia…for something they did not choose-their sexual orientation.”

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