The nice thing is that you don't get the usual heavily US-centric political bias, and instead just see stuff happening around the world. The obituaries are on the side as well, which is convenient because, being Wikipedia, you can easily read about them.
PastEvents is my entry point to the news nowadays. It updates daily and I can look at source material and relevant articles linked directly from the event, as well as search the past for related events to understand chronology.
I really like the date range selector. I can see this being very useful for getting a clear picture about what the world thought about certain topics before they blew up in certain directions in more recent times.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33417715
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33417336
(Yes, Wikipedia's Current events portal is great)
I posted the exact same comment in all 4 positions talking about Wikipedia - if anyone feels offended or spammed just ler me know and I'll delete this superflous cross-reference
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33417715
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33417336
Indeed, I always check to see if my name is in it.