10 million reasons to care about Syria

December 02, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

The multi-sided war is complex, but the greatest concern should be the millions of families caught up in it.

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Islamic State militants attacked a checkpoint along the volatile Iraqi-Syria border on Monday, killing at least 15 Iraqi border policemen, officials said. The attack took place in the town of al-Walid on Iraq's side of the border, according to a senior army official. At least five officers were also wounded in the assault. A government official in Iraq's Anbar provincial council confirmed the report but further details were not immediately available.

Amid spiraling tensions with the West, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Monday that Moscow is spiking a multibillion dollar gas pipeline project for southern Europe and will focus instead on boosting its energy ties with Turkey. Moscow will increase gas supplies to Turkey across the existing pipeline and later could build a new link and possibly work with Turkey on creating a gas hub on the border with Greece, Putin said. He argued that the EU's opposition to the South Stream pipeline – which would have run under the Black Sea to Bulgaria and further on to southern Europe – meant Russia had no other choice but to scrap it.

Suspected Islamic extremists struck two state capitals in northeastern Nigeria on Monday, with twin blasts at a crowded market and the destruction of a police base. Rescue workers were trying to evacuate the dead and wounded from the Maiduguri market, the same one where two female suicide bombers killed at least 70 people a week ago, said trader Bala Dauda. Monday's blasts also were caused by "two girls," said witness Mallam Muhammadu. In Damaturu, explosions and gunfire erupted before dawn Monday causing some residents to flee into the bush and others to cower in their homes. Damaturu, the provincial capital of Yobe state, is 85 miles west of Maiduguri, which is the capital of Borno state.

With this year on track to become the warmest on record, more than 190 nations began talks Monday on new limits for the greenhouse gases that are causing billions of dollars in damage and making life harder to sustain around the world. New targets for limiting gas emissions blamed on fossil fuels were announced ahead of this conference by the US, the European Union and China, the first Asian nation to make such a pledge. This has injected optimism into negotiations that are supposed to climax in Paris next year with the adoption of a long-awaited climate pact. But India, Russia, Japan and Australia have yet to commit to new limits.

A Palestinian woman stabbed and slightly wounded an Israeli civilian before being shot and wounded by Israeli security forces in the West Bank on Monday, the military said. The Israeli military said the attacker was taken for medical treatment, and Israeli media reports said she was seriously wounded. The Israeli was treated at the scene. Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have soared in recent months, mostly because of Palestinian fears that Israel is trying to change the status quo at a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem by allowing Jews to pray there.

For the first time in nearly 100 years, Girl Scouts of the USA will allow its young go-getters to sell cookies using a mobile app or personalized websites. But only if their scout councils and guardians say OK. "Girls have been telling us that they want to go into this space," said Sarah Angel-Johnson, chief digital cookie executive for the organization covering about 2 million girls. "Online is where entrepreneurship is going." And the best news for these digital natives: They can have cookies shipped directly to your doorstep.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

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