A community watches and prays

November 10, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

The St. Louis region is bracing for a forthcoming grand jury report.

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Two Americans held by North Korea were on their way home Saturday after their release was secured through a secret mission by the top U.S. intelligence official to the reclusive Communist country. Matthew Miller of Bakersfield, California, and Kenneth Bae of Lynnwood, Washington, were flying back to the West Coast with James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, according to U.S. officials. Clapper was the highest-ranking American to visit Pyongyang in more than a decade.

Iraqi officials said Sunday that an airstrike wounded the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Pentagon officials said they had no immediate information on such a strike or al-Baghdadi being wounded. An Interior Ministry intelligence official told The Associated Press that al-Baghdadi was hit during a meeting Saturday with militants in the town of Qaim in Iraq's western Anbar province. The official, citing informants within the militant group, said the strike wounded al-Baghdadi. A senior Iraqi military official also said he learned in operational meetings that al-Baghdadi had been wounded.

Years of negotiations to limit Tehran's nuclear production entered the final stretch Sunday as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and European Union senior adviser Catherine Ashton in Oman's capital. With no immediate agreement in sight, officials said the discussions were expected to continue into Monday. The stakes are high as a Nov. 24 deadline approaches. A deal could quell Mideast fears about Iran's ability to build a nuclear bomb and help revive the Islamic Republic's economy.

A team of animated Marvel characters rocketed past a group of wormhole-bound astronauts at the weekend box office. Disney's animated adventure "Big Hero 6," featuring the inflatable robot Baymax and his prodigy pal Hiro from the Marvel comic book, debuted in first place with $56.2 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. Paramount's space saga "Interstellar," starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway as astronauts, took off in second place with $50 million, estimates said.

Reporters saw more than 80 unmarked military vehicles on the move Saturday in rebel-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine, indicating that intensified hostilities may lie ahead. Three separate columns were seen — one near the main separatist stronghold of Donetsk and two outside the town of Snizhne, 80 kilometers (50 miles) further east. The vehicles were mainly transportation trucks, some of them carrying small- and large-caliber artillery systems, and at least one armored personnel carrier. Several of the trucks were seen to be carrying troops.

Westminster, Mass. may become the first town in the United States to completely ban tobacco. This sleepy central Massachusetts town of 7,700 has become an improbable battleground in America's tobacco wars. On Wednesday, the Board of Health will hear public comment on a proposed regulation that could make Westminster the first municipality in the United States to ban sales of all tobacco products within town lines. "To my knowledge, it would be the first in the nation to enact a total ban," said Thomas Carr, director of national policy at the American Lung Association. "We commend the town for doing it."

“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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