A conflict over history

November 24, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

Why Russia and Ukraine duel over what happened in 1930s and '40s.

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Iraqi forces battling the Islamic State group focused their offensive Sunday on the city of Ramadi, backed by Sunni tribal fighters that the U.S. plans to arm. Authorities in the city implemented a 24-hour curfew as Iraqi armed forces and tribesmen fought to regain Ramadi's eastern Sijariya neighborhood, which the extremist group said it captured Friday. The U.S. and Iraqi governments have been working to woo Sunni tribesmen to support the fight, proposing the establishment of a national guard program that will include arming and paying loyal tribesmen.

Former D.C. mayor Marion Berry died Sunday at the age of 78. A controversial and tireless advocate for the nation's capital who created jobs for generations of black families, Barry was the ultimate District of Columbia politician, though his arrest for drug use in the midst of a crack cocaine epidemic often overshadows his accomplishments. The former four-term mayor will long be remembered for one night in 1990 when he was caught on video lighting a crack pipe in an FBI sting operation. In an instant, the then-mayor of the capital city was exposed as a drug user himself. Despite serving a term in prison, he was elected again in 1994 after his release.

The damage from an overnight earthquake in a mountainous area of central Japan that hosted the 1998 winter Olympics proved more extensive than initially thought. A daylight assessment Sunday found at least 50 homes destroyed in two villages, and 41 people injured across the region, including seven seriously, mostly with broken bones, officials said. The magnitude-6.7 earthquake struck shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday west of Nagano city at a depth of 5 kilometers (3 miles), the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The grand jury in the Michael Brown shooting case is continuing to deliberate, though a decision is expected any day. Despite preparations for a weekend decision, the grand jurors apparently needed more time to deliberate, and the uncertainty just seemed to feed the anxiety and speculation Sunday in a city already on edge. More than 3½ months have passed since police Officer Darren Wilson, who is white, killed unarmed black 18-year-old Michael Brown after some sort of confrontation in the middle of a street in the St. Louis suburb.

A suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest in a crowd of spectators at a volleyball match in Afghanistan on Sunday, killing 45 people, as foreign troops continued to withdraw from the country after more than a decade of fighting. Mukhles Afghan, spokesman for the governor of Paktika province, said at least 50 more were wounded in the attack in Yahya Khel district, where residents had gathered to watch a tournament final. He said most of the casualties were civilians. No one immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack.

The Israeli Cabinet on Sunday approved a bill to legally define the country as the nation-state of the Jewish people, in a move likely to further inflame tensions with Israel's Arab citizens. The decision, which set off a stormy debate that could bring down Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's brittle coalition government, followed weeks of deadly Arab-Jewish violence and was denounced by critics as damaging to the country's democratic character and poorly timed at such a combustible moment. It now heads toward a full parliamentary vote on Wednesday.

“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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