A new kind of 'oil weapon'

October 09, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

As oil prices dip, nations such as Russia and Iran might see the wisdom of moderation and cooperation.

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The government plans to begin taking the temperatures of travelers from West Africa arriving at five US airports as part of a stepped-up response to the Ebola epidemic. At the White House, spokesman Josh Earnest said an additional layer of screening would begin at New York's JFK International and the international airports in Newark, Washington Dulles, Chicago and Atlanta. He did not give many details, but another official said separately that the new steps would include taking temperatures and would begin Saturday at JFK.

The captain of a doomed South Korean ferry on Wednesday apologized for abandoning passengers but said he didn't know his actions would lead to the deaths of more than 300 people, news reports said. Capt. Lee Joon-seok and three other crew members from the ferry Sewol were indicted on homicide charges alleging they were negligent and failed to protect passengers when the ferry sank in April. Eleven other crew members were indicted on less serious charges. The 15 crew on trial were among the first group of people to leave when the ship began badly listing.

Telecom giant AT&T will pay a hefty $105 million settlement after the government accused the company of unlawfully billing wireless customers for tens of millions of dollars in bogus charges – a practice known as cramming. The Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday that AT&T Mobility LLC, a subsidiary of AT&T, billed millions of customers for charges from third-party companies for services people never asked to receive or were duped into subscribing to – things like horoscope texts or flirting tips. The fees were usually small – $9.99 a month – and were not easy for customers to find on their bills.

Hong Kong pro-democracy protests that brought tens of thousands on to the streets last week dwindled to a few hundred on Wednesday after activist leaders agreed to talks with the government which are all but certain to go nowhere. The student-led protests have calmed since clashes with police more than a week ago and the number of protesters calling for universal suffrage has fallen dramatically since violent scuffles broke out at the weekend between demonstrators and pro-Beijing opponents. Friday's talks will focus on "the basis for political development," the government said, referring to plans for a 2017 election of the chief executive, Hong Kong's leader, but it was unclear how discussions could reconcile two such polarized positions.

Air tankers were grounded Wednesday in California after one of the aircraft crashed into a steep canyon wall while fighting a blaze in Yosemite National Park, killing the pilot, officials said. The agency normally does such a safety stand-down after a crash, State Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Alyssa Smith said. It was not clear how long the planes would be out of service.

Lawyers for Kenya's president on Wednesday asked judges at the International Criminal Court to drop the crimes-against-humanity case against him – and acquit him – saying the prosecution has collapsed and cannot be resurrected. Prosecutors have acknowledged that they do not currently have enough evidence to prosecute Uhuru Kenyatta for his alleged role in instigating and funding violence that left more than 1,000 people dead and forced 600,000 people from their homes in the aftermath of Kenya's 2007 presidential elections.

New cars and trucks in the US got a record 24.1 miles per gallon on average last year, but the rate of improvement is slowing as buyers shift back toward trucks and SUVs. The Environmental Protection Agency says fuel economy rose one-half mile per gallon over 2012, mainly because automakers have improved gas engines and transmissions and added turbochargers to give smaller motors more power.

“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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