A year after Crimea

February 26, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

While Mr. Putin has been applauded at home for Russia's newfound assertiveness, the price has been high.

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Three men were arrested Wednesday on charges of plotting to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State group and wage war against the US, and federal officials said one of them spoke of attacking President Obama or planting a bomb on Coney Island. Akhror Saidakhmetov was arrested at Kennedy Airport, where he was attempting to board a flight to Istanbul, authorities said. Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev had a ticket to travel to Istanbul next month and was arrested in Brooklyn, federal prosecutors said. Abror Habibov, 30, accused of helping fund Saidakhmetov's efforts, was arrested in Florida.

Avalanches caused by a heavy winter snow killed at least 124 people in northeastern Afghanistan, an emergency official said Wednesday, as rescuers clawed through debris with their hands to save those buried beneath. The avalanches buried homes across four northeast provinces, killing those beneath, said Mohammad Aslam Syas, the deputy director of the Afghanistan Natural Disaster Management Authority. The province worst hit appeared to be Panjshir province, 60 miles northeast of the capital, Kabul, where the avalanches destroyed or damaged around 100 homes, Syas said.

A top adviser to President Obama sharply criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plans to address Congress next week, calling the move "destructive" to the ties between the US and Israel. National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Netanyahu's March 3 speech, which was arranged by Republican congressional leaders, has "injected a degree of partisanship" into a relationship that should be above politics.

Federal investigators were trying to determine why a driver abandoned his pickup truck on railroad tracks in Southern California, triggering a fiery crash with a commuter train that derailed three cars and injured dozens. "It was not stuck, it was not bottomed out on the track or something like that," National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said at a media briefing late Tuesday at the crash site in Oxnard, about 65 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

Federal officials have agreed to let Southwest Airlines Co. keep flying planes that missed an inspection of a backup rudder system if the planes are checked in the next five days. Southwest grounded 128 planes – about one-fifth of its fleet – on Tuesday after discovering the missed inspections, which involved hydraulic systems used to control the rudder if the main system fails. King said that after discovering the lapse, Southwest immediately notified federal safety regulators, took the planes out of service and began checking them.

Maine State Police say at least 17 people were injured early Wednesday after a crash involving more than 70 vehicles on Interstate 95 between Newport and Bangor. State police spokesman Steve McCausland says the pileup happened around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday in heavy snow and involved many cars, a school bus and a tractor trailer. No fatalities were immediately reported but McCausland says some of the injuries were serious.

The owner of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and Home Goods stores said Wednesday that it will boost pay for its US workers to at least $9 per hour. The announcement by TJX Cos. comes a week after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it would increase wages for its employees and is a sign that more competitors may follow suit. Low-paying retailers are having a harder time retaining workers as the job market improves.

A chemist working out of his suburban South Florida garage has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for supplying banned performance-enhancing substances to a clinic whose customers included professional baseball players and other athletes. A Miami federal judge imposed the sentence Wednesday on Paulo Berejuk, who pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy to distribute testosterone. Berejuk faces deportation to his native Brazil after prison. Investigators said Berejuk was the key drug source for Anthony Bosch, who ran the now-closed Biogenesis of America clinic that provided steroids to baseball players and other athletes. One customer was New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez, who recently apologized to fans for his actions.

“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.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

“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.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

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