Affirming the gains of freedom

June 03, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

If there is a bellwether in Europe, it’s Poland.

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Hundreds of pro-Russia insurgents attacked a border guard base in eastern Ukraine on Monday, with some firing rocket-propelled grenades from the roof of a nearby residential building. At least five rebels were killed when the guards returned fire, a spokesman for the border guard service said.

A Pentagon investigation concluded in 2010 that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl walked away from his unit, and after an initial flurry of searching the military decided not to exert extraordinary efforts to rescue him, according to a former senior defense official who was involved in the matter. Instead, the US government pursued negotiations to get him back over the following five years of his captivity – a track that led to his release over the weekend. Bergdahl was being checked and treated Monday at a US military hospital in Germany as questions mounted at home over the swap that resulted in his freedom in exchange for the release of five detainees who were sent to Qatar from the US prison at Guantánamo, Cuba.

A court in Egypt has sentenced 28 supporters of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Morsi to life sentences in absentia, and 15 others to three years in prison, over violence during demonstrations. The Fayoum Criminal Court issued its verdict Monday in the first trial in the oasis governorate south of Cairo over the demonstrations following the military’s ouster of Morsi in July. Those charged were convicted of blocking roads and sabotage.

French President François Hollande certainly won’t go hungry this Thursday night. He’s dining twice – first with President Obama, then with Russian President Vladimir Putin. It will be a digestive and logistical challenge, but the safest diplomatic solution for the French president to keep apart two leaders who are at odds. Hollande is hosting at least 18 heads of state this week to mark the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy.

A reporter who has been ordered to divulge the identity of the source of classified information lost his bid Monday to get the Supreme Court to clarify whether journalists have a right to protect their confidential sources. Without comment, the justices rejected an appeal from New York Times reporter James Risen to revisit the court’s 42-year-old ruling that has raised questions about journalists’ ability to shield from public view the names of people who tell them government secrets.

Nigerian police said Monday they have banned protests in the capital demanding that the government rescue more than 200 girls still held captive by Boko Haram militants. The protests have “degenerated” and are “now posing a serious security threat,” Abuja police commissioner Joseph Mbu said in a statement.

The US Treasury Department says 77,000 foreign banks have agreed to share information about US account holders as part of a crackdown on offshore tax evasion. The list released Monday includes 515 Russian financial institutions.

Compiled from wire service reports

“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.

Compiled from wire service reports

“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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