Africa's hopeful future

August 05, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

For too long, localized problems in Africa have unfairly characterized the entire continent.

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Former White House press secretary James Brady, who became a champion of gun control after being wounded in the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981, has died, a family spokeswoman announced Monday. He was 73 years old. “We are heartbroken to share the news that our beloved Jim “Bear” Brady has passed away after a series of health issues,” the Brady family said in a statement. "His wife, Sarah, son, Scott, and daughter, Missy, are so thankful to have had the opportunity to say their farewells." The longtime public servant became a gun control advocate in the years after John Hinckley Jr., President Reagan's would-be assassin, shot him as he accompanied Reagan in front of the Washington Hilton.

Nigerian authorities on Monday confirmed a second case of Ebola in Africa's most populous country, an alarming setback as officials across the region battle to stop the spread of a disease that has killed more than 700 people. Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu also said test samples were pending for three other people who had shown symptoms of Ebola. The confirmed second case is a doctor who had helped treat Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American man who died July 25 days after arriving in Nigeria amid the unprecedented outbreak in West Africa. -AP

An Alabama law restricting doctors at abortion clinics is unconstitutional because it would unduly hamper women's ability to obtain the medical procedure, a federal judge ruled Monday. US District Judge Myron Thompson, in a 172-page opinion and an accompanying order, said state lawmakers exceeded their authority when they passed a law last year requiring doctors at abortion clinics to have hospital admitting privileges. Thompson extended an earlier order blocking enforcement of the law and said he would issue a final order after considering more written arguments from lawyers. -AP

Rescuers dug through shattered homes Monday looking for survivors of a strong earthquake in southern China's Yunnan province as the death toll rose to at least 398 people, with more than 1,800 injured. About 12,000 homes collapsed when the quake struck Sunday afternoon in impoverished Ludian county, 230 miles northeast of Yunnan's capital, Kunming, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported. -AP

About 2,500 people were stranded after thunderstorms caused mountain mudslides in Southern California, while one person was found dead in a flooded creek, authorities said. A body was found Sunday in a car that was swept into the rain-swollen water course in Mount Baldy and overturned, San Bernardino County Fire spokesman Chris Prater said. Further east, flash floods Sunday brought thick debris flows that cut off access to two towns. About 1,500 residents of Oak Glen, and another 1,000 residents of Forest Falls in the San Bernardino Mountains were unable to get out because the roads were covered with mud, rock and debris, authorities said. The stranded include 500 children and adults who had arrived at a Forest Falls campground Sunday morning. -AP

The US government is investigating General Motors Co's auto financing arm over subprime auto loans it made and securitized since 2007, the company disclosed on Monday. General Motors Financial Co Inc said it was served with a subpoena from the Department of Justice directing it to turn over documents related to underwriting criteria. The subpoena was also disclosed in a SEC filing. The subpoena, which the company said was in connection with an investigation into possible violations of the civil fraud law FIRREA, also asked for information on the representations GM made about the criteria when the loans were pooled into securities. -Reuters

A water ban that had hundreds of thousands of people in Ohio and Michigan scrambling for drinking water has been lifted, Toledo's mayor announced Monday. Mayor D. Michael Collins lifted the ban at a Monday morning news conference. "Our water is safe," he declared after test results in six neighborhoods came back. Ohio's fourth-largest city warned residents not to use city water early Saturday after tests at one treatment plant showed readings for microcystin above the standard for consumption, most likely from algae on the lake. -AP

A new Portuguese bank appeared Monday, born from the ruins of a collapsed business empire, and declared on its website that it was now "stronger and safer." Investors rattled by the eurozone's latest financial drama will, however, need more reassurances. Portugal's biggest banking scandal, which compelled authorities Sunday to put up 4.9 billion euros ($6.6 billion) to prevent the collapse of ailing Banco Espirito Santo, raised questions about how regulators were apparently hoodwinked. It will also focus minds on the European Union's year-long health check on the banking sector, whose results are due in October. -AP

“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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