All global is local

October 16, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

Afghanistan is a prime example of why the US and other nations can never disengage with world problems.

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Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert intends to plead guilty in a multimillion-dollar hush-money case linked to allegations of sexual misconduct from decades ago, a defense attorney told a federal judge Thursday. A written plea agreement should be completed by Monday, attorney John Gallo said during a brief status hearing. At the attorney's request, a federal judge set Oct. 28 as the date for the 73-year-old Illinois Republican to change his plea.

A quarter century after one of the worst terror attacks in British history, prosecutors say they have identified two new Libyan suspects in the bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, and want US and Scottish investigators to interview them in Tripoli. Scottish and American officials had agreed "that there is a proper basis in law in Scotland and the United States to entitle Scottish and US investigators to treat two Libyans as suspects in the continuing investigation into the bombing" of Pan Am flight 103. However, given Libya's instability, interviewing the suspects may be a remote prospect.

An overnight sit-in at Baltimore City Hall ended with 16 activists, including three juveniles, being led away in plastic handcuffs. Activists convened at deliberations to make the city's interim police commissioner permanent, which they oppose, and demanded better policing practices. Baltimore police say the protesters have been charged with trespassing. The majority of those arrested were from Baltimore, but some had traveled from nearby communities and suburbs of Washington, D.C.

Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee Olympic runner who was convicted of manslaughter in the 2013 death of his girlfriend can leave prison and move to house arrest next week, South Africa's Department of Corrections said Thursday. A parole board at the prison where Pistorius has served nearly a year of his five-year sentence for manslaughter made the decision. It came after an initial ruling to release the athlete in August was canceled at the last minute after intervention by the justice minister.

Thanks to El Niño, this winter in the United States is expected to be warmer and wetter than most, the National Weather Service said Thursday. This brings good news for drought-ridden regions like California and the Southwest. There is a 70 percent chance for more much-needed rain in the South. Experts note, however, that one season won’t immediately solve all their water problems. Those in Boston and New York still scarred from last year's excessive snowfall will be pleased to hear that there is a 60 percent chance for warmer weather across the northern US, while Northern Alaska and Hawaii will face drier conditions, according to Live Science.

A computer system operated by the US Department of Homeland Security that checks airline passengers coming through customs against terrorism watch lists went down at five airports Wednesday night, federal officials said. The disruption lasted about 90 minutes and there have been no indications the glitch was malicious in nature, US Customs and Border Protection said in a statement. Customs and Border Protection did not say which US airports experienced disruptions, but NBC News reported delays in security screenings at New York City's John F. Kennedy Airport, with similar problems reported in Boston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Baltimore.

Scientists have unearthed an astonishingly well-preserved fossil in Spain that reveals the earliest dates in mammalian evolutionary history, according to a new report. The species, a rat-sized creature called Spinolestes xenarthrosus, suggests that some mammalian characteristics were established about 125 million years ago – more than 60 million years earlier than previously thought.

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