Angela Merkel's moment

February 12, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

The German chancellor is at the center of decisions that will shape the Continent for the foreseeable future.

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The captain of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship was convicted Wednesday of multiple charges of manslaughter and sentenced to 16 years in jail, Italian court officials said. Francesco Schettino was convicted of manslaughter in the deaths of 32 passengers and crew in the Jan. 13, 2012 capsizing as well as of causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship while many of the 4,200 passengers and crew were still on the ship. The verdict and sentencing brought an end to a trial that has been running since July 2013. Prosecutors had insisted Schettino was a "reckless idiot" and asked the court to sentence him to 26 years and three months in prison.

A radical Islamic group that recruited youngsters to fight in Syria was a terrorist organization that wanted to violently overthrow democracy and replace it with strict sharia law, a Belgian court ruled Wednesday in a case that played out against a backdrop of soaring terror fears. The court in Antwerp sentenced the Sharia4Belgium group's "charismatic leader," Fouad Belkacem, to 12 years' imprisonment and gave dozens of other members lower sentences. The verdicts came in one of Belgium's biggest ever terror trials — 46 Muslims were originally indicted, though only a handful appeared in court. Others are believed to be fighting with Sunni armed groups in Syria or to have died in its civil war.

Iran marked the anniversary of its 1979 Islamic Revolution on Wednesday with massive rallies, with many chanting against the US and Israel as the country tries to reach a permanent deal with world powers over its contested nuclear program. State television aired footage of commemorations in Tehran and elsewhere across the country. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, addressing a crowd of thousands in Tehran, pledged to "spare no effort" to protect the Islamic Republic's rights as it negotiates.

The question of who can replace Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show" seems roughly akin to asking his fans what might serve for the sun. His passion, wit and boldness make for a magical combination that will be difficult to re-create when Stewart steps away as host sometime later this year. "The X-factor here is Stewart's charisma. It's significant," said Sophia McClennen, a Penn State professor and author of "Is Satire Saving our Nation?: Mockery and American Politics." "The "Daily Show" boot camp has graduated a number of impressive talents who might prove to be worthy of the host chair, McClennen said, counting John Oliver first among a group including Aasif Mandvi, Samantha Bee and Jason Jones.

Fighting raged in eastern Ukraine Wednesday, killing five people at a bus station in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, as Western leaders confirmed that they would take part in peace talks later in the day. Donetsk city officials said in a statement that three people had been killed in shelling overnight. Officials in Kiev said Wednesday that 19 troops had been killed and 78 wounded in a day of fighting in Debaltseve, a hotly contested transport hub in the region.

“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.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

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