Chapter 2 in Ukraine crisis

April 09, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

Moscow is warning Kiev not to risk civil war by countering the eastern uprising.

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Ukraine’s government struggled to stay in control of the the country’s eastern regions as tensions flared Tuesday in three cities. While the government managed to recapture its regional headquarters and detain dozens of pro-Russian protesters in one city, it said “radicals” were keeping 60 people hostage and threatening them in another city. Unknown “separatists” with weapons and explosives were threatening the hostages inside a security service branch in the city of Luhansk, the Ukrainian Security Service said in a statement Tuesday.

Search crews in the Indian Ocean failed to pick up more of the faint underwater sounds that may have been from the missing Malaysian jetliner’s black boxes whose batteries are at the end of their life. The signals first heard late Saturday and early Sunday had sparked hopes of a breakthrough in the search for Flight 370, but Angus Houston, the retired Australian air chief marshal leading the search far off western Australia, said listening equipment on the Ocean Shield ship has picked up no trace of the sounds since then.

Dozens of Jewish West Bank settlers clashed with Israeli security forces on Tuesday, hurling stones and bottles at the officers in one of the most serious confrontations with militant settlers in years. The violence was sparked when large numbers of Israeli police and paramilitary units arrived to the settlement of Yitzhar in the northern West Bank to carry out a court-ordered demolition of several structures in the early morning hours.

Amid regal pomp at Queen Elizabeth II’s Windsor Castle home and thunderous applause from British lawmakers, Ireland’s president began a state visit Tuesday to Britain laden with symbolism for two nations that share a troubled history. President Michael D. Higgins is making his country’s first state visit to Britain since Ireland’s hard-fought independence nearly a century ago.

A subdued Oscar Pistorius on Tuesday described dinner at home, chatting, and looking at cellphone photos with Reeva Steenkamp on the last night of her life. Then he erupted in anguished howls and heaving sobs while testifying at his murder trial in Pretoria, South Africa, about the moments when he says he realized he shot his girlfriend through a closed bathroom door. The world-famous double-amputee athlete claimed that he heard a window open in his bathroom in the early hours of Feb. 14, 2013, causing him to believe intruders had entered his house.

Israel’s foreign minister on Tuesday warned the Palestinians that a planned prisoner release will not happen as long as they pursue what he called a “provocative” bid to join UN agencies. Avigdor Lieberman also accused the Palestinians of breaking the terms of the US-brokered peace talks, saying they should “pay a price” for this. The remarks came as the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have become embroiled in their worst crisis since US Secretary of State John Kerry persuaded the two sides last summer to resume talks for nine months.

Quebec voters gave a resounding no to the prospect of holding a third referendum on independence from Canada, handing the main separatist party in the French-speaking province one of its worst electoral defeats ever. The Liberal Party, staunch supporters of Canadian unity, won Quebec’s legislative elections Monday, while the pro-independence Parti Quebecois suffered a crushing defeat that puts its dream of a sovereign Quebec on hold for years.

The death toll from the landslide that hit the Washington town of Oso rose to 34 on Monday, according to the Snohomish County medical examiner’s office, which said all but three have been identified. As the search for bodies continues in the debris, the Army Corps of Engineers is working to enable crews to pump water over a berm and drain an area where search teams are focused.

More women are staying at home full time to raise their children, according to a new Pew Research Center report released Tuesday. Factors cited to explain the increase include more immigrant mothers, who tend to stay home with children in greater numbers than US-born moms; more women unable to find work; and ambivalence about the effect of working mothers on young children.

The defense chiefs of China and the US faced off Tuesday over Beijing’s escalating territorial disputes in the region, with US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel telling his Chinese counterparts they do not have the right to unilaterally establish an air-defense zone over disputed islands, with no consultation. Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan said his country will not stir up troubles with Japan, but warned that Beijing is ready to use its military if needed to safeguard its territory.

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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