Democracy and power

November 03, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

The Constitution was designed to keep individuals, cliques, and parties from accumulating too much power.

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Residents of separatist-controlled regions in eastern Ukraine voted Sunday to elect legislators and executives in polls that have been staunchly denounced by the international community. Voting in the main rebel city of Donetsk proceeded in the presence of gunmen inside three polling stations visited by The Associated Press. Alexander Zakharchenko, whose election as head of the self-styled Donetsk People's Republic is a foregone conclusion, said Sunday that he hoped the vote would bring peace to a region where 4,000 people have been killed in fighting. Roman Lyagin, chief of the rebel election commission, said late on Sunday that Zakharchenko was leading the race with more than 70 percent of the vote after about half of the ballots were counted.

Citing prices that are too low, the Bank of Japan moved Friday to inject more stimulus into Japan's financial system. In explaining its surprise move Friday to inject more stimulus into the financial system, the Bank of Japan cited one main factor: Prices that are too low. Japanese central bankers worry that prices are starting to flat-line, especially amid tumbling crude oil costs and lackluster consumer demand. The BOJ warned that without action, Japan could find itself slipping back into the same "deflationary mindset" that has hampered the world's third-largest economy for much of the last two decades.

Power was restored in most of Bangladesh on Sunday, a day after the impoverished, energy-starved nation was plunged into a nationwide blackout when a transmission line from neighboring India failed, officials said. The blackout was the country's worst since a 2007 cyclone knocked out the national grid for several hours, and again exposed inefficient and dated infrastructure that has held back development in the South Asian nation. Electricity was cut across Bangladesh at around noon Saturday after the transmission line experienced a "technical glitch" that led to a cascade of failures throughout the national power grid, with power plants and substations shutting down, said Masum-Al-Beruni, managing director of the state-run Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Ltd.

A Dallas nurse who recovered from Ebola has been reunited with her dog named Bentley, who has been quarantined since she fell ill. Nina Pham and the King Charles Spaniel were reunited privately on Saturday in a vacant residence where officers once lived at a decommissioned naval air base, where he was quarantined for 21 days. Veterinarians in full personal protective gear checked on him daily.

Burkina Faso's army appointed a military colonel as transitional leader on Saturday, it said, after the West African country's president resigned from 27 years in office amid violent protests against his continued power. Lt. Col. Isaac Yacouba Zida was unanimously appointed by the army to lead Burkina Faso, the army said in a declaration. "The period of transition" and its "form and duration will be determined later" after talks with others in the country, said the declaration drafted and signed after senior officers met with the joint chief of staff Saturday. Blaise Compaore resigned Friday after protesters stormed parliament and set the building ablaze following two days of violent demonstrations against his bid to amend the constitution to stand next year for another term.

Authorities searched Saturday for the driver and passenger of an SUV who fled the scene after the vehicle struck three teenage girls who were out for a night of trick-or-treating in Southern California. Two of them were declared dead immediately, and a third died as paramedics prepared to take her to a hospital, Orange County fire Capt. Steve Concialdi said. Witnesses said the black Honda was abandoned a short distance from the Santa Ana crosswalk where the 13-year-old girls were hit. On Saturday investigators tracked the SUV to the address where it was registered, but the owner has since moved, Santa Ana police spokesman Anthony Bertagna said.

“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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