Democracy can be revived in Egypt

May 07, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

Balancing freedom and order is an age-old problem.

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House Democrats opened the door Tuesday to participating in a special panel’s investigation of the deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya, even if they see it as little more than an election-year ploy by Republicans to discredit the Obama administration and motivate GOP voters. Laying out her party’s conditions, minority leader Nancy Pelosi said Republicans must conduct interviews and share information as part of their new inquest into the Obama administration’s response to the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the US diplomatic post that killed four Americans.

Three skydivers spent about four hours atop the World Trade Center’s signature skyscraper taking in sights before parachuting off it, they said Tuesday in detailing a surreptitious stunt that raised questions about security and left them facing felony charges. James Brady, Marko Markovich, and Andrew Rossig acknowledge making the Sept. 30 leap from the unfinished 1 World Trade Center, the nation’s tallest building and one of its most security-conscious. But they pleaded not guilty Tuesday to burglary, reckless endangerment, and other charges.

Monica Lewinsky says there’s no question her former boss – Bill Clinton – “took advantage” of her when he was president. But she says their affair was consensual and if there was any abuse involved, it came afterward, when Clinton’s inner circle tried to discredit her and the president’s opponents used her as a political pawn. The former White House intern writes about her life in the next issue of Vanity Fair magazine, out this month.

The US Senate began debate Tuesday on a bill that supporters of the Keystone XL oil pipeline want to use as a vehicle to authorize immediate construction of the proposed pipeline from Canada to the United States. The 79-to-20 vote to limit debate on an energy-efficiency bill lost much of its significance as the two parties continued to argue over which amendments to allow on the measure, including the pipeline project. Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D) of Nevada, denied a Republican request for an amendment on the pipeline, but said he is open to a stand-alone vote on a pipeline bill later.

Iran will target US aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf should a war between the two countries ever break out, the naval chief of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard warned Tuesday as the country completes work on a large-scale mock-up of an American carrier. The remarks by Adm. Ali Fadavi, who heads the hard-line Guard’s naval forces, were a marked contrast to moderate President Hassan Rouhani’s recent outreach policies toward the West – a reminder of the competing viewpoints that exist at the highest levels within the Islamic Republic. Iran is building a simple replica of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in a shipyard in the southern port of Bandar Abbas to be used in future military exercises, an Iranian newspaper confirmed last month.

Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday the nation’s gun culture has gotten “way out of balance” and the US needs to rein in the notion that “anybody can have a gun, anywhere, anytime.” The former secretary of State and potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidate said the idea that anyone can have a gun is not in the “best interest of the vast majority of people.” But she said that approach does not conflict with the rights of people to own firearms.

Lawmakers looking ahead to the November elections are putting renewed focus on education, tackling issues on Capitol Hill this week ranging from expanding charter schools to paying off student loan debt. And a House committee will examine how higher education and college sports might be affected by a regional National Labor Relations Board ruling allowing Northwestern University football players to unionize. Voters rank education high among issues of importance to them, and this week’s activities are likely a nod to that.

Northern Ireland’s police chief says it was right to arrest Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams over a 1972 Irish Republican Army killing even though no charges have been filed because a judge found the evidence warranted an extended interrogation. In his first comment since Adams spent five days behind bars, Chief Constable Matt Baggott said Tuesday that Adams’s Irish nationalist party was wrong to say that their leader had been persecuted for political reasons. During Adams’s detention, other Sinn Féin officials accused Protestant hard-liners in the police force of conspiring to smear Adams.

A large fire broke out Tuesday in an oil and wood storage facility in an industrial city in northern Iran, but only one person was injured, officials said. The mayor of Qazvin, Masoud Nosrati, denied earlier reports that there was an explosion at the site. He also said firefighters had contained the blaze. It’s home to many cargo depots and industrial sites.

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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