Desperate journeys

May 27, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

Human traffickers in Southeast Asia are profiting from the persecution of Rohingyas in Myanmar.

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Soaring temperatures have gripped parts of southern and northern India in an extreme heat wave which has killed more than 500 people and looks set to continue this week, officials said. The hottest place in India was Allahabad, a city in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, which saw mercury rise to 117.8 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday, while the capital Delhi recorded a high of 110.3F.

Democratic Arizona Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick said Tuesday she will challenge Republican John McCain for his Senate seat next year, launching an uphill bid to unseat the five-term senator in the GOP-leaning state. Kirkpatrick is serving her third House term in a district she has won narrowly. She was already being targeted by Republicans for what was expected to be her House re-election bid in 2016.

An international gathering about the plight of Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya Muslims boasts three Nobel Peace Prize laureates among those calling on the world to wake up to the unfolding tragedy. But fellow winner and pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi wasn't invited. In a predominantly Buddhist country of 50 million people, where there is much animosity for the 1.3 million Rohingya Muslims, Suu Kyi has opted to remain silent, even as the world watched in horror while more than 3,000 hungry, dehydrated Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants washed ashore in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand this month, according to the UN refugee agency.

An Iranian security court on Tuesday held the first hearing in the closed trial of an Iranian-American reporter for The Washington Post who has been detained for more than 10 months, the official IRNA news agency reported. Correspondent Jason Rezaian, 39, is being tried in a Revolutionary Court on allegations of "espionage for the hostile government of the United States" and propaganda against the Islamic Republic, it reported.

Iraq on Tuesday announced the launch of a major military operation to drive the Islamic State group from the western Anbar province and retake the Sunni heartland where the extremist group captured the provincial capital, Ramadi, earlier this month. The operation is backed by Shiite militias and Sunni pro-government fighters, the Iraqi state TV reported, without providing further details. There was no indication of any immediate movements on the ground following the announcement.

Charter Communications is buying Time Warner Cable for $55.33 billion, creating one of the largest TV and Internet providers in the US. The deal comes a month after Comcast, the country's largest cable provider and owner of NBCUniversal, walked away from a $45.2 billion bid for Time Warner Cable after intense pressure from regulators. Time Warner Cable had chosen the Comcast deal and rejected a $38 billion hostile offer from Charter in early 2014.

“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.

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