Fanfare for innovators

September 10, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

No one debuts gadgets better than Apple. But no gadget is better than the people who use them.

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The death toll from floods in Pakistan and India reached 400 on Tuesday as armies in both countries scrambled to help the victims and authorities in Islamabad warned hundreds of thousands to be prepared to flee more flooding in the days ahead. The flash floods, which began on Sept. 3, have put more than 1.5 million people in peril and left thousands of families homeless in the two neighboring states. Pakistan's minister for water and power, Khwaja Mohammad Asif, warned parliament that some 700,000 people have been told to leave their homes, which could be inundated in the next four days.

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere reached a record high in 2013 as increasing levels of man-made pollution transform the planet, the United Nations weather agency said Tuesday. In an annual report, the World Meteorological Organization said that carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping gas blamed for the largest share of global warming, rose to global concentrations of 396 parts per million last year, the biggest year-to-year change in three decades. That's an increase of 2.9 ppm from the previous year – and is 42 percent higher than before the Industrial Age, when levels were about 280 parts per million. The 2012 level was itself up 2.2 ppm from a year earlier.

Iraq's new prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, has a daunting task ahead of him: With the world watching, the Shiite politician must unify a deeply divided country against Sunni militants who have seized much of its territory. First, though, he must find officials to run the defense and interior ministries who will be acceptable to Iraq's parliament, which approved his Cabinet late Monday except for those positions along with a few lesser posts.

The fourth US aid worker sickened with Ebola arrived in Atlanta on Tuesday, mirroring the carefully choreographed routine of the two Americans already successfully treated and released from Emory University Hospital's special isolation unit. The latest patient – unidentified by hospital officials, who cited privacy restrictions – arrived more than a month after missionaries Dr. Kent Brantly, 33, and Nancy Writebol, 59. All were flown in the same specially equipped medical plane from Africa to a military air base just outside Atlanta, then taken in ambulances with police escorts to the hospital.

The number of US job openings remained near the highest level in 13 years in July, and companies also stepped up hiring that month to the fastest pace in nearly seven years, two signs the job market is slowly healing. The tally of available jobs ticked down 2,000 to 4.67 million in July, the Labor Department said Tuesday. The drop was led by a decline in government job postings. Businesses actually advertised slightly more jobs. Total hiring, meanwhile, jumped 81,000 to 4.87 million, the highest level since December 2007, when the Great Recession began. That indicates companies are more likely to fill their open jobs. Still, that is below the pre-recession average of just over 5 million hires a month.

One of two British explorer ships that vanished in the Arctic nearly 170 years ago during a search for the fabled Northwest Passage has been found, Canada's prime minister announced Tuesday in a discovery that could unlock one of history's biggest mysteries and swell Canadian pride. Last seen in the 1840s while under the command of Rear Adm. Sir John Franklin, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror have long been among the most sought-after prizes in marine archaeology and the subject of songs, poems and novels. Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office said the well-preserved wreck of one of the vessels was found Sunday with the help of a remotely operated underwater vehicle. It was 11 meters below the surface near King William Island, about 1,200 miles northwest of Toronto.

“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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