Finding the pathway to coexistence

January 06, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

The Middle East is embroiled in conflict from Lebanon to Iraq.

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The Iraqi military tried to dislodge Al Qaeda militants in Sunni-dominated Anbar province Sunday, unleashing airstrikes and besieging the regional capital in fighting that killed at least 34 people, officials said. A series of bombs in Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad, meanwhile, killed at least 20 people. The recent gains by the insurgents have been a blow to the Shiite-led government – as sectarian violence has escalated since the US withdrawal.

Police in Bangladesh fired at protesters and more than 100 polling stations were torched in Sunday’s general elections marred by violence and a boycott by the opposition, which dismissed the polls as a farce. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s refusal to heed opposition demands to step down and appoint a neutral caretaker to oversee the election led to the boycott, undermining the legitimacy of the vote. Opposition activists responded with attacks, strikes, and transportation blockades.

Syrian rebels seized a compound held by Al Qaeda-linked militants Sunday as their onetime allies used car bombs against them in some of the most serious infighting between fighters challenging the rule of President Bashar al-Assad. The rebel-on-rebel fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is the strongest pushback yet from Syrian rebels who have seen their uprising to topple Assad hijacked by Al Qaeda forces seeking to impose Islamic rule in opposition-held portions of the country.

A total of 12 illegal weapons were found at the Palestinian embassy in Prague, where a possible booby-trapped safe killed the ambassador to the Czech Republic last week, police said Sunday. The deputy Palestinian foreign minister, however, denied the weapons were illegal.

A Palestinian official says US Secretary of State John Kerry asked the Palestinian president in their weekend meetings to recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland. The official says Mahmoud Abbas opposes the idea amid concerns it will hurt the right of return of Palestinian refugees to what is now Israel, but that talks are continuing.

A US Coast Guard heavy icebreaker left Australia for Antarctica on Sunday to rescue more than 120 crew members aboard two icebreakers trapped in pack ice near the frozen continent’s eastern edge, officials said. The 399-foot cutter, the Polar Star, is responding to a
Jan. 3 request from Australia, Russia, and China to assist the Russian and Chinese ships because “there is sufficient concern that the vessels may not be able to free themselves from the ice,” the Coast Guard said.

Former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky got a three-month Swiss visa and traveled there Sunday with his wife to bring their sons back to school, his spokesman said. Khodorkovsky, who was pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin last month after spending more than a decade in prison for what many in the West considered trumped-up charges, has longstanding business ties to Switzerland.

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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