How compassion changed history

November 07, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

A quarter century ago, an East German officer made a crucial choice that hastened the collapse of communism.

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US airstrikes hit the compound of a powerful hard-line rebel group that is not affiliated to the Islamic State extremist organization early Thursday, activists said. The Syrian rebels have complained that the aerial campaign against the extremist group is indirectly aiding President Bashar Assad's forces, and have been infuriated by the US willingness to attack other Islamic militant groups that the rebels view as allies while refraining from targeting the government. At least one strike hit a compound belonging to Ahrar al-Sham in the town of Babsalqa in the northwestern province of Idlib, according to local activist Ahmad Kaddour and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Ahrar al-Sham is a rebel group that follows an extremely conservative interpretation of Islam.

Facebook is stepping up its efforts to fight Ebola by adding a button designed to make it easier for its users to donate to charities battling the disease. The social media company is trying to assist where the disease has killed nearly 5,000. The programs come on the heels of a $25 million donation last month by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention toward the Ebola response. Facebook Inc. says that, over the coming week, its users will see an option to donate to three nonprofits fighting Ebola. The groups are the International Medical Corps, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and Save the Children. Facebook says it chose charities that work directly on the ground and are able to accept money globally.

A 33-year-old man accused of murder in the slaying of his girlfriend in Washington state, posting photos of her body online, and writing that he wanted authorities to kill him has peacefully surrendered in Oregon. Clackamas County sheriff's Sgt. Nate Thompson said late Wednesday night that David Kalac was arrested at a transit center in Wilsonville, about 20 miles south of Portland. Kalac has been charged with second-degree murder in the slaying of Amber Lynn Coplin, 30, in Port Orchard, Washington.

Government-controlled mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac posted profits for the July-September period as the US housing market continued to recover. Gains in recent years have enabled them to fully repay their government aid after being rescued during the financial crisis in 2008. Fannie Mae reported Thursday that it earned $3.9 billion in the third quarter. Washington-based Fannie will pay a dividend of $4 billion to the US Treasury next month. With its previous payments totaling $134.5 billion, Fannie has more than fully repaid the $116 billion it received from taxpayers. Freddie Mac posted net income of $2.1 billion for the latest quarter. Freddie, based in McLean, Virginia, will pay a $2.8 billion dividend to the government. Freddie will have paid $91 billion in dividends, exceeding its government bailout of $71.3 billion.

Harvard University is under fire from faculty and students for secretly photographing about 2,000 undergraduates in 10 lecture halls last spring as part of a study on classroom attendance. The experiment was disclosed at a faculty meeting Tuesday and first reported in The Harvard Crimson student newspaper. Brett Biebelberg, a junior involved in student government, called the study's secretive nature "strikingly hypocritical," given that the university recently adopted an honor code for the first time. Students and teachers were not notified because researchers did not want to introduce potential bias into the study, Harvard administrators said. The cameras took pictures every minute and a computer program used them to count empty and occupied seats.

Scientists have discovered a new species of deep-sea coral in underwater canyons off the Northern California coast, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced. A NOAA research team using small submersibles found the coral in September near national marine sanctuaries off the coast of Sonoma County, the agency said Wednesday. The coral from the genus Leptogorgia was discovered about 600 feet deep in the first intensive exploration of underwater canyons near the Gulf of Farallones and Cordell Bank national marine sanctuaries.

“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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