Kurdish moment

November 04, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

The breakdown of colonial-era borders in the Middle East could benefit a stateless people.

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US auto safety regulators fined Takata Corp. of Japan $70 million for lapses in the way it handled recalls of millions of explosion-prone air bags that are responsible for eight deaths and more than 100 injuries worldwide. Regulators also ordered Takata to stop making the air bag inflators at the heart of the problem unless the company can prove they are safe. Under a five-year agreement reached with Takata, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has the authority to add up to $130 million to the penalty if the company fails to abide by the terms. In the deal, Takata admitted that it knew the inflators were defective, but failed to recall them in a timely manner.

TransCanada Corporation, the Canadian energy company behind the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, has asked the US State Department to put its review of the project on hold, prompting activists to say the company is stepping into party politics. The company announced its action on Monday, closely following reports that President Obama will reject the $8 billion pipeline before the president's exit from office in January 2017. White House spokesman Josh Earnest recently confirmed Mr. Obama's desire to make a decision before his presidency ends.

In the first scandal to hit the Vatican since Pope Francis took over in 2013, two advisors who served on the pope’s financial reform commission have been arrested on suspicion of leaking confidential information to the authors of two new books that reportedly expose more corruption at the Holy See. Francesca Chaouqui, an Italian public relations executive called “the pope’s lobbyist” by some, reports the Washington Post, and the priest Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, were arrested over the weekend. Both had served on a former commission set up by Francis to drive reform of the Holy See's finances.

A meat company based in Nebraska is recalling 167,427 pounds of ground beef that might be tainted with E. coli bacteria. The US Department of Agriculture said Sunday that All American Meats Inc. is recalling the meat that was sold to retailers nationwide. No illnesses have been linked to the beef. The recalled meat was produced on Oct. 16, and it was sold in either 60-pound or 80-pound packages. All the meat that is being recalled had a sell-by date of Nov. 3 and establishment number 20420 in the USDA inspection stamp.

When William Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko, and Sergei Krikalev climbed aboard the International Space Station on Nov. 2, 2000, their steps marked the beginning of an ambitious quest: history’s largest, most complex international collaboration in space. They also ushered in 15 years of continuous human habitation and research – and a global scientific and engineering journey that scientists hope will soon lead humankind to Mars.

A small survey of 350 children, ages 6 months to 4 years old, found that almost all used mobile devices, with most starting before the age of 1. The survey was conducted October through November 2014 at Einstein Medical Center in a low-income community in Philadelphia. According to what parents reported in the questionnaire, three-quarters of 4 year-olds had their own mobile device, such as smartphones, iPods, and tablets. Many were given the device while parents did house chores (70 percent), to keep them calm (65 percent), and at bedtime (29 percent). Many used the devices daily, and the older ones without any help from their parents.

Religious people still represent the majority of Americans, but the gap between them and the religiously unaffiliated is widening. The perception that America is heading toward European levels of secularity arises from a shift in the number and behavior of non-religiously affiliated Americans, or “nones," according to a Pew Research Center study released Tuesday.

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