New year, new news

December 26, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

A major shift seems to have taken place in world news. It won't be the last.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

To read this post and thousands more articles, subscribe today!

A laboratory technician at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was being monitored Wednesday for possible accidental exposure to the Ebola virus. The person was working in a secure laboratory in Atlanta and may have come into contact with a small amount of a live virus, CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds said in an emailed statement. The experimental material was on a sealed plate, but wasn't supposed to be moved into the lab in which the technician was working, Reynolds said. The worker will be monitored for 21 days and the person's name hasn't been released.

A somber Pope Francis steeped his Christmas message to the world Thursday in sadness for those with little cause for joy — abused children, refugees, hostages and others suffering from violence in the Middle East, Africa, Ukraine and elsewhere. Anguish for children who suffer maltreatment or violence, including in the recent terrorist attack on a Pakistani military school, tempered the pontiff's traditional Christmas Day speech, which he delivered from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica. A crowd, estimated by the Vatican to number more than 80,000 Romans, tourists and pilgrims, filled St. Peter's Square for the "Urbi et Orbi" message, Latin for "to the city and to the world".

The father of a Jordanian pilot captured by the Islamic State group in Syria pleaded for his son's release on Thursday, reminding militants that his son shared the same faith as the ultraconservative group. So far, there has been silence from the extremists about the fate of their captive, 1st Lt. Mu'ath al-Kaseasbeh, since gunmen from the group dragged him away following his crash Wednesday morning. Al-Kaseasbeh was carrying out air strikes against the militants when his warplane crashed near the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, the Islamic State group's de facto capital.

Caught between threats and public outcry over censorship, Sony is releasing "The Interview" online as well as in small theater chains. The film has been a hacking target, a punchline and a political lightning rod. Now, with its release online at the same time it debuts in theaters, it has a new role: a test for a new kind of movie release. Although the circumstances surrounding "The Interview" are unprecedented, experts say the release will be closely watched to see how moviegoers and theater chains react to a simultaneous debut. It's a challenge to the longstanding practice of "windowing" — opening a movie first in theaters to maximize box-office revenue before making the movie available in other stages of home video, streaming and television.

Gunmen attacked the African Union's main base in the capital, Mogadishu, on Thursday leading to an exchange of gunfire between militants and soldiers that left at least five militants dead, an official with the mission in Somalia said. Somali extremist group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack and said they were targeting a Christmas party at the base, which also houses Western embassies and U.N. offices. Some African Union soldiers may have died in the fighting, officials said, but did not give details.

The mayor of the St. Louis suburb of Berkeley urged calm after a white police officer killed a black 18-year-old who police said pointed a gun at him, reigniting tensions that have lingered since the death of Michael Brown in neighboring Ferguson. A crowd of about 300 people gathered at the gas station where Antonio Martin was shot late Tuesday, throwing rocks and bricks in a scene reminiscent of the sometimes-violent protests that followed Brown's death. A smaller crowd gathered Wednesday night. Unlike the shooting of Brown, which was not captured on video, Berkeley Mayor Theodore Hoskins said surveillance footage appeared to show Martin pulling a gun on the unidentified 34-year-old officer who questioned him and another man about a theft at a convenience store. Brown was unarmed

“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.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

Are you sure?

Forgot to add folder?

Tags Error