Peacekeepers and peacebuilders

November 12, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

Despite ongoing conflicts around the world, evidence remains strong that peace is displacing war. That is worth honoring.

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In a move that chills already-frosty relations between Israel and the European Union, European regulators on Wednesday announced guidelines to specially label products produced in Israeli settlements that are sold in the EU. European officials said the move – which came after months of delays – was only a clarification of its existing guidelines, but the Israeli Foreign Ministry quickly denounced the action as an “exceptional and discriminatory step” made for “political reasons.”

US prosecutors on Tuesday unveiled criminal charges against three men accused of running a sprawling computer hacking and fraud scheme that included a huge attack against JPMorgan Chase & Co and generated hundreds of millions of dollars of illegal profit. Gery Shalon, Joshua Samuel Aaron, and Ziv Orenstein, all from Israel, were charged in a 23-count indictment with alleged crimes targeting 12 companies, including nine financial services companies and media outlets including The Wall Street Journal. Prosecutors said the enterprise dated from 2007, and caused the exposure of personal information belonging to more than 100 million people.

Afghan presidential guards opened fire on Wednesday to disperse thousands of protesters marching outside the palace compound in Kabul to denounce recent abductions and killings of seven members of the Hazara Shiite minority. The case of the Hazaras, whose bodies were found Saturday in the country's southeastern province of Zabul, appears to have galvanized many in war-battered Afghanistan. Earlier in the day, about 10,000 rallied in the center of the Afghan capital, carrying coffins of the seven victims and calling for a new government that could ensure security in the country.

President Barack Obama urged the public Wednesday to keep thinking about veterans long after the annual holiday honoring them. At an observance at Arlington National Cemetery, Obama said the Department of Veterans Affairs is getting a bigger budget and making progress on entrenched problems such as veteran homelessness and a backlog of disability claims.

Facing allegations that Russia engages in extensive, state-sponsored doping, President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called on sports officials to carry out an internal investigation - but said that clean athletes shouldn't be punished for the actions of those who take banned drugs. Putin's comments at a late-night meeting in Sochi, the city that hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics, reflected concerns that Russia's track and field athletes could be hit with a blanket ban for next year's summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The European Union pressed African leaders on Wednesday to take back thousands of people who do not qualify for asylum, as overwhelmed Slovenia began building a razor-wire border fence to keep migrants at bay, raising tensions with neighboring Croatia. Sweden, struggling to manage the influx too, became the latest EU nation to announce the introduction of temporary border controls, as of Thursday.

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