Police and public safety

December 05, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

Important questions are being asked about police procedure in the US at a time of declining crime.

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Security forces in the capital of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Chechnya stormed two buildings, including a school, in fierce gun battles with militants early Thursday that left at least 20 dead, authorities said. The fighting, which punctured the patina of stability ensured by years of heavy-handed rule by the Kremlin-appointed leader, erupted just hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin was to give his annual state of the nation address in Moscow.

The number of people seeking US unemployment benefits slipped below 300,000 last week, after having spiked above that level in the prior week for the first time in nearly three months. Weekly applications fell 17,000 to a seasonally adjusted 297,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, rose 4,750 to 299,000.

Villagers in the central Philippines fled coastal homes and sparked panic-buying in grocery stores and gas stations as an approaching powerful storm brought back nightmares of last year's deadly onslaught from Typhoon Haiyan. Government forecasters said Typhoon Hagupit was packing sustained winds of 127 miles per hour and gusts of up to 149 mph over the Pacific, about 435 miles off the country's eastern coast. It may hit Eastern Samar province on Saturday and barrel inland along the same route where Haiyan leveled villages and left more than 7,300 dead and missing in November last year.

The number of sexual assaults reported by military service members increased 8 percent in 2014, but details released Thursday and a new anonymous survey suggest victims are becoming far more willing to come forward and seek help or file complaints than in years past, officials told The Associated Press. The officials said there were nearly 6,000 victims of reported assaults in 2014, compared with just over 5,500 last year. The Pentagon changed its method of accounting for the assaults this year, and now each victim counts for one report.

Russia's economy has been battered this year by uncertainty over the conflict in Ukraine, the falling price of oil, Western sanctions and retaliatory Russian import bans. Poor and middle-class Russians are increasingly challenging government insistence that a 40 percent drop in the value of the ruble – now worth a record low of 54 to the dollar – will affect mainly the rich. Approval ratings have so far remained high for President Vladimir Putin, who has staked the reputation on Russia's reemergence as an economic powerhouse after the turbulent 1990s. But Putin faces growing anger from middle-class families and even poorer Russians as their quality of life declines.

Sears Holdings Corp. tried to reassure investors Thursday that financial maneuvers – closing stores, selling assets and slashing inventory – mean it still has enough cash available to run its business. The Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based company, which operates Kmart and Sears, said it has raised $2.2 billion so far this year. Still, Sears' third-quarter loss widened on a 13 percent revenue decline. For the period ended Nov. 1, the company lost $548 million, or $5.15 per share. A year earlier it lost $534 million, or $5.03 per share.

“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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