Preventing tragedies like Nepal's

April 27, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

New technology may allow us to detect earthquakes like those that hit Nepal and save lives.

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The murder trial of James Holmes begins today in Colorado. The doctoral student planned and executed a deadly attack in Aurora, Colorado, in 2012, putting on a gas mask and body armor before he strapped on a rifle, shotgun, pistol and ammunition, and slipped into a midnight premiere of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises." He opened fire on the audience on July 20, 2012, killing 12 and injuring 70 more in one of America's deadliest mass shootings. After an emotionally wrenching trial lasting four months or more, the 12 final jurors, chosen from a pool of 9,000, will have to decide whether he was insane at the time.

As the Senate takes up a bill empowering Congress to review and potentially reject any Iran nuclear deal this week, it must deal with amendments determined to change the legislation in ways that could sink it. Backers of the bill are trying to keep lawmakers focused on how it would give Congress a say on a critical national security issue. Even so, some senators are proposing amendments to pressure Iran to end its support of terror groups, stop threatening to destroy Israel and recognize its right to exist, and release U.S. citizens held in Iran.

The Israeli military announced Sunday it indicted three soldiers for allegedly taking money from a building in Gaza during last year's war against Hamas militants. The military said that two soldiers were indicted on suspicion they took the equivalent of $605 and another is accused of helping them. A military police investigation was opened after the soldiers' commander reported them, it said. Investigations into more than 120 soldiers have been opened over their conduct during the fighting, the military said. The three soldiers who were indicted last week are the first to face charges so far, it said.

Coast Guard crews continued searching Sunday for five people missing in the water following a powerful storm that capsized several sailboats participating in a regatta near Mobile Bay, Alabama. Two bodies have been recovered already. One body was discovered Saturday and another was found on Sunday morning, Major Steve Thompson, director of the Alabama Department of Public Safety's Marine Patrol Division, said at a press conference in Dauphin Island. One person was rescued Saturday evening.

Iraq's army announced it was making progress in the battle against Islamic State militants in Anbar province Sunday even as it struggled to retake territory lost over the weekend and a string of bombings rocked the capital. After driving militants out of the northern city of Tikrit earlier this month, Iraqi forces have turned their attention to Anbar province, large parts of which have been under Islamic State control for more than a year. The see-saw conflict has seen both sides take and lose territory. Defense Minister Khalid al-Obeidi said on Iraqi television that the army has achieved "90 percent" of its objectives in the town of Garma, between Baghdad and the IS-held city of Fallujah. He added that an operation had been launched to retake the water control station on a canal lost over the weekend.

Northern New England's annual amphibian migration is always perilous, but a delayed start after the long winter is endangering the animals. Every spring, several species of salamanders and frogs travel to vernal pools — temporary bodies of water created by melted snow — to mate and lay eggs, and the resulting offspring need several months to develop and grow legs before the pools dry up in summer. Wildlife officials say the migration is running a week or two behind this year, cutting into that critical development time.

“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.

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