Reducing risk in Europe

December 03, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

As NATO and Russia step up military activity, they must ensure they don't misread each other.

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Islamist al Shabaab militants killed 36 non-Muslim workers at a quarry in northeast Kenya on Tuesday, beheading at least two of them in revenge for Kenyan military action against the group in neighboring Somalia. The gunmen crept up on dozens of workers sleeping in tents at about 1 a.m., a resident said, in the same area near the Somali border where they hijacked a bus and killed 28 passengers just over a week ago.

Japan's main opposition party, its image still tarnished two years after losing power, isn't even pretending to have a shot at ousting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's coalition in a Dec. 14 election. It does hope to give him some pause, though. Abe's ruling bloc is virtually assured of keeping power in a vote he has dubbed a referendum on his "Abenomics" recipe to end entrenched deflation and generate growth. But whether the Japanese leader's gamble to go to the polls after just two years pays off by bolstering his clout depends on how many seats the Democratic Party of Japan and smaller groups can win away from his Liberal Democratic Party.

After fatally shooting four people, setting off an hours-long manhunt and putting schools and residents on alert for an armed man, the owner of a small towing business was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his truck in the woods, state police said Monday. The search for Jody Lee Hunt, 39, began about 10 a.m., when state and local authorities warned people to look out for his black 2011 Ford F-150. Hunt was wanted in three separate shootings — two in the Westover area, outside Morgantown, and another in the Cheat Lake area in Monongalia County, state police said.

The FBI has confirmed it is investigating a recent hacking attack at Sony Pictures Entertainment, which caused major internal computer problems at the film studio last week. Sony's corporate email and other internal systems were knocked offline, according to reports by Variety and other trade publications. Sony workers reportedly saw message appear on their computer screens that said "Hacked by #GOP," which may be the initials of a group calling itself Guardians of Peace. Copies of some unreleased Sony films such as "Still Alice," "Annie," "Mr.Turner," and "To Write Love on Her Arms" are now being distributed on unauthorized file-sharing websites, as well as the still-in-theaters "Fury," although a direct connection to the hacking hasn't been confirmed.

It wasn't so much that the five St. Louis Rams who gave the "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" signal during pregame introductions were using sports to make a statement — it was the sort of statement they made that set them apart. American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos set the standard for athletes hoping to take a political message to the highest level of sports — raising their gloved fists while atop the medals stand at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968. Carlos applauded the gesture made Sunday by the Rams — Kenny Britt, Stedman Bailey, Tavon Austin, Chris Givens and Jared Cook — saying if an athlete "thinks something is unjust, he has the right to say something about it."

A year ago, Amazon.com workers like 34-year-old Rejinaldo Rosales hiked miles of aisles each shift to "pick" each item a customer ordered and prepare it for shipping. Now the e-commerce giant boasts that it has boosted efficiency — and given workers' legs a break — by deploying more than 15,000 wheeled robots to crisscross the floors of its biggest warehouses and deliver stacks of toys, books and other products to employees. Amazon.com Inc., which faced its single biggest day of online shopping on Monday, has invested heavily this year in upgrading and expanding its distribution network, adding new technology, opening more shipping centers and hiring 80,000 seasonal workers to meet the coming onslaught of holiday orders.

“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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