Small planet, big message

July 17, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

Initial findings from NASA's mission to Pluto could upend our thinking about life in the universe.

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A gunman unleashed a barrage of gunfire at two military facilities a few miles apart in Chattanooga on Thursday, killing at least four Marines, officials said. The gunman was also killed. US Attorney Bill Killian said officials were treating the attacks as an act of "domestic terrorism," though FBI agent Ed Reinhold said authorities were still investigating a motive. A US official speaking on condition of anonymity identified the gunman as 24-year-old Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez of Hixton, Tennessee, and said he was believed to have been born in Kuwait, though it was unclear whether he was a US or Kuwaiti citizen.

Jurors convicted Colorado theater shooter James Holmes on Thursday in the chilling 2012 attack on defenseless moviegoers at a midnight Batman premiere, rejecting defense arguments that the former graduate student was insane and driven to murder by delusions. The 27-year-old Holmes, who had been working toward his Ph.D. in neuroscience, could get the death penalty for the massacre that left 12 people dead and dozens of others wounded. Jurors took about 13 hours over a day and a half to review all 165 charges. The same panel must now decide whether Holmes should pay with his life.

European Central Bank head Mario Draghi said Thursday that emergency support to Greek banks will be increased — a first step toward helping the country's banks reopen. The Greek banks have been closed since June 29, more than two weeks ago, since the ECB's governing council halted the credit flow due to concerns the banks would go broke and not pay the money back.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating after 11 commercial flights reported they were illuminated by lasers while flying over New Jersey. The FAA says the incidents occurred Wednesday between 9 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. The agency says the lasers hit the left and right sides of the cockpits, along with the sides of the planes. There were no reports of injuries.

Former President George H.W. Bush, at 91 the oldest living former president, was hospitalized in Portland, Maine, early Thursday for a broken bone in his neck suffered in a fall. Bush, the 41st US president, fell on Wednesday at his summer home in Kennebunkport but was doing OK and was wearing a neck brace, a Bush spokesman said.

Iran's president has pointed to another possible windfall from the nuclear deal with world powers — his country may soon be able to buy badly needed new passenger planes for its aging fleet, the official IRNA news agency reported. Hassan Rouhani said Iranian negotiators came away from the talks in Vienna with "achievements beyond the nuclear" agreement and succeeded in having "aviation sanctions removed." His remarks were carried by the official IRNA news agency late Wednesday.

A dramatic breach at an Italian surveillance company has laid bare the details of government cyberattacks worldwide, putting intelligence chiefs in the hot seat from Cyprus to South Korea. The massive leak has already led to one spymaster's resignation — and pulled back the curtain on espionage in the iPhone age. More than 1 million emails released online in the wake of the July 5 breach show that Hacking Team sold its spy software to the FBI and to Russian intelligence. It worked with authoritarian governments in the Middle East and pitched to police departments in the American suburbs. It even tried to sell to the Vatican — all while devising a malicious Bible app to infect religiously minded targets.

“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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