The sticks and stones test

August 11, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

Insults are not necessary to prove a society is healthy. But a healthy society can deal with them.

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Two women shot at the U.S. consulate in Istanbul on Monday and at least nine people were killed in a wave of separate attacks on Turkish security forces, weeks after Ankara launched a crackdown on Islamic State, Kurdish, and far-left militants. The NATO member has been in a heightened state of alert since starting its "synchronized war on terror" last month, including air strikes against Islamic State fighters in Syria and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq. It has also rounded up hundreds of suspected militants at home. A far-left group that killed a Turkish security guard in a 2013 suicide bombing of the U.S. embassy in Ankara claimed it was involved in Monday's attack. Turkey's foreign ministry condemned the attack and said security at U.S. diplomatic missions was being tightened.

The Iranian-American reporter for the Washington Post detained in Tehran for more than a year on charges including espionage spoke in his own defense Monday during a final closed-door hearing in a trial that has been criticized by the paper and press freedom advocates. A verdict in journalist Jason Rezaian's case could come as early as next week, said his lawyer, Leila Ahsan. She told The Associated Press she submitted a 20-page defense brief at the start of Monday's session, gave an oral defense during the hearing, and provided the court with a separate written statement at the end following remarks from the prosecutor.

Calling for a "new college compact," Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday unveiled a $350 billion plan aimed at making college more affordable and reducing the crushing burden of student debt. At a town hall meeting in New Hampshire, the state with the highest average student debt in the country, Clinton proposed steps to reduce the cost of four-year public schools, make two-year community colleges tuition-free and cut student loan interest rates, according to campaign aides. She pitched her plan as a public-private partnership, requiring a contribution from the federal government and states, the colleges and universities and students themselves. "Americans will have to work hard to put themselves through school to out-learn and out-hustle our competitors, just like we always have," she told voters gathered at a high school in Exeter, New Hampshire.

A man who traveled to the Middle East last year wanted to form a small army to fight with the Islamic State group, federal authorities said Monday, weeks after the man's brother was arrested in the same alleged plot. Nader Saadeh, 20, was charged with attempting to provide material support to the terror group and was scheduled to appear Monday in U.S. District Court in Newark. It wasn't known if he's retained an attorney who could comment on his behalf. The former Rutherford resident's arrest comes after authorities arrested his 23-year-old brother, Alaa, and 21-year-old Samuel Rahamin Topaz of New Jersey on similar charges. Authorities say Nader Saadeh traveled to the Middle East in May to join the Islamic State but was arrested in Jordan and had been held there in custody. It was not immediately clear when or how he returned to the United States. He could face several decades in prison if convicted on all counts.

An NFL championship with the New York Giants. An Emmy award as television's "outstanding sports personality." Induction in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Frank Gifford, as well known for being a buffer for fellow announcers Don Meredith and Howard Cosell on "Monday Night Football" as for his versatility as a player, died Sunday. A running back, defensive back, wide receiver and special teams player in his career, Gifford was the NFL's MVP in 1956, when the Giants won the title. He went to the Pro Bowl at three positions and was the centerpiece of a Giants offense that went to five NFL title games in the 1950s and '60s. Beginning in 1971, he worked for ABC's "Monday Night Football," at first as a play-by-play announcer and then an analyst, winning his Emmy in 1976-77.

South Korea restarted propaganda broadcasts across the border with rival North Korea on Monday for the first time in 11 years in retaliation for the North allegedly planting land mines last week that maimed two South Korean soldiers. The anti-North Korean broadcasts over loudspeakers aimed across the world's most heavily armed border are sure to worsen already terrible ties between the Koreas and infuriate the North, which is extremely sensitive to any outside criticism of the authoritarian leadership of Kim Jong-un.

Software company Adobe Systems Inc. said on Monday it is doubling the maternity leave it grants, making it the third company in the U.S. technology industry in a week to give new parents more paid time off. New mothers at the California-based firm will receive 26 weeks of paid leave, up from 12 weeks, and primary caregivers and new parents will get 16 weeks of paid parental leave. "We join an industry movement to better support our employees while striving towards increased workforce diversity," said Donna Morris, Adobe senior vice president of People and Places.

Warren Buffett is making the biggest bet of his long investment career, a $32.36 billion buyout of Precision Castparts in a deal that will continue to reshape his Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate. The acquisition of the aerospace and industrial company would top Buffett's $26.7 billion deal for BNSF railroad in 2010. It also follows several huge deals outside of the core insurance companies Buffett built his investment empire on that included manufacturing, railroads, utilities and food companies. Buffett said Monday that Berkshire will pay $235 per share in cash for Precision Castparts' outstanding stock. The deal is valued at about $37.2 billion, including debt.

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