Turning the corner in Ukraine

July 08, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

The worst has been avoided in Ukraine. Step by step, the country is becoming more confident.

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Passengers at some overseas airports that offer US-bound flights will soon be required to power on their electronic devices in order to board their flights. The measure is intended to enhance aviation security at a time of increased threats. The Transportation Security Administration says it is adding the requirement that passengers coming to the US from some airports must turn on devices such as cellphones before boarding. It says devices that won't power up won't be allowed on planes and those travelers may have to undergo additional screening. American intelligence officials have been concerned about new Al Qaeda efforts to produce a bomb that would go undetected through airport security. There is no indication that such a bomb has been created or that there's a specific threat to the US.

More than 60 Nigerian girls and women abducted by Islamic extremists two weeks ago have managed to escape, officials said Monday. Nigerian security forces and federal government officials had denied reports of the mass abduction from three villages in the northeast state of Borno on June 22. Vigilante leader Abbas Gava in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, said Sunday that vigilantes in the area told him 63 women and girls escaped Friday while their captors were engaged in a major attack on a military barracks and police headquarters in Damboa town.

Eduard Shevardnadze was a key figure in revolutions abroad and the victim of one at home. As the Soviet Union's foreign minister, he helped topple the Berlin Wall and end the Cold War, but as the leader of post-Soviet Georgia his career in the public eye ended in humiliation when he was chased out of his parliament and forced into retirement. Shevardnadze died Monday, a decade after he left office, his spokeswoman said. The white-haired man with a gravelly voice was the diplomatic face of Mikhail Gorbachev's liberalizing policies of glasnost and perestroika.

A magnitude-6.9 earthquake on the Pacific Coast jolted a wide area of southern Mexico and Central America Monday, killing at least three people and damaging dozens of homes. The US Geological Survey said the quake hit at 7:23 a.m. EDT on the Pacific Coast 1 mile north-northeast of Puerto Madero, Mexico, near the Guatemalan border. It initially calculated the magnitude at 7.1 but later lowered the figure to 6.9. The three fatalities were due to collapsed walls, according to authorities, who also reported damaged homes, utility poles, and landslides.

Japan was bracing for destructive winds and huge waves as a powerful Typhoon Neoguri churned Monday toward the southern islands of Okinawa after sparing the Philippines. Typhoon Neoguri is expected to reach Okinawa early Tuesday, packing sustained winds of 123 miles per hour and gusts up to 168 mph, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. It said the storm could be one of the strongest to hit Japan in decades, generating waves up to 46 feet high.

A Vietnamese military helicopter on a parachute training mission crashed close to the Vietnamese capital on Monday, killing 16 people on board and critically injuring five others, officials and state-controlled media said. The Russian-made MI-171 helicopter came down about 15 minutes after takeoff in a small village about 24 miles west of Hanoi.

The defense team for Oscar Pistorius plans to close its case after its last witness, a physician who has treated the athlete, completed his testimony at the murder trial on Monday, a lawyer said. The end of testimony signals a new phase in the months-long trial of Pistorius, who killed girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in his home in what he has described as a mistaken shooting. It is expected to lead to a break during which the defense and prosecution prepare final arguments as the high-profile legal battle moves toward a conclusion.

Three airplane fuselages that slid down a steep embankment into a river following a train derailment in northern Montana could take until Tuesday to remove, railroad officials said. A crew of 50 with eight heavy-equipment machines was working together to hoist up the three Boeing 737 fuselages, the large, central portions of planes that hold passengers. Six fuselages were aboard a westbound train when 19 cars derailed Thursday, sending the three fuselages into the Clark Fork River.

“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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