Turning the tide in Iraq

June 16, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

The next chapter in Iraq’s painful saga must be more inclusive and less sectarian.

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Security at the US embassy in Baghdad was strengthened and some staff members sent elsewhere as Iraq was shaken with instability, the State Department said Sunday. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement that much of US embassy staff will remain even as parts of the country experience instability and violence. “Overall, a substantial majority of the US Embassy presence in Iraq will remain in place and the Embassy will be fully equipped to carry out its national security mission,” she said.

As the Iraqi government bolstered Baghdad’s defenses Sunday, the Islamic militant group that captured two major cities last week posted graphic photos that appeared to show its fighters massacring dozens of captured Iraqi soldiers. The pictures on a militant website appear to show masked fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS, loading the captives onto flatbed trucks before forcing them to lie face-down in a shallow ditch with their arms tied behind their backs. The final images show the bodies of the captives soaked in blood after being shot.

A fast-moving fire ripped through a single-family home in New Jersey’s largest city early Sunday, killing six people, authorities said. The blaze broke out at the three-story residence at around 4 a.m. in Newark, the Essex County Prosecutor’s office said. The fire soon spread to another residence, and both homes were destroyed. The fire doesn’t appear to be suspicious, but the cause remains under investigation, said Thomas Fennelly, chief assistant prosecutor. Everyone in the second home managed to escape safely, he said.

The Pakistani army Sunday launched a long-awaited operation against foreign and local militants in a tribal region near the Afghan border, hours after jets pounded insurgent hideouts in the country’s northwest, the army said. The move effectively ends the government’s policy of trying to negotiate with Pakistani Taliban militants instead of using force to end the years of fighting that has killed tens of thousands of civilians and security forces. It comes a week after the militants laid siege to the country’s largest airport in an attack that shocked the country.

It’s crunch time at the Supreme Court, where the justices are racing to issue opinions in 17 cases over the next two weeks. The religious rights of corporations, the speech rights of abortion protesters and the privacy rights of people under arrest are among the significant issues that are so far unresolved.

In pop culture, Casey Kasem was as sweet and dependable as a glass of warm milk and a plate of chocolate chip cookies, which only made the ugliness of his last few years of life seem more bizarre and tragic. The radio host of “American Top 40” and voice of animated television characters like Scooby-Doo’s sidekick Shaggy died Sunday morning at a hospital in Gig Harbor, Washington.

Compiled from wire service reports

“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.

Compiled from wire service reports

“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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