A break in an impasse?

December 04, 2013 - Daily News Briefing

Don’t look now, but peace may be at hand in Washington in the long-running war over the federal budget.

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Ukraine’s opposition failed Tuesday to force out the government with a no-confidence vote in Parliament, leaving the country’s high political tensions unresolved. The opposition called for the vote in protest both of President Viktor Yanukovych’s shelving of a long-anticipated agreement to deepen political and economic ties with the European Union and the violent tactics used by police to disperse demonstrators protesting that decision.

Antigovernment protesters swarmed into the Thai prime minister’s office compound Tuesday as police stood by and watched, allowing them to claim a symbolic victory after three days of bitter clashes. The unexpected reversal in the government’s strategy brings at least a lull in the violence. Declaring that the government would use “only gentleness and tenderness to solve problems,” Deputy Prime Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said the step was taken to reduce tensions so people could celebrate King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s 86th birthday on Thursday. The king is seen as the sole uniting figure in the country.

Investigators looking into a deadly train derailment in New York City said Tuesday that no problems had been found with the train’s brake system or track signals along its route and that its engineer was being questioned again. The Metro-North Railroad commuter train was traveling Sunday at 82 m.p.h. as it approached a 30 m.p.h. zone and jumped the tracks along a sharp curve. Four passengers died. Investigators said it was too soon to say whether the excessive speed was the result of human error – say, a sleepy or distracted operator – or a mechanical problem.

American students once again lag behind many of their Asian and European peers on a global exam, a continuing trend that often is blamed on child poverty and a diverse population in US schools. US students showed little improvement over three years, failing to score in the top 20 on math, reading, or science. Students in Shanghai, China’s largest city, had the top scores in all subjects, and Singapore, South Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong students weren’t far behind. About half a million students in 65 nations and educational systems took part in the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, which is coordinated by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Extensive reports by French scientists into Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s death have ruled out poisoning by radioactive polonium, his widow said Tuesday. The results contradict earlier findings by a Swiss lab, and mean it’s still unclear how Arafat died nine years ago.

A Bolshoi star dancer was sentenced to six years in prison Tuesday over an acid attack on the ballet’s director that exposed vicious backstage bickering and intrigue at the renowned theater. The judge pronounced Bolshoi soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko guilty of making plans to attack Sergei Filin, who lost most of the sight in one eye and 20 percent in the other in the attack on Jan. 17. Ex-convict Yuri Zarutsky, who splashed the acid in Filin’s face, was sentenced to 10 years; a driver, Andrei Lipatov, got four years. The three were also ordered to pay about $106,000 in damages to Filin.

Spain will ban cellphone use by train drivers except in cases of emergency after a train crash that killed 79 people. Public Works Minister Ana Pastor said Tuesday Spain also plans to install “black box’”data recorders like those used on planes, which give a more complete picture of incidents during a train’s journey. The driver of the train that crashed July 24 outside Santiago de Compostela city has said he was going too fast and had been on the phone to a colleague moments beforehand.

An 85-year-old US veteran being held in North Korea spent his war years there in one of the Army’s first special forces unit, helping a clandestine group of Korean partisans who were fighting and spying well behind enemy lines. Now South Koreans who served with Merrill Newman, who is beginning his sixth week in detention, say their unit was perhaps the most hated and feared by the North and his association with them may be the reason he’s being held.

Nepal’s oldest political party won the most seats in last month’s national elections, final results showed Tuesday, but the outcome was not seen as a breakthrough in a country in the grips of political deadlock. Although Nepali Congress party won 196 seats in the Nov. 19 vote to select the 601 members of the Constituent Assembly, the lack of a majority means a coalition government is all but certain. The Himalayan country has stumbled through the last five years with no constitution and parliamentary paralysis in addressing chronic problems such as poverty, fuel shortages, and corruption.

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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