A card that’s never depleted

December 24, 2013 - Daily News Briefing

The gift of Christmas – from the first one to the one we mark tomorrow morning – is a never-depleted Get Out of Jail Free card.

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Anticipating heavy traffic on the government’s health-care website, the Obama administration effectively extended Monday’s deadline for signing up for insurance by a day, giving Americans in 36 states more time to select a plan. The grace period – which runs through today – was the latest in a series of pushed-back deadlines and delays that have marked the rollout of the health-care law.

A federal judge on Monday allowed gay marriage to continue in Utah, rejecting a request to put same-sex weddings on hold as the state appeals a decision that has sent couples flocking to county clerk offices for marriage licenses. Judge Robert J. Shelby overturned Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage Friday, ruling the voter-approved measure is a violation of gay couples’ constitutional rights. The state then asked him to put a stop to the weddings, but he rejected the request. Lawyers for the state quickly filed a request with the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals to put gay marriage on hold.

Antigovernment protesters determined to unseat Thailand’s prime minister surrounded a Bangkok sports stadium Monday in an unsuccessful attempt to physically block political parties from registering for a February election. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who is popular among the rural majority but disliked by the urban middle class and educated elite, called the Feb. 2 elections to diffuse tension after several weeks of sometimes violent demonstrations in the Thai capital.

Colombia’s government is playing down a Washington Post report that a covert CIA program helped it kill two dozen rebel leaders. Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon said on Monday that cooperation with the US intelligence and special forces has been going on for some time and is widely recognized as having been instrumental in helping break the backs of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Parts of the US socked by a wild weekend storm will be covered with ice – and some without power – through Christmas and beyond thanks to a steady diet of freezing rain and cold temperatures. “It’s certainly not going away,” Margaret Curtis, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said Monday.

Former basketball star Dennis Rodman left North Korea on Monday without answering questions from the media on whether he had met with leader Kim Jong-un. The two struck up a friendship when Rodman first traveled to the secretive state earlier this year. Rodman declined to answer questions from reporters on his arrival at Beijing’s airport.

The US has moved additional marines and aircraft from Spain to the Horn of Africa to provide embassy security and help with evacuations from violence-wracked South Sudan. Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said Monday that the commander in Africa is getting the forces ready for any request that may come from the US State Department.

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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