A shift to support

October 17, 2013 - Daily News Briefing

It’s too soon to be slapping high-fives, but significant dealmaking is under way in two crucial cities – Washington and Geneva.

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High-stakes nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers adjourned on an upbeat note Wednesday, with the parties agreeing to meet again in Geneva in three weeks. The European Union’s top diplomat called the talks “very important,” and Iran’s foreign minister spoke of a possible “new phase” after a decade of deadlock over fears the Iranians wanted a nuclear bomb. Few details emerged from the two days of talks, but White House spokesman Jay Carney said Iran’s proposals contained a “level of seriousness and substance that we have not seen before.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s options for forming a new government are narrowing after talks with the Greens ended with both sides unable to agree on how they might form a coalition together. Merkel’s conservative bloc now meets with its other center-left rivals, the Social Democrats, for coalition talks today.

Scientists who helped calculate oil spilled from a broken BP well into the Gulf of Mexico are questioning the methodology used to estimate the amount of crude that recently leaked from a ruptured pipeline into a wheat field in northwestern North Dakota. Tesoro Corp. said it came up with its more than 20,000-barrel spill estimate using ground analysis. Farmer Steve Jensen discovered the North Dakota oil spill the size of seven football fields while harvesting wheat Sept. 29.

Brazil’s Federal Police and a Senate investigative panel said Tuesday they want to question National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden to learn more about the spying program that targeted Latin America’s biggest country. According to information leaked by Snowden, President Dilma Rousseff’s communications with aides were intercepted, the computer network of state-run oil company Petrobras was hacked, and data on billions of e-mails and telephone calls flowing through Brazil were monitored by the NSA.

Hungarian prosecutors said Wednesday that a former communist minister has been charged with war crimes related to reprisals against civilians after the anti-Soviet revolution of 1956. Bela Biszku became interior minister and a member of the communist party’s ruling interim executive committee after the October 1956 uprising was quickly crushed by Soviet forces. The committee created armed militias to carry out the repression.

Police believe a baggage handler arrested after dry ice bombs exploded at Los Angeles International Airport set off the devices for his own amusement. Los Angeles police Deputy Chief Michael Downing disclosed the motive on Wednesday, a day after the arrest of Dicarlo Bennett, an employee for the ground handling company Servisair. Two bombs exploded Sunday night. A third did not detonate and was found Monday.

The San Francisco Bay Area’s main commuter rail line was up and running Wednesday as a potential transit strike was averted for the third straight day.

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.

The San Francisco Bay Area’s main commuter rail line was up and running Wednesday as a potential transit strike was averted for the third straight day.

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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