A way forward for Greece?

February 23, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

The country's new left-of-center government may be able to deliver economic reforms that its predecessors failed to do.

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Turkish soldiers launched an overnight raid into Syria and evacuated dozens of besieged troops guarding an Ottoman-era tomb. They moved the crypt to Turkey on Sunday after ceremonially planting Turkey's crescent-and-star flag on Syrian soil. In a one-line report on the incident, Syria’s state news agency denounced what it called “blatant aggression” by Turkey. The mission rescued Turkish soldiers reportedly stuck for months at the tomb of the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire. Hundreds of troops backed by tanks crossed the border near Kobane, the ethnic-Kurdish Syrian town besieged until recently by the Islamic State.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Sunday called Afghanistan's army "a powerful force in their own right" but declined to say whether he thinks the U.S. can scale back military training and advising this year as planned. Carter wrapped up two days in the war zone by consulting with U.S. and Afghan commanders at Kandahar air field, an important hub in the network of U.S. advisory posts that are due to close before year's end. In a question-and-answer session with reporters at this base in southern Afghanistan, Carter declined to say whether his visit had convinced him that the Kandahar operation should stay open longer. The advisory work here will wind up this summer unless President Barack Obama alters his plan for ending the U.S. military presence.

Militants claiming loyalty to Islamic State said they were behind Sunday's twin bomb attacks in Libya on the residence of the Iranian ambassador in the capital and a rocket strike on the eastern Labraq airport. The attack on the ambassador's residence came two days after the group claimed responsibility for a double suicide bombing that killed more than 40 people in the eastern town of Qubbah, among the worst attacks on civilians since a 2011 uprising toppled Muammar Qaddafi. Western powers are concerned that Libya is emerging as a battleground for militants loyal to Islamic State, which controls parts of Iraq and Syria. Islamist fighters have exploited the power vacuum in Libya, as two rival governments fight for control of territory and local militias and gangs have proliferated in the troubled North African country.

As many as 2,800 federal prisoners will be moved to other institutions after inmates seized control of part of a prison in South Texas, causing damage that made the facility "uninhabitable," an official said Saturday. Ed Ross, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, said the inmates who had taken control are "now compliant" but that negotiations were ongoing Saturday in an effort for staff to "regain complete control" of Willacy County Correctional Center. Management & Training Corp., the private contractor that operates the center for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, said about 2,000 inmates became disruptive Friday because they're upset with medical services and refused to perform work duties.

According to a new poll, the rich aren't taxed enough and the middle class is taxed too much. The findings echo the populist messages of two liberal senators — Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont — being courted by the progressive wing of the Democratic Party to run for president in 2016. The results also add weight to Obama's new push to raise taxes on the rich and use some of the revenue to lower taxes on the middle class.

The federal government predicts that trains hauling crude oil or ethanol will derail an average of 10 times a year over the next two decades, causing more than $4 billion in damage and possibly killing hundreds of people if an accident happens in a densely populated part of the U.S. The projection comes from a previously unreported analysis by the Department of Transportation that reviewed the risks of moving vast quantities of both fuels across the nation and through major cities. The study completed last July took on new relevance last week after a train loaded with crude derailed in West Virginia, sparked a spectacular fire and forced the evacuation of hundreds of families.

“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.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

“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.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

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