Averting a debt crisis

October 04, 2013 - Daily News Briefing

While there’s still no light at the end of the tunnel in the partial US government shutdown dispute, there is in the even more serious problem of the debt ceiling.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

To read this post and thousands more articles, subscribe today!

A woman driving a black Infiniti with a young child inside tried to ram through a White House barricade Thursday, then led police on a chase toward the Capitol, where police shot and killed her, witnesses and officials said. Tourists watched the shooting unfold on Constitution Avenue outside the Capitol as lawmakers inside debated how to end a government shutdown. Police quickly locked down the entire complex temporarily, and both houses of Congress went into recess.

A ship carrying African migrants to Europe caught fire and capsized off the Italian island of Lampedusa on Thursday, killing at least 114 people as it spilled hundreds of passengers into the sea, officials said. Over 150 people were rescued but many others were still unaccounted for. It was one of the deadliest recent accidents in the notoriously perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing from Africa for migrants seeking a new life in the European Union.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill Thursday adding California to the growing list of states allowing immigrants living in the country illegally to obtain driver’s licenses. Immigrant advocates have long lobbied for the change in the nation’s most populous state. The licenses would carry a distinction on the front of the card that states the document may be used for driving, not as federal identification.

Preparations began Thursday along the central Gulf Coast as newly formed tropical storm Karen threatened to become the first named tropical system to disrupt the United States this year. Hurricane and tropical storm watches were posted from southeast Louisiana to Florida and some oil and gas platforms in the storm’s projected path were being secured and evacuated.

International inspectors racing to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile said Thursday they have made “encouraging initial progress” in their mission, and they hope to start onsite inspections and to begin disabling equipment within a week. An advance team of disarmament experts arrived in Syria on Tuesday to begin laying the foundations for a broader operation charged with dismantling and ultimately destroying President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical program over the next nine months.

After a long court battle, Palestinian farmers Thursday reclaimed land they lost to an Israeli settlement in the 1970s. Israel dismantled Homesh and three other West Bank settlements in 2005, in connection with a wider withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, but refused to let the original Palestinian landowners return to the Homesh area. The Israeli group Yesh Din says it fought a successful legal battle to restore the land to the farmers.

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose just 1,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 308,000, hovering near six-year lows., the Labor Department said. Companies are still cutting very few jobs. However, the decline in layoffs has not been accompanied by a pickup in hiring.

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.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

Are you sure?

Forgot to add folder?

Tags Error