Chinese growth versus East Asian peace

May 23, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

In East Asia, China’s huge appetite is in danger of leading beyond business deals to outright conflict.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

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

A slower-than-usual hurricane season is expected this year because of an expected El Niño, federal forecasters said Thursday, but they warned that it takes only one storm to wreak havoc and urged Americans to be prepared. El Niño, which warms part of the Pacific every few years and changes rain and temperature patterns around the world, will likely reduce the number and intensity of tropical storms and hurricanes, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in New York City.

Syrian tanks backed by massive air power rolled into the grounds of a sprawling prison in Aleppo on Thursday, breaking a yearlong rebel siege and allowing President Bashar al-Assad’s forces to close in on a nearby rebel command center. State TV showed troops celebrating inside the prison complex, showcasing a rare government triumph in the mostly rebel-held north less than two weeks before Assad’s expected re-election.

Eighty US Air Force personnel have begun their mission in Chad to help locate more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped in neighboring Nigeria, a US military spokesman said Thursday.

Chuck Prichard, a spokesman at the US military’s Africa Command in Germany, said Thursday that the Air Force personnel were moved to Chad from a location inside the United States. Prichard did not say precisely where the 80 were previously stationed.

A wildfire that started in a scenic canyon snaked toward Flagstaff, Ariz., on Thursday, prompting residents of outlying areas to prepare to flee and blanketing the city in smoke. The human-caused Slide Fire started Tuesday and had burned 7.5 square miles in and around Oak Creek Canyon, a scenic recreation area along a highway between Sedona and Flagstaff.

Attackers hurled bombs from two SUVs that plowed through shoppers at a busy street market in China’s volatile northwestern region of Xinjiang on Thursday, killing 31 people and wounding more than 90. The early morning attack in the city of Urumqi was the bloodiest in a series of violent incidents over recent months that Chinese authorities have blamed on radical separatists from the country’s Muslim Uighur minority.

Just days before Ukraine holds a presidential election, pro-Russia insurgents attacked a military checkpoint in the east Thursday, killing 13 troops in the deadliest raid yet in weeks of fighting, Ukraine’s leader said. A rebel commander who claimed responsibility for the attack said one of his men also was killed. Acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk accused Russia of escalating the conflict in Ukraine’s eastern regions and trying to disrupt Sunday’s election.

The House on Thursday passed legislation to end the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of American phone records, the first legislative response to the disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The compromise measure passed by a vote of 303 to 120, with 9 members not voting.

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.

Eighty US Air Force personnel have begun their mission in Chad to help locate more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped in neighboring Nigeria, a US military spokesman said Thursday.

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