Defending a century of gains for freedom

May 29, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

Over the past century, the United States rose from regional power to global superpower.

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Tens of thousands of supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad voted Wednesday at embassies abroad, clogging entrances to Lebanon’s capital for hours and clashing with soldiers overwhelmed by their sheer numbers a week before national elections widely expected to give him a third seven-year term. But reflecting the schism within Syrian society, many of the estimated 2.5 million refugees scattered across neighboring countries were either excluded or abstained from the balloting, which they deem a mockery because it is being held in the middle of a civil war.

Muslim rebels stormed a Roman Catholic church compound in the capital of the Central African Republic on Wednesday, killing at least 30 people in a hail of gunfire and grenades, witnesses said. The attack on the compound at the Church of Fatima, where hundreds of civilians had sought refuge from the violence ravaging Bangui’s streets, is the largest blamed on Muslim fighters since their Seleka coalition was ousted from power nearly five months ago.

Veterans at the Phoenix veterans hospital waited on average 115 days for their first medical appointment, which is 91 days longer than the hospital reported, the Department of Veteran Affairs’ internal watchdog said Wednesday. The news brought immediate calls for the resignation of Veterans Secretary Eric Shinseki from Rep. Jeff Miller, (R) of Florida, chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and Sen. John McCain, (R) of Arizona. Miller also said Attorney General Eric Holder should conduct a criminal investigation into the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The question of fighters from Russia loomed over the insurgency in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday as separatists acknowledged the support they are getting from foreign militiamen and government officials in Kiev worried that the border with Russia is becoming a primary source of danger. Casually brushing away allegations he had dispatched his paramilitaries to Ukraine, Chechnya’s Moscow-backed strongman leader insisted on his Instagram account Wednesday that he was powerless to stop fellow Chechens from joining the fight.

Maya Angelou, a modern Renaissance woman who survived the harshest of childhoods to become a force on stage, screen, the printed page and the inaugural dais, died Wednesday, her son said. She was 86. Guy B. Johnson said the writer died at her home in Winston-Salem, N.C., where she had been a professor of American studies at Wake Forest University since 1982.

Google plans to build and launch onto city streets a small fleet of subcompact cars that could operate without a person at the wheel. Actually, the cars wouldn’t even have a wheel. Or gas and brake pedals. The company says the vehicles will use sensors and computing power, with no human needed. Google Inc. hopes that by this time next year, 100 of the two-seaters will be on public roads, following extensive testing.

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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