Egypt's deferred dream of democracy

January 14, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

Egypt is coming full circle.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

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

Safe tap water gushed from faucets and shower heads in West Virginia on Monday, a welcome sight and sound for a small fraction of the 300,000 people who have not been able to use running water since a chemical spill five days earlier. It could still be days before everyone in the Charleston metropolitan area is cleared to use the water, though officials said the water in certain designated areas was safe to drink and wash with as long as people flushed out their plumbing. They cautioned that the water may still have a slight licorice-type odor to it, raising the anxieties of some who believed it was still contaminated.

The stock market Monday had its worst day of the year so far, extending a January slump.Stocks dropped as falling oil prices pushed down energy stocks. The prospect of the Federal Reserve further cutting back on its economic stimulus also weighed on the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 179.11 points, or 1.1 percent, to 16257.94. The Nasdaq composite dropped 61.36 points, or 1.5 percent, to 4113.30.

Democrats in New Jersey sharpened their aim at Republican Gov. Chris Christie on Monday, forming special legislative committees to explore the role politics played in traffic jams last fall and announcing that the investigation has grown into an abuse-of-power probe. A new special Assembly committee, given subpoena power and a special counsel, will be charged with finding out how high the plot went up Christie’s chain of command, said a leading state Democrat, Assembly majority leader Lou Greenwald.

Two activist groups say an Al Qaeda-linked group has seized a town in northern Syria from rival opposition fighters. The capture of the town of al-Bab on Monday by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is part of nearly two weeks of intense fighting between the Al-Qaeda-affiliated group and rebels from Islamist and more moderate factions.

Pope Francis on Monday criticized abortion as evidence of a “throwaway culture” that wastes people as well as food, saying such a mentality is a threat to world peace. Pope Francis also urged better respect for migrants and denounced the persecution of Christians in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East in his global survey of world crises delivered to diplomats accredited to the Holy See.

Nigeria’s president has signed a law that bans same-sex marriage and criminalizes homosexual associations, societies, and meetings, with penalties of as many as14 years in jail. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act on Monday that was signed by President Goodluck Jonathan and dated Jan. 7.

The pilots of a Southwest Airlines flight that mistakenly landed at the wrong Missouri airport were grounded Monday, less than a day after they touched down at a small Taney County airfield that gave them only half as much room as normal to stop the jet at its intended destination in Branson, Mo.

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

HEADING

THANK_YOU_HEADING