Let’s make the ‘Asia pivot’ constructive

December 27, 2013 - Daily News Briefing

Nationalism is a dangerous political tool.

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A Roman Catholic church official who has been jailed for more than a year for his handling of priest sex-abuse complaints had his conviction reversed by a Pennsylvania court and was ordered released Thursday. In dismissing the landmark criminal case, a three-judge appeals court panel unanimously rejected prosecutors’ arguments that Monsignor William Lynn, the first US church official ever charged or convicted for the handling of clergy-abuse complaints, was legally responsible for the abused child’s welfare.

African leaders tried Thursday to advance peace talks between South Sudan’s president and political rivals he accuses of attempting a coup to topple the government of the world’s newest country. As fighting persisted in parts of South Sudan’s oil-producing region, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn had “a constructive dialogue” with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir. But the fugitive former deputy president who now leads renegade troops was not represented.

A Russian probe into the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has found no trace of radioactive poisoning, the chief of the government agency that conducted the study said Thursday. Teams of scientists from France, Switzerland, and Russia were asked to determine whether polonium, a rare and extremely lethal substance, played a role in Arafat’s death in a French military hospital in 2004.

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits dropped by 42,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 338,000, the biggest drop since November 2012. But economists say the figures from late November and December are warped by seasonal volatility around the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s holidays. The Labor Department reported Thursday that the less-volatile four-week average rose 4,250 to 348,000.

Russian authorities on Thursday issued visas to seven of 30 members of a Greenpeace ship crew that allow them to leave the country after dropping criminal charges against them over a protest outside an Arctic oil rig. Greenpeace said Thursday other foreign members of the crew were expected to get their exit visas soon.

Residents of a blockaded rebel-held town near Damascus raised the flag used by the government of President Bashar al-Assad in a deal that sees them accept symbolic humiliation in exchange for food, activists said Thursday. The deal accepted by the town of Moadamiyeh is one of a number of short-lived, local truces reached between opposition-held towns and regime forces in recent months.

The last of the Utah counties that were holding out on issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples reversed course Thursday and decided to hand out licenses to all eligible applicants. Officials for the four holdout counties said they had little choice after an appeals court Tuesday declined to intervene and halt gay marriage.

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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