Looking back, looking ahead

December 26, 2013 - Daily News Briefing

Hot news cools between Christmas and New Year’s, so the media trot out two old journalistic warhorses: the year-ender and the look-ahead.

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Egypt’s military-backed interim government declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization Wednesday, intensifying its campaign of arrests and prosecutions targeting its members and tightening the noose on the group’s network of charities and businesses. The unprecedented executive decision likely ends any chance of reconciliation between the government and the 85-year-old Brotherhood.

The US Embassy in Kabul was hit by indirect fire before dawn on Christmas Day but no Americans were hurt, as attacks elsewhere in Afghanistan killed at least six people Wednesday, officials said. Two rounds struck the sprawling embassy compound but it was not immediately clear where. An embassy official said the incident was under investigation.

The ice that snapped utility poles and knocked out power to more than half a million people in the US and Canada was stubbornly hanging on Wednesday as frigid temperatures cloaked a region from the Great Lakes to New England.

Mailing a letter is about to get a little more expensive. US regulators have approved a temporary price hike of 3 cents for a first-class stamp, bringing the charge to 49 cents a letter in an effort to help the Postal Service recover from severe mail decreases brought on by the 2008 economic downturn. Many consumers won’t feel the price increase immediately. Forever stamps, good for first-class postage whatever the future rate, can be purchased at the lower price until the new rate takes effect Jan. 26.

Militants in Iraq targeted Christians in three separate Christmas Day bombings in Baghdad, killing at least 37 people, officials said Wednesday. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but Iraq’s dwindling Christian community, which is estimated to number about 400,000 to 600,000 people, often has been targeted by Al Qaeda and other insurgents who see the Christians as heretics.

A world-famous symbol of democracy is going under cover as workers start a two-year, $60 million renovation of the US Capitol dome. Next spring, contractors will strip multiple layers of paint and repair more than 1,000 cracks and broken pieces, as scaffolding obscures the Washington icon for many months. The project will begin just as the nearby Washington Monument sheds scaffolding used to repair damage from a 2011 earthquake.

Three cabinet ministers resigned in Turkey on Wednesday, days after their sons were taken into custody in a sweeping corruption and bribery scandal that has targeted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s allies and rattled the government.

President Vladimir Putin says that Russia will provide its ex-Soviet neighbor and ally Belarus with $2 billion in loans next year. Putin made the statement following Wednesday talks with his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, dubbed “Europe’s last dictator.”

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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