Monitor Daily News Briefing - August 30, 2013

August 30, 2013 - Daily News Briefing

The difficult position the United States and its allies are in as regards Syria arises from humanitarian concern not self-interest.

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Thousands of fast-food workers and their supporters took to the picket lines Thursday in dozens of US cities, marking the largest protest yet in their quest for higher wages. The nationwide day of demonstrations came after similar actions organized by unions and community groups over the past several months. Workers are calling for the right to unionize without interference from employers and for pay of $15 an hour. That’s more than double the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

President Bashar al-Assad vowed Thursday that “Syria will defend itself” against Western military strikes over a suspected chemical weapons attack, and the UN said inspectors will leave within 48 hours carrying information that could be crucial to what happens next. British Prime Minister David Cameron argued strongly in Parliament for military intervention in Syria, while French defense officials said openly for the first time that their military is preparing for a possible operation.

Despite 75 years of federal marijuana prohibition, the US Justice Department said Thursday that states can let people use the drug, license people to grow it, and even allow adults to stroll into stores and buy it – as long as the weed is kept away from children, the black market, and federal property. In a sweeping new policy statement prompted by pot legalization votes in Washington and Colorado last fall, the department gave the green light to states to adopt tight regulatory schemes to oversee the medical and recreational marijuana industries burgeoning across the country.

The National Football League has agreed to pay more than $750 million to compensate potentially thousands of retired players who have been diagnosed with brain-related injuries. The settlement, which is subject to approval by a federal judge, was announced Thursday after months of court-ordered mediation. More than 4,500 former athletes have sued the NFL since 2011.

A senior judicial official on Thursday overturned the prison sentence of a Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA find Osama bin Laden and ordered his retrial, citing procedural problems with the initial trial. The official issued the ruling because the person who sentenced Dr. Shakil Afridi to 33 years in prison was not authorized to hear the case.

US federal inspection teams have been conducting spot safety checks of rail shipments of crude oil from the booming Bakken oil region in the Great Plains states in response to last month’s rail disaster in Canada that killed 47 people and destroyed much of the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic, US officials said Thursday.

Striving to take action where Congress would not, the Obama administration announced new steps Thursday on gun control, curbing the import of military surplus weapons and proposing to close a little-known loophole that lets felons and others circumvent background checks by registering guns to corporations.

Compiled from wire service reports

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