Monitor Daily News Briefing - December 10, 2013

December 10, 2013 - Daily News Briefing

Mars is not a nice place to live – alternating between scorching and freezing.

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US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned Pakistani leaders Monday that if they don’t resolve protests stalling some military shipments across the border with Afghanistan, it could be difficult to maintain political support in Washington for an aid program that has sent billions of dollars to Islamabad, defense officials said. In response, the officials said, Hagel received assurances from the Pakistanis that they would take “immediate action” to resolve the shipment problem. The officials did not provide details on how that might be done.

American Airlines has emerged from bankruptcy protection and US Airways culminated its long pursuit of a merger partner after the two completed their deal Monday to create the world’s biggest airline. The merger survived a challenge from the government and criticism from consumer groups, which fear it will lead to higher prices. It’s the latest in a series of mergers that will leave four airlines controlling more than 80 percent of the US air-travel market and with more power than ever to limit seats and boost profits.

Major technology companies, stung by poor publicity for having helped the US government access personal data, on Monday issued an open letter to President Obama asking for tighter controls on surveillance. As part of a global campaign to reform data collection, Google, Facebook, Apple, and others said that concerns over national security should be weighed against individual rights.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party on Monday backed a deal to form a new German government with its center-left rivals, putting aside concerns over concessions that include a national minimum wage and a move to make it easier for some people to retire early. Merkel noted that the coalition deal features, as her party demanded, no tax increases, an end to new borrowing, and continuity in Berlin’s hard-nosed approach to Europe’s debt crisis.

Retired managers Joe Torre, Tony La Russa, and Bobby Cox were unanimously elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the expansion era committee on Monday. Each of the inductees won more than 2,000 games in managerial careers that spanned more than four decades.

A French auction house on Monday ignored an urgent request by the US embassy to delay an auction of dozens of sacred Hopi masks and put them on sale. EVE auctioneers say the sale of 32 artifacts is legal in France; the auction proceeded Monday afternoon under high security. The American Indian tribes say the artifacts represent their ancestors’ spirits and are unsellable.

Workers busily constructed a stage Monday at the Soweto, South Africa, soccer stadium where world leaders will eulogize Nelson Mandela before tens of thousands of mourners, as police promised tight security. Nearly 100 heads of state are expected to assemble at the 95,000-capacity FNB Stadium for the memorial Tuesday to the anti-apartheid icon.

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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