Monitor Daily News Briefing - September 11, 2013

September 11, 2013 - Daily News Briefing

The bar of public sentiment, reflected by Congress and seen in recent opinion polls, is naturally high when it comes to military intervention.

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Federal officials on Tuesday released previously classified documents showing misuse of a domestic spying program in 2009. The Obama administration has been facing mounting pressure to reveal more details about the government’s domestic surveillance program since a former intelligence contractor released documents showing massive National Security Agency trawling of domestic data. The information included domestic telephone numbers, calling patterns, and the agency’s collection of Americans’ Internet user names, IP addresses, and other metadata swept up in surveillance of foreign terror suspects.

The gulf between the richest 1 percent and the rest of America is the widest it’s been since the Roaring ‘20s. The very wealthiest Americans earned more than 19 percent of the country’s household income last year – their biggest share since 1928, the year before the stock market crash. And the top 10 percent captured a record 48.2 percent of total earnings last year. US income inequality has been growing for almost three decades. And it grew again last year, according to an analysis of Internal Revenue Service figures dating to 1913 by economists at the University of California, Berkeley, the Paris School of Economics, and Oxford University.

German lawyer Thomas Bach was elected Tuesday as president of the International Olympic Committee. He succeeds Jacques Rogge, who stepped down after 12 years. Bach, the longtime favorite, defeated five other candidates in the secret ballot at an IOC meeting in Buenos Aires.

China’s factory output expanded in August at its fastest rate this year in a new sign the world’s second largest economy is recovering from its deepest slump since the 2008 global crisis. Industrial production rose 10.4 percent, accelerating from July’s 9.7 percent, government data showed Tuesday. The signs of economic revival will ease pressure on Chinese leaders who want to focus on longer-term structural reforms analysts say are needed to keep economic growth strong.

Unions representing high school teachers in Greece have voted to hold “long-term” strikes starting Sept. 16 against public sector staff cuts ordered by the government as part of its bailout agreements. The move represents the first major challenge to the country’s conservative-led government over its program to suspend 25,000 public servants this year and fire 15,000 by the end of 2014.

The US Agriculture Department is cracking down on dog breeders who sell puppies over the Internet with new regulations that will force them to apply for federal licenses. The rules announced Tuesday would subject dog owners who breed more than four females and sell the puppies online, by mail or over the phone to the same oversight faced by wholesale animal breeders.

About 200 Muslim rebels, enraged by a broken peace deal with the Philippine government, held scores of hostages as human shields Tuesday in a standoff with government forces that dragged on for a second day with no solution in sight. More battle-ready troops and police were flown to the southern port city of Zamboanga in a bid to end the crisis. Troops have surrounded the Moro National Liberation Front guerrillas and their hostages in four coastal villages since the crisis erupted Monday.

Apple’s latest iPhones will come in a bevy of colors and two distinct designs, a cheaper one made of plastic and another that aims to be “the gold standard of smart phones” and reads fingerprints. Apple unveiled the latest iPhone models, available on Sept. 20, during an event Tuesday at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. The new iPhones, including a $99 model, arrive at a time when rival phones from Samsung and other manufacturers are challenging Apple in the competitive smart-phone market.

The world’s largest solar-powered boat docked Tuesday on the banks of the Seine River in Paris, its final port of call after a three-month voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to study how the Gulf Stream and climate change could influence each other. Starting from Miami in June, University of Geneva scientists sailed the 102-foot Turanor PlanetSolar catamaran up the Eastern Seaboard of the US, then across the Atlantic, taking water and air measurements that should allow them to better understand the complex interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere.

Detroit Lions defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh was fined $100,000 Tuesday by the National Football League for his illegal low block in the season-opening victory over the Minnesota Vikings last weekend. Suh hit Vikings center John Sullivan during an interception return, drawing a penalty that negated a Detroit touchdown.

Compiled from wire service reports

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