Monitor Daily News Briefing - September 16, 2013

September 16, 2013 - Daily News Briefing

The economic crisis that unfolded five years ago this week is behind us, though its after-effects are still being felt.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

To read this post and thousands more articles, subscribe today!

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday sent a strong warning to Syria, saying “the threat of force is real” if it does not carry out an internationally brokered agreement to hand over its chemical weapons. Kerry issued the warning during a stop in Jerusalem, where he briefed Israeli leaders on the new US-Russian plan to rid Syria of its chemical weapons by the middle of next year.

The search for people stranded from the Rocky Mountain foothills to the plains of northeastern Colorado grew more difficult Sunday, with a new wave of rain hampering airlifts from the flooded areas still out of reach. With rain impacting helicopter searches, rescuers trekked by ground up dangerous canyon roads to reach some of those homes isolated since Wednesday. Four people are confirmed dead and hundreds have still not been heard from.

The Pakistani Taliban demanded Sunday that the government release militant prisoners and begin withdrawing troops from the group’s tribal sanctuary before they participate in peace talks, raising doubts about prospects for negotiations.

A wave of car bombings and other attacks in Iraq killed at least 58 people in mostly Shiite-majority cities on Sunday, another reminder of the government’s failure to stem the surge of violence that is feeding sectarian tensions.

President Obama says he has accepted Lawrence Summers’s decision to withdraw from consideration for the role of Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Summers was the leading candidate to replace Ben Bernanke but faced opposition from some Democrats.

Philippine forces have killed or captured nearly 100 of the Muslim guerrillas who have held scores of hostages for a week in a southern city, as the government pushes ahead with an offensive to retake rebel-held coastal communities, officials said Sunday.

Gunmen shot the top female police officer in Afghanistan’s troubled Helmand Province, leaving her seriously injured just months after her predecessor was killed, government and hospital authorities said. It was the latest in a series of attacks on prominent women in Afghanistan, where just 1 percent of the police force is female.

European Union finance ministers on Saturday called for better global coordination in the fight against tax fraud, while they sought to play down concerns over disagreements within the bloc on crucial banking sector reforms. EU officials say tax fraud and aggressive cross-border tax avoidance schemes cost the 28-nation bloc’s governments an estimated $1.3 trillion a year.

Authorities have given the final go-ahead for a daring attempt today to pull upright the crippled Costa Concordia cruise liner from its side in the waters off Tuscany, a make-or-break engineering feat that has never before been tried in such conditions. The ship capsized there 20 months ago.

Compiled from wire service reports

Subscribe Now to read this post!

Are you sure?

Forgot to add folder?

Tags Error