Putin’s attempt to hold back the tide

March 03, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

On the thinnest of pretexts, Russia has sent forces to occupy Crimea.

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Hundreds of armed men in trucks and armored vehicles surrounded a Ukrainian military base Sunday in Crimea, blocking its soldiers from leaving. The outnumbered Ukrainians placed a tank at the base’s gate, leaving the two sides in a tense standoff. In Kiev, Ukraine’s new prime minister urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to pull back his military, warning that “we are on the brink of disaster.”

Israel’s prime minister headed to Washington on Sunday for a high-stakes meeting with President Obama about US-led Mideast peace efforts, vowing to maintain a tough line in the face of heavy international pressure to begin making concessions to the Palestinians. Benjamin Netanyahu’s defiant tone set the stage for what could be a difficult meeting Monday.

Authorities have lifted evacuation orders in two California wildfire-scarred foothill communities that were threatened by mud flows during several days of powerful rain. Los Angeles County residents in Glendora and Monrovia were allowed back to their homes early Sunday. Evacuations were still in effect for a third neighborhood in Azusa.

China’s manufacturing activities expanded at the slowest pace since June, amid government efforts to rein in credit and investment growth, according to the industry group China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing. The federation on Saturday released the purchasing managers index for February, which slid to 50.2, down from 50.5 in the previous month.

Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee runner, goes on trial for the murder of his girlfreind today in Johannesburg, South Africa. The country’s criminal justice system and gun culture will be under a global spotlight during the trial. The Olympian says he thought Reeva Steenkamp was a nighttime intruder in his home in the early hours of Feb. 14 last year.

Antigovernment protesters in Thailand’s capital began settling in at a park in the center of Bangkok on Sunday, withdrawing from other sites after their numbers began to dwindle and attackers endangered their security. Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban vowed to continue the campaign to try to force Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to resign and make way for an unelected, interim government committed to anticorruption reforms.

Amid unusually tight security, Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law goes to trial today on charges he conspired to kill Americans in his role as Al Qaeda’s mouthpiece after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Prosecutors will try to prove to an anonymous jury that Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, the highest-ranking Al Qaeda figure to face trial on US soil since the attacks, tried to rally others to kill Americans.

A Pakistani prosecutor says an antiterrorism court has convicted six people on charges related to the killing of a local TV reporter, including two tried in absentia who were sentenced to death. Abdul Maroof said Sunday that four more defendants in custody were given life in prison and one was acquitted.

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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