Resolved: A better 2015

December 31, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

A new year opens a new chapter in the continuing story of human progress.

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A special Indian court on Tuesday dropped criminal charges against Amit Shah, the president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, who was accused of ordering three extra-judicial killings by police nearly a decade ago. The court in India's Central Bureau of Investigation said there was little evidence to prove that Shah, a close aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, directed police to abduct and kill a small-time criminal and his wife in Gujarat state in 2005 and a witness to their abduction.

Heavy gunfire rang out Tuesday near the presidential palace in the tiny West African nation of Gambia, residents said, raising the specter of a coup attempt while the longtime ruler is out of the country. The government denied any such plot was under way, though state radio and television remained silent at midday. President Yahya Jammeh, who came to power in 1994 coup when he was 29 years old, had left the capital of Banjul for France on Saturday, state media reported.

Greece was sending a navy frigate and a helicopter Tuesday to locate a cargo ship believed to be carrying hundreds of migrants in the northern Ionian Sea after authorities received an emergency call from someone on board the ship, authorities said. The ship, the Moldovan-flagged Blue Sky M, was sailing in poor weather near the tiny island of Othonoi, northwest of Corfu, and was believed to be carrying 400 to 600 migrants.

Former President George H.W. Bush was released from a Houston hospital Tuesday after a stay of about a week. Bush left Houston's Methodist Hospital, was resting at home and is "grateful to the doctors and nurses for their superb care," said family spokesman Jim McGrath in a brief statement. Bush, the oldest living former US president, was taken by ambulance to the hospital a week ago for what was described then as a precaution. His hospital stay included Christmas.

Impressed with an improving economy, American consumers are feeling more confident, a private survey showed. The Conference Board said Tuesday its consumer confidence index climbed to 92.6 this month from a revised 91 in November. Consumers registered a more favorable view of current economic conditions; 17.1 percent said jobs were plentiful, up from 16.2 percent in November. Just 19.6 percent said business conditions were bad, down from 21.8 percent last month.

Luise Rainer, a star of cinema's golden era who won back-to-back Oscars but then walked away from a glittering Hollywood career, has died at 104. Rainer, whose roles ranged from the 1930s German stage to television's "The Love Boat," died Tuesday at her home in London, said her only daughter, Francesca Knittel-Bowyer. The big-eyed, apple-cheeked Rainer gained Hollywood immortality by becoming the first person to win an acting Academy Award in consecutive years, taking best actress prizes for the 1936 film "The Great Ziegfeld" and "The Good Earth" in 1937.

Ending weeks of speculation, Michigan hired Jim Harbaugh as its new head football coach Tuesday in hopes that its former star quarterback will lead the Wolverines back to national prominence. Interim athletic director Jim Hackett said Harbaugh agreed to a seven-year deal worth more than $35 million. He also received a $2 million signing bonus.

“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.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

“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.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

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