Scratch one worry

October 03, 2013 - Daily News Briefing

If your eyes are fixed on the crises du jour, you can overlook important developments that take place over a longer time frame.

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Silvio Berlusconi announced Wednesday that his party will vote to support the Italian government of Premier Enrico Letta, a major turnabout that signals he was defeated in his efforts to bring down the government. It was a huge setback for Berlusconi, who had demanded his five cabinet ministers quit the government. He is incensed at a vote planned Friday that could strip him of his Senate seat following his tax fraud conviction and four-year prison sentence.

Deadly clashes raged on the edge of Damascus on Wednesday and rival rebel factions battled each other in northern Syria as international chemical weapons inspectors began to secure the sites where they will work. The fighting underscored the immense security challenge that the dozens of disarmament experts must negotiate as they work amid the civil war to meet tight deadlines for eliminating President Bashar al-Assad’s estimated 1,000-ton arsenal of chemical weapons.

The pressure is on for the US federal government and states running their own health- insurance exchanges to get the systems up and running after overloaded websites and jammed phone lines frustrated consumers for a second day as they tried to sign up for coverage using the new marketplaces. If the delays that persisted Wednesday aren’t fixed quickly, they could dampen enthusiasm for the law at the same time Republicans are using it as a rallying cry to force most of the federal government to shut down.

National Security Agency chief Gen. Keith Alexander revealed Wednesday that his spy agency once tested whether it could track Americans’ cell- phone locations, in addition to its practice of sweeping broad information about calls made. Alexander and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on proposed reforms to the NSA’s surveillance of phone and internet usage around the world, exposed in June by former NSA analyst Edward Snowden. Alexander denied a New York Times report published Saturday that said NSA searched social networks of Americans.

The head of Greece’s extremist right-wing Golden Dawn party testified Wednesday on charges of running a criminal organization as part of an investigation into his party triggered by the killing of a left-wing rapper. Earlier, the investigating magistrates ordered the release of three party lawmakers in a marathon court session. The government, which has vowed to eradicate Golden Dawn, insisted the case against the Nazi-inspired party was still on track despite the releases.

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the appointment of an independent monitor and a community advisory board to ensure that an Arizona sheriff is complying with constitutional requirements after finding his office engages in racial profiling. US District Judge Murray Snow found in May that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and Sheriff Joe Arpaio singled out Latinos and deputies prolonged detentions unreasonably.

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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