Slowly, carefully build freedom in Ukraine

March 19, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

Don’t provoke Putin, but also don’t let Ukraine fall back under his grip.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

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

Stepping into a region on edge, Vice President Joe Biden visited Poland Tuesday to reassure anxious allies that the US will stand up to Russia’s aggression in neighboring Ukraine, even as Moscow brushes aside sanctions and warnings from the West. Biden also met with Estonia’s leader and will meet today with leaders of Lithuania and Latvia, other Baltic nations deeply concerned about Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

Checks into the background of the Chinese citizens on board the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner have uncovered no links to terrorism, the Chinese ambassador in Kuala Lumpur said Tuesday. The remarks will dampen speculation that Uighur Muslim separatists in Xinjiang Province might have been involved with the disappearance of the Boeing 777 and its 239 passengers and crew early on March 8.

President Obama presented 24 Medals of Honor Tuesday in a rare ceremony meant to commemorate acts of bravery that the government concluded should have been recognized a long time ago. The recipients – Hispanics, Jews, and African-Americans whose service spanned three wars, from World War II to Korea to Vietnam – were identified by a congressionally mandated review to ensure recognition was not withheld because of prejudice. Only three recipients are still alive.

An Egyptian court convicted four policemen Tuesday for the killings of 37 Islamist detainees last summer and sentenced one of the officers to 10 years in prison. Tuesday’s verdicts were the first in the only trial against officials accused of killing supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.

Police photographs of the scene where Oscar Pistorius shot dead his girlfriend indicate that evidence was moved around in violation of procedure during the investigation of the killing, the athlete’s chief defense lawyer said Tuesday in Pretoria, South Africa. The photos were taken in the hours after the double-amputee Olympic runner shot Reeva Steenkamp before dawn on Feb. 14 last year.

The most wanted suspected drug lord in the Balkans, charged with smuggling 5.7 tons of cocaine from South America to Europe, was arrested Tuesday after surrendering to Serbian authorities, government officials said. Darko Saric was arraigned after agreeing to surrender following his location by several national security agencies in an unidentified Latin American country.

Thailand’s government on Tuesday lifted a state of emergency in Bangkok and surrounding areas after violence related to the country’s latest political crisis eased. The Cabinet decided to revoke the emergency decree, which expanded the power of security forces.

Los Angeles International Airport was ill prepared for a crisis when a gunman ambushed security officers last year, and the emergency response was hindered by communication problems and poor coordination, according to a report released Tuesday. The report obtained in advance by The Associated Press was based on findings by several agencies that responded to the shooting and a review of camera footage, dispatch logs, and 911 calls.

Ten days after a Malaysian jetliner disappeared, Thailand’s military said Tuesday it saw radar blips that might have been from the missing plane but didn’t report it “because we did not pay attention to it.” Thailand’s failure to quickly share possible information about the plane may not substantially change what Malaysian officials now know, but it raises questions about the degree to which some countries are sharing their defense data.

Threats to Defense Department personnel and facilities increasingly are coming from trusted insiders, and to defeat them the Pentagon must beef up security from within, according to two reviews prompted by last year’s Washington Navy Yard killings. The reviews say the shooting by a Navy contractor could have been prevented if the company that employed Aaron Alexis told the Navy about problems it was having with him before he gunned down 12 civilian workers.

A news helicopter crashed into a street and burst into flames Tuesday near Seattle’s Space Needle, killing two people on board and badly injuring a man in a car. The chopper was taking off from a helipad on the KOMO-TV station’s roof when it went down at a busy downtown intersection. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said the city will review its policies about permitting helicopter pads.

A suicide bomber riding a rickshaw blew himself up outside a checkpoint near a market in northern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing at least 15 civilians, officials said, in the latest attack in the countdown to next month’s presidential elections.

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.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

Are you sure?

Forgot to add folder?

Tags Error