The danger of ‘modern authoritarianism’

January 27, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

Thailand, Ukraine, and Egypt are beset by political turmoil.

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Two days of face-to-face Syrian peace talks yielded a narrow and tentative agreement Sunday to let women and children leave a blockaded part of the old city of Homs, while the government said President Bashar al-Assad had no intention of giving up “the keys to Damascus.” With little progress to show after months of international pressure for the conference in Geneva, the UN mediator hoping to broker an end to Syria’s civil war defended their pace. The limited agreement was called into question by multiple reports of government shelling.

Ukraine’s opposition called off a massive rally planned for Sunday because of the funeral for a protester killed in clashes with police last week, underscoring the rising tensions in the country’s two-month political crisis. Mikhail Zhiznevsky was one of two protesters who died of gunshot wounds on Wednesday. The opposition contends they were shot by police in an area where demonstrators had been throwing rocks and firebombs at riot police.

The gunman who shot two people to death at a Maryland shopping mall had no criminal record, police said Sunday, but little else was known about the 19-year-old and whether he knew his victims. Darion Marcus Aguilar of College Park, Md., carried out Saturday’s attack with a shotgun at a skateboard shop at the Mall in Columbia in suburban Baltimore before killing himself, police said.

Trade ministers from many of the world’s biggest economies pledged to broaden a deal to boost global trade Saturday, with the US saying nothing is off-limits for discussion. At a Swiss-hosted meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, ministers from China, the European Union, Japan, the US, and 15 other nations agreed to build on the “positive momentum” of a World Trade Organization summit last December in Bali where the organization’s 159 member economies agreed to cut customs red tape.

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden claims in a new interview that the US agency is involved in industrial espionage. German public television broadcaster ARD released a written statement before an interview airing Sunday night in which it quotes Snowden as saying that if German engineering company Siemens had information that would benefit the United States – but had nothing to do with national security needs – the NSA would still use it.

A day after splitting up with France’s president, Valerie Trierweiler launched a new stage in her life Sunday with a charity visit to India. Back at home, President François Hollande faced a new showing of discontent with his presidency as some 17,000 people marched through central Paris, angry at his handling of the stagnant economy, high unemployment, and high taxes.

The cost of a first-class US postage stamp is now 49 cents – 3 cents more than before. Regulators approved the price hike in December, and it went into effect on Sunday.

“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.

The cost of a first-class US postage stamp is now 49 cents – 3 cents more than before. Regulators approved the price hike in December, and it went into effect on Sunday.

“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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