The world's annual meeting

September 29, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

While nations are still divided by disputes and conflicts, 70 years of UN meetings affirms their desire to build a better world.

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The Taliban captured the northern Afghan city of Kunduz in a massive assault Monday involving hundreds of fighters, and now control a major urban area for the first time since the 2001 US-led invasion. "Kunduz city has collapsed into the hands of the Taliban," Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told The Associated Press. The fall of Kunduz marks a major setback for government forces, who have struggled to combat the Taliban since the US and NATO shifted to a supporting role at the end of last year.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin sharply disagreed Monday over the chaos in Syria, with Obama urging a political transition to replace the Syrian president but Putin warning it would be a mistake to abandon the current government. After dueling speeches at the United Nations General Assembly, Obama and Putin also met privately for 90 minutes — their first face-to-face encounter in nearly a year. The discussions opened with a stony-faced handshake before the leaders slipped into their meeting room at U.N. headquarters.

Royal Dutch Shell is giving up on its expensive and controversial push to produce oil in Alaska's Arctic waters, a decision that darkens the long-term oil prospects of the US and brings relief to environmental groups that had tried desperately to block the project. Shell is abandoning the region "for the foreseeable future" because it failed to find enough oil to make further drilling worthwhile. The company has spent more than $7 billion to explore for oil in Alaska's Arctic, slogging through a years-long regulatory gauntlet and attracting spite from environmental groups who feared a spill in the Arctic's harsh climate would be extremely difficult to clean up and devastating to polar bears, walruses, seals and other wildlife.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is officially declaring his candidacy for House speaker to replace John Boehner, who announced his resignation on Friday under pressure from conservatives. McCarthy, who is Boehner's No. 2, sent a letter to GOP lawmakers on Monday pledging to fight for conservative principles — and asking for their support as the next speaker.

The U.S. Congress moved on Monday to rush legislation to President Barack Obama that avoids a government shutdown on Thursday as the new fiscal year starts while setting aside a bitter Republican feud over money for Planned Parenthood. The Senate kicked off the effort by advancing a measure to extend all previous agency funding levels until Dec. 11, in a bipartisan 77-19 procedural vote. That clears the way for the Senate to pass the spending bill by early Wednesday, sending it to the House of Representatives for passage just in time to beat a midnight Wednesday deadline.

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is calling for an overhaul of the tax code that would eliminate income taxes for millions of Americans, while lowering them for the highest-income earners and business. The plan unveiled Monday would eliminate federal income taxes on individuals earning less than $25,000 and married couples earning less than $50,000. But the plan would also benefit businesses and the rich. It would lower the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent and lower the highest income tax rate from 39.6 percent to 25 percent.

A sobbing former prison worker who helped two murderers escape from a maximum-security lockup said she regretted her "horrible mistake" as she was sentenced Monday to up to seven years behind bars as part of a plea deal. Joyce Mitchell apologized profusely as she was sentenced to 2 1/3 to seven years in prison, saying she acted in part out of fear. She also might have to contribute to the $120,000 in restitution the state is seeking for damages to Clinton Correctional Facility from the brazen June 6 escape. The judge showed little sympathy as he handed down the sentence and set a Nov. 6 restitution hearing.

A Seattle duck boat that swerved into an oncoming charter bus last week, killing five people and injuring dozens, did not have an axle repair that was recommended for at least some of the amphibious vehicles in 2013, federal investigators said. Ride the Ducks International, which refurbished the boat in 2005, issued a warning to its customers two years ago about potential axle failure and recommended a specific repair or increased monitoring, National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener said. On Monday, Washington state regulators suspended the operations of the tour company.

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