Ukraine and a tale of two unions

December 03, 2013 - Daily News Briefing

The 28-member European Union and the newly established Eurasian Union are colliding in Ukraine.

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A growing body of evidence collected by UN investigators points to the involvement of senior Syrian officials, including President Bashar al-Assad, in crimes against humanity and war crimes, the UN’s top human rights official said Monday. The statement by Navi Pillay, who heads the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, adds to the pressure for quicker action on Syria ahead of a key peace conference planned for Geneva in January. The conference, brought on by combined UN, US, and Russian diplomacy, would for the first time bring the Assad government and opponents together for face-to-face negotiations. Pillay said the Syrian abuses – suspected massacres, chemical attacks, torture, rape, and a litany of other horrors – are being well documented by an expert UN panel of investigators.

The National Transportation Safety Board says a train that derailed in New York City was traveling 82 m.p.h. as it approached a 30 m.p.h. zone. The Metro-North Railroad commuter train jumped the tracks Sunday morning along a sharp curve where the speed limit drops from 70 m.p.h. to 30 m.p.h. Four passengers died. National Transportation Safety Board investigators on Monday mined the train’s data recorders.

On perhaps the busiest online shopping day of the year, the Supreme Court refused on Monday to wade into a dispute over state sales taxes on purchases on websites like Amazon.com, an outcome likely to prompt more states to attempt to collect taxes on Internet sales. The high court without comment turned away appeals from Amazon.com LLC and Overstock.com Inc. in their fight against a New York court decision forcing them to remit sales tax the same way in-state businesses do.

US Vice President Joe Biden has opened a week-long trip to Asia aimed at showing the US is still committed to increasing its engagement and influence in the region. Biden arrived in Tokyo on Monday evening and was met by Caroline Kennedy, the new US ambassador to Japan.

Hundreds of Islamic militants in trucks and a stolen armored personnel carrier attacked an Air Force base on the outskirts of a Nigerian city before dawn Monday, officials and witnesses said, possibly leaving scores of people dead in one of the most daring attacks ever by the Boko Haram insurgent group.

The Lebanese government authorized the Army on Monday to take control of the northern city of Tripoli for six months following three days of sectarian clashes, a decision meant to allay fears that fighting in Lebanon’s second-largest city was spiraling out of control. The fighting is concentrated between two impoverished rival neighborhoods in the port city.

For the first time in 2-1/2 years, a new Saab sedan has rolled off the production line in Trollhattan in southwest Sweden. National Electric Vehicle Sweden, the Hong Kong-based company that bought Saab out of bankruptcy in September last year, on Monday presented its new 9-3 Aero.

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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