Understanding Russia’s fears

February 21, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

While Russian intervention is unlikely, the West must balance idealism with realpolitik.

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A brief truce in Ukraine’s embattled capital failed Thursday, spiraling into fierce clashes between police and antigovernment protesters that left at least 22 people dead. Government snipers were reported to be shooting at some of the protesters in Kiev. At least 50 people have died this week in clashes in Kiev, a sharp reversal in a months-long crisis that had shown tentative steps toward compromise just days earlier.

Canada won its fourth straight women’s Olympic hockey title, erasing a 2-0 deficit late in the game to force an overtime Thursday in Sochi, Russia. Marie-Philip Poulin’s power play goal 8:10 into the extra period clinched the 3-2 victory. It marked the fourth time the two North American powers have met for the gold. The US won only the sport’s inaugural Olympic title in 1998. Meanwhile, in women’s figure skating, Russia’s Adelina Sotnikova won the gold, dropping defending champion Yuna Kim into second place. Carolina Kostner of Italy took bronze.

Former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks moved from the defendants’ dock to the witness stand in London Thursday, maintaining her innocence of phone-hacking charges in public for the first time. Almost four months into a court case that has put Britain’s tabloids on trial, Brooks began her defense, claiming that while editor she had never even heard of the private investigator who has admitted hacking phones on behalf of her underlings.

Russian punk band Pussy Riot on Thursday ended their stay in the Olympic city of Sochi by posting a video criticizing the Winter Games and President Vladimir Putin. The band has been filming in Sochi since Sunday and has had violent run-ins with authorities.

Three Al Jazeera journalists pleaded not guilty Thursday in Cairo and shouted from the dock that their prison conditions are “psychologically unbearable” as they went on trial with several other defendants, on terror charges. The high-profile case underlined the tug of war between the military-backed Egyptian government and the Qatari-based network criticized for its coverage of the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and the crackdown against his Muslim Brotherhood.

Pakistani Air Force jets bombed militant hideouts in the country’s volatile northwest, officials said Thursday, after government efforts to negotiate a peace deal with the Pakistani Taliban broke down earlier this week. A Pakistani military official and two intelligence officers said 15 suspected militants were believed to have been killed in the airstrikes.

Highly radioactive water has overflowed from a storage tank at Japan’s crippled nuclear power plant, but the operator said Thursday it did not reach the Pacific Ocean. Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the leak involved partially treated water from early in the disaster at the plant, meaning this leak was more toxic than previous leaks. The cores of three reactors melted at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in 2011.

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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