What’s in a name?

December 09, 2013 - Daily News Briefing

Names can prompt passionate reactions in international relations.

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In death, Nelson Mandela unified South Africans of all races and backgrounds Sunday on a day of prayer for the global statesman – from a vaulted cathedral with hymns and incense to a rural, hilltop church with goat-skin drums and barefoot dancing. Mandela was remembered in old bedrocks of resistance to white domination as well as former bastions of loyalty to apartheid. “May his long walk to freedom be enjoyed and realized in our time by all of us,” worshippers said in a prayer at the majestic St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, where the first white settlers arrived centuries ago aboard European ships.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that any agreement to emerge from newly restarted talks with the Palestinians will likely initially result in a “cold peace,” and therefore Israel must insist on “iron-clad security arrangements” to protect itself in case the accord collapses. Netanyahu’s cautious outlook in a video address to the Brookings Institution in Washington came a day after President Barack Obama gave an optimistic prognosis before the same audience, insisting a peace framework could be attained in a matter of months.

For the first time since the war, Alvis Taylor returned to Pearl Harbor and recalled the surprise Japanese air attack that plunged America into World War II. He was serving as an Army medic when the Dec. 7, 1941 attack began. His superiors, who were doctors, rushed to hospitals to care for the wounded. He went to Pearl Harbor, about 18 miles south of his Army post at Schofield Barracks, with dozens of ambulances. “I remember everything that happened that day,” the 90-year-old Davenport, Iowa, resident said. He was among about 50 survivors of the attack and some 2,500 others who gathered Saturday on the 72nd anniversary of the Japanese air raid.

The United Nations complained Sunday that Afghan authorities have been slow in enforcing a law protecting women against forced marriages, domestic violence and rape. A report issued by the UN mission in Afghanistan found that although Afghan authorities registered more reports of violence against women under the four-year-old law, prosecutions and convictions remained low. In a statement, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay described the law as a “landmark” and said it “was a huge achievement for all Afghans.”

A winter storm delivered a sloppy smorgasbord of snow, freezing rain and sleet to the southern Mid-Atlantic region and other states Sunday, with parts of Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey seeing more than 3 inches of accumulation, making driving dangerous for millions of residents nationwide. The slow-moving storm prompted officials in Virginia, parts of Maryland and other states to urge residents to stay off the roads and forced scattered airport delays. In Wisconsin, there were several vehicle pileups due to snow and dangerous road conditions, with one fatal interstate rollover.

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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