Why the US and Russia should talk

May 12, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

Despite Ukraine and other issues, there's too much at stake globally for Moscow and Washington not to cooperate.

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US Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Russia on Tuesday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin for talks aimed at mending relations driven to new post-Cold War lows by disagreements over Ukraine and Syria. It will be Kerry's first trip to Russia since the start of the Ukraine crisis and only his second since taking office. Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement that it hopes Kerry's visit will "normalize bilateral relations on which global stability largely depends."

Emergency responders searched the wreckage of communities in northeast Texas and southwest Arkansas early Monday, after a rash of tornadoes slammed the area, killing at least five people and leaving dozens injured. Howard County Sheriff Brian McJunkins said two victims who lived in a mobile home in Nashville, Arkansas, died after several tornadoes were reported in the area late Sunday. In neighboring Texas, a likely tornado pummeled the small city of Van in Van Zandt County around 8:45 p.m.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's lawyers rested their case Monday in their bid to save him from execution after death penalty opponent Sister Helen Prejean testified that Tsarnaev expressed genuine sorrow about the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. "No one deserves to suffer like they did," Prejean quoted him as saying. The prosecution wrapped up its case as well Monday. The two sides will return on Wednesday to give closing arguments, after which the federal jury will decide whether the 21-year-old Tsarnaev should get a death sentence or life in prison.

It is not just the Saudi king who will be skipping the Camp David summit of US and allied Arab leaders. Most Gulf heads of state won't be there. The absences will put a damper on talks that are designed to reassure key Arab allies, and almost certainly reflect dissatisfaction among leaders of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council with Washington's handling of Iran and what they expect to get out of the meeting.

Prince took the stage in Baltimore before thousands of fans who were dressed in gray in tribute to a man whose death in police custody prompted riots and drew international attention. The pop star presented Sunday's "Rally 4 Peace" concert at the Royal Farms Arena Baltimore after weeks of protests sparked by Freddie Gray's death. During the show, Prince debuted a song he wrote for the city after Gray's death.

Hundreds of migrants abandoned at sea by smugglers in Southeast Asia have reached land and relative safety in the past two days. But an estimated 6,000 Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar remain trapped in crowded, wooden boats, migrant officials and activists said. Worried that vessels will start washing to shore with dead bodies, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the United States and several other foreign governments and international organizations have held emergency meetings, but participants say there are no immediate plans to search for vessels in the busy Malacca Strait.

Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski on Monday vowed to urgently seek a referendum on voting and tax rules if he is re-elected, saying that he was drawing a lesson from his poor electoral showing that saw him forced into a runoff. The candidate of the conservative nationalist Law and Justice party, Andrzej Duda, is expected to receive 34.5 percent of the first-round vote, to Komorowski's 33.1 percent, according to the IPSOS exit poll released after Sunday's vote.

Eager to buy your first home this spring? Already own, but want to trade up? Be warned: there'll be plenty of competition. Bidding wars have broken out in hot real-estate markets like Denver and Los Angeles, where there aren't enough houses to meet demand. The lack of supply is a key reason home sales nationwide have yet to return to healthy levels following the housing collapse in 2008.

“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.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

“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.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

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