Photo caption: A Pakistani lawyer taking the thumb impression from nine-month-old toddler Mohammad Musa Khan on a bail bond in Lahore on Saturday. Story excerpt:
By Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul, theguardian.com, 28 March 2014
One child and a driver were killed and five people injured after a suicide attack on an aid agency in Kabul on Friday, the third bloody assault to hit the Afghan capital in a week as insurgents stepped up a campaign of violence ahead of presidential elections.
Director of security and safety at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) has told Fars News Agency that authorities have detected sabotage at the country’s heavy water reactor facility and neutralized it before any damage was done.
Asqar Zarean told Fars that Arak IR-40 heavy-water reactor was the intended target of saboteurs, but Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MoIS) was “instrumental in uncovering the plot.” (Fars News Agency, 15 March)
By David Osborne from Texas, The Independent, 11 March, 2014
[....] So rapid has been the change in its energy fortunes that even some experts, as well as policy-makers in Washington, are struggling to keep up. Nor are we just talking oil. So much natural gas is being released by the shale also that for now outlandish quantities of it are simply being burned off into the atmosphere.
By C. J. Chivers and Patrick Reevell, New York Times, March 14/15, 2014
SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine — Early this month, Russian soldiers took up positions at the television transmission center here in the capital of the Ukrainian region of Crimea. Their arrival marked part of a broad effort to muffle dissent over the Kremlin-backed project to guide Crimea through a swift secession from Ukraine.
By Matt Apuzo, Dealbook @ nytimes.com, March 13, 2014
Four years after President Obama promised to crack down on mortgage fraud, his administration has quietly made the crime its lowest priority and has closed hundreds of cases after little or no investigation, the Justice Department’s internal watchdog said on Thursday.
The dystopian, post-electricity world of NBC’s sci-fi show Revolution may be a lesfictional possibility than you thought, according to the results of a major federal study on vulnerability in the electricity grids Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal.
By Kevin Helliker, Wall Street Journal, March 11, 2014
Research shows that a diet high in protein and low in carbohydrates can help shed pounds and normalize blood-glucose levels, improvements that lower the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Lawyers for the man charged with killing 12 people in a Colorado movie theater asked the supreme court to require a Fox News reporter to identify her sources for a story about the defendant.
The attorneys said Monday they asked the justices to review a New York state court ruling that Colorado cannot force New York-based reporter Jana Winter to reveal who told her that Holmes sent his psychiatrist a notebook containing violent images before the July 2012 attack.
By Andrew Soloman, The New Yorker, March 17, 2014 issue and available online now
[....] Since the shootings, Peter has avoided the press, but in September, as the first anniversary of his son’s rampage approached, he contacted me to say that he was ready to tell his story. We met six times, for interviews lasting as long as seven hours [....]
By Amanda Hoh, Sydney Morning Herald, March 11, 2014
As fears for the 239 passengers missing on a Malaysia Airlines flight continue to rise, speculation as to what may have happened to MH 370 are flying high. While Malaysian officials have appealed for people to avoid spreading rumours about the cause of the missing flight, conspiracy theories are emerging online - from a terrorist attack to spontaneous explosions and a wild stunt [....]
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of supporting fighters in Iraq and effectively declaring war on the country.
The rare direct attack on the Sunni Gulf powers, comes with Iraq embroiled in its worst prolonged period of bloodshed since 2008, with more than 1,800 people killed already this year, ahead of parliamentary elections due next month [....]
Warning: For conspiracy buffs, this will be a very disappointing narrative. Also disappointing for those who think at least some of the world's leaders are capable of playing eleventy dimensional chess.
By Steven Lee Myers, New York Times, March 7/8, 2014
By Jeremy W. Peters, New York Times, March 7/8, 2014
[....] At least 26 more physicians are running for the House, some for re-election. In all, 20 people with medical degrees serve in Congress today, 17 in the House and three in the Senate, a number that has doubled over the last decade [....]
A dispute over a classified C.I.A. report has led to a bitter fight between the agency and the Senate Intelligence Committee, with each side accusing the other of spying.
