Shorts (right)
SEOUL, South Korea — The United States said Thursday that North Korea should immediately release a U.S. citizen who was sentenced this week to 15 years of hard labor, setting up a potential new source of confrontation between the two countries that could aggravate tensions that are still high over North Korea’s nuclear war threats.
Concern as politics, vetting leave vacancies in top offices
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry is practically home alone, toiling without permanent assistant secretaries of state for the Middle East, Asia, Europe and Africa. At the Pentagon, a temporary personnel chief is managing furloughs for 800,000 civilian employees. There has not been a director of the Internal Revenue Service since last November, and it was only on Thursday that President Barack Obama nominated a new commerce secretary after the job was open for nearly a year.
US to appeal order lifting age limit on morning-after pill
The Obama administration moved Wednesday to keep girls under 15 from having over-the-counter access to morning-after pills, as the Justice Department filed a notice to appeal a judge’s order that would make the drug available without a prescription for girls and women of all ages. The appeal reaffirms an election-year decision by the Obama administration to block the drug’s maker from selling it without a prescription or consideration of age, and puts the White House back into the politically charged issue of access to emergency contraception.
Unusual snowstorm strikes Midwest
A rare May snowstorm swept through the center of the United States on Wednesday and Thursday, with six to twelve inches of snow falling in a band reaching from Kansas through Minnesota. The unseasonable precipitation was the product of an unusually deep upper-level trough combined with a very strong cold front stationed across the continent. The storm broke several records for snowfall and low temperatures in the month of May across the affected states.
Netanyahu backs vote on any agreement with Palestinians
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Thursday that any peace agreement with the Palestinians should be put to a referendum, a move that some Israelis view as a potential obstacle to a deal even as Secretary of State John Kerry works intently to renew long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Gorgeous week to come
High pressure controls New England this week, bringing lovely weather. In a high pressure system, air descends from above; since the cold air high in the atmosphere cannot hold very much water vapor, this descending air is dry and causes clear, sunny conditions. Due to the lack of clouds, the surface radiatively cools very efficiently at night, leading to cool mornings and a large diurnal temperature gradient. Low pressure systems have the opposite effect; moist surface air convects upwards, condensing and forming clouds at the altitude where the temperature is too low to hold excess water vapor. At least for this week, we shouldn’t see those sorts of clouds!
Shorts (left)
ATHENS, Greece — Eurozone officials on Monday approved the release of 2.8 billion euros, or $3.7 billion, in loans to Greece, the country’s Finance Ministry said, paving the way for the approval of an additional 6 billion euro installment at a meeting of the currency union’s finance ministers in mid-May.
Five are convicted in Kosovo organ-trafficking ring
PARIS — Five people were convicted Monday in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, in connection with an elaborate organ-trafficking network that lured poor people to the country and then sold their kidneys and other organs to wealthy transplant recipients from Israel, the United States, Canada and Germany, charging as much as $130,000 for each organ.
After Boston Marathon bombing, US ties with Russia improve
MOSCOW — After President Barack Obama and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia spoke by telephone Monday, a top Russian official said cooperation between the leaders’ intelligence services had “noticeably intensified in the past few days,” though he said Russia had not been able to provide valuable intelligence about the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Shorts (right)
WASHINGTON — The White House said Thursday that it believes the Syrian government has used chemical weapons in its civil war, an assessment that could test President Barack Obama’s repeated warnings that such an attack could precipitate U.S. intervention in Syria.
Warm and pleasant weekend ahead
A high pressure system moving northeast from the Midwest will reach New England on Saturday, providing clear skies and light winds. The high will remain over our area throughout the weekend and into next week. The slow movement of the high is due to a large Atlantic ridge (i.e. another high) which is temporarily blocking the normal movement of weather systems along the jet stream. The high will therefore stay close to us, keeping skies clear and winds light. These two features will ultimately allow high temperatures to average around 65°F (18°C) or above through at least Monday. By late weekend, the light winds should start bringing air from the southwest, giving a small rise in overall temperatures. Any chances of rain appear quite slim today, despite that some remnants of a dissipating low pressure area over Canada will reach us and bring some clouds. Any clouds today will disappear overnight, and clear skies will rule our region through early next week.
Democratic senators voice health care law concerns
WASHINGTON — Democratic senators, at a caucus meeting with White House officials, expressed concerns Thursday about how the Obama administration was carrying out the health care law they adopted three years ago.
Shorts (left)
HOUSTON — Exxon Mobil reported a virtually flat profit for the first quarter Thursday, with strong earnings on its chemical business partly compensating for declines in exploration, production, refining and marketing.
Kurdish rebel group to withdraw from Turkey
ISTANBUL — The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the main Kurdish rebel group in Turkey, said Thursday that it would withdraw all of its forces from the country by May 8 as part of a peace agreement to end a 30-year conflict with the Turkish state.
UN Security Council votes to deploy peacekeepers in Mali
UNITED NATIONS — Despite qualms about embroiling peacekeeping troops in the global fight against Islamist extremists, the U.N. Security Council voted Thursday to establish a force for Mali, where militants controlled much of the north until France intervened in January.
Technology hampers opening of exchange
Trading on the nation’s largest options exchange was delayed for several hours on Thursday because of computer problems, the latest incident to highlight the vulnerability of markets to technological shocks.
Cancer physicians attack high drug costs
With the cost of some lifesaving cancer drugs exceeding $100,000 a year, more than 100 influential cancer specialists from around the world have taken the unusual step of banding together in hopes of persuading some leading pharmaceutical companies to bring prices down.
Shorts (right)
KABUL, Afghanistan — An emergency landing by a helicopter ferrying foreign engineers in eastern Afghanistan turned into a mass abduction by the Taliban, officials said on Monday, offering a stark reminder of the insurgents’ continuing hold on large parts of the countryside.
Syrian war spilling into Lebanon, rights group says
BEIRUT — A Human Rights Watch report released Monday accused both the Syrian government and the insurgency of striking residential areas in neighboring Lebanon on several occasions and killing a number of its citizens. The cross-border attacks appeared to be largely indiscriminate and threatened to further destabilize the Syrian-Lebanese frontier, Human Rights Watch said.
Rain today, dry and seasonable rest of week
The below average temperatures of the last two days will continue today, with a coastal storm set to deliver a damp and chilly day. With high temperatures probably not making it out of the 40s°F, rain likely throughout the day and evening, and a cold northeast wind, it will not be a particularly pleasant spring day. However, it looks like the situation will improve for the rest of the week. Tomorrow is our best chance for some above average temperatures, with a southwesterly wind advecting warmer air into our region ahead of an approaching cold front. Some rain showers are possible with this cold front tomorrow evening and Thursday morning. Thursday and Friday, building high pressure will keep the weather mainly dry with seasonable temperatures near 60°F.