First US Atlantic marine monument created

President Barack Obama plans to designate on Thursday an undersea range of canyons and peaks off the US Eastern seaboard as the country's first Atlantic marine national monument. The move will further Obama's conservation efforts in the final months of his presidency, an initiative he views as a major component of his environmental legacy. The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, situated 130 miles southeast of Cape Cod, will protect 4,913 square miles of ocean from commercial activity and development. That includes barring undersea drilling and mining, as well as commercial fishing activity. Some fishing groups have protested the national monument, saying the move could harm the region's economy and impede the work of existing fishery management groups. In response to the protests, red crab and lobster fisheries will have seven years before they're required to cease commercial activity within the monument, while other types of commercial fishing enterprises will have 60 days to exit. Recreational fishing will still be permitted within the monument's boundaries.

In Other News One of the last times the public saw Hillary Clinton, she was being helped into a van by her security detail, her knees buckling and body slouching over as she lost her balance. Four days after her near fainting spell, Clinton returns to the campaign Thursday. The past few days she has been following her doctor's orders to slow down and rest to recuperate from pneumonia. Russia and the US have agreed to extend the nationwide ceasefire in Syria for another 48 hours. New documents reveal alleged hazing incidents at Parris Island, a Marine Corps training center where a Muslim recruit committed suicide in March. According to the documents, a drill instructor once ordered another Muslim recruit to climb into into a clothes dryer. There were other incidents, too, that involved slapping, hitting and stress positions. The Marines are considering charges against 20 individuals involved in the alleged abuse. Six people are dead and at least 150 injured after a horrific train crash in Pakistan. A passenger train collided with a freight train after the freight train had stopped so officials could remove the body of a suicide victim from the tracks. The passenger train, the Awam Express, is one of the longest passenger trains in the world.