Extremists divided

January 15, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

A rift between Al Qaeda and the Islamic State echoes rifts among earlier militant groups.

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France ordered prosecutors around the country Wednesday to crack down on hate speech, anti-Semitism and glorifying terrorism, announcing that 54 people had been arrested for those offenses since the Paris terror attacks. The order came as Charlie Hebdo's defiant new issue sold out before dawn around Paris, with scuffles at kiosks over dwindling copies of the satirical newspaper fronting the Prophet Muhammad.

A Singaporean navy ship has found the crashed AirAsia plane's fuselage, a 30-meter-long section with a wing attached, in the Java Sea, authorities said Wednesday. Images taken by a remote-controlled vehicle from the ship showed parts of the plane's wing and words on the fuselage, Singapore Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen said on his Facebook page. He said Indonesian search officials have been notified so they can begin recovery operations.

The United States and Iran are expressing hope that nuclear talks can be accelerated in order to meet a March target for a framework agreement, as the countries' top diplomats met Wednesday ahead of a resumption of full negotiations. US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif met for at least five hours on Wednesday, a day before negotiators from Iran, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany are to resume talks here.

Pope Francis traveled to the jungles of war-torn northern Sri Lanka on Wednesday for a deeply symbolic show of solidarity with the victims of the country's 25-year civil war and to urge forgiveness and reconciliation "for all the evil which this land has known." Thousands of people waving the white and yellow Vatican flags welcomed Francis to the Our Lady of Madhu shrine, which is revered by both Sinhalese and Tamil Catholics, as well as people of other faiths. No pope has ever traveled to the northern Tamil region, and Francis' visit to Sri Lanka's holiest Christian shrine — hours after canonizing the country's first saint as a model for unity — provided a poignant backdrop for his calls for Sri Lankans to overcome their prejudices and seek pardon for the sake of peace.

Even as his country registered 19 new Ebola cases over a 24-hour period, Sierra Leone's president is predicting there will be zero new confirmed cases by the end of March. President Ernest Bai Koroma also predicted that his West African country – one of three hardest hit by the outbreak – would be Ebola-free by World Health Organization standards by May.

A gauge of US consumer spending unexpectedly fell in December as demand fell almost across the board, but that is probably not the start of a weak trend given lower gasoline prices and a firming labor market. The Commerce Department said on Wednesday retail sales excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services fell 0.4 percent last month after a 0.6 percent rise in November.

JPMorgan Chase reported a 7 percent drop in fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday, hit by more legal costs and a drop in trading revenue. JPMorgan, the biggest US bank by assets, said it earned $4.93 billion, or $1.19 a share, for the three-month period ending in December. That compares with a profit of $5.28 billion, or $1.30 a share, a year ago.

Chipotle says it stopped serving pork at hundreds of its restaurants after suspending a supplier that violated its standards. Chris Arnold, a spokesman for the Mexican food chain, told The Associated Press it's the first time the company stopped serving a topping for its burritos and bowls. He said Chipotle learned of the violation by the supplier on Friday through a routine audit, and did not have a timeline for when carnitas would return to affected stores, about a third of its total base.

“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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