Islamists at odds

September 11, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

The growing rift between Al Qaeda and Islamic State is evidence of the self-destructiveness of violent jihadism.

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Raging floodwaters broke through an embankment Thursday and swamped a city near Tokyo, washing away houses, forcing dozens of people to rooftops to await helicopter rescues and leaving one man clinging for his life to a utility pole. There were no immediate reports of casualties, but rescue officials said they were overwhelmed by pleas for help. More than 30,000 people fled their homes, and hundreds more were stranded by the water. As heavy rain pummeled Japan for a second straight day, the Kinugawa River broke through a flood berm, sending water gushing into the eastern half of Joso, a city of 60,000 people about 30 miles northeast of Tokyo.

A Baltimore judge on Thursday denied a request for a change of venue for the trials of six police officers charged in the death of a black man who died from an injury in police custody. The death of Freddie Gray Jr. in April triggered protests, including a day of rioting and fueled a US debate on police treatment of minorities. Defense lawyers for the officers had argued before Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams that intense publicity made it impossible to hold a fair trial in Baltimore. The hearing came a day after the city's financial control board approved a $6.4 million civil settlement to the Gray family.

The United Nations Security Council on Thursday agreed to give a green light to launching an international investigation aimed at assigning blame for chemical weapon attacks in Syria, council diplomats said. The official start of the joint inquiry by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was delayed due to objections by Russia, which had wanted to expand the investigation to include alleged attacks by Islamic State in neighboring Iraq, diplomats said.

The Justice Department issued new guidance to its prosecutors Wednesday, aimed at encouraging more white-collar criminal and civil cases against corporate executives. The new policies come amid persistent criticism that the Justice Department, even while negotiating multi-billion-dollar settlements with large banks, has not been aggressive enough in prosecuting individuals for financial misconduct — including after the mortgage crisis that devastated the US economy.

The future of the Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government in Northern Ireland is hanging by a slender thread with First Minister Peter Robinson's decision Thursday to step down, along with all but one of his ministers, because of a series of disputes. Democratic Unionist leader Robinson left one party figure, Arlene Foster, in place as temporary first minister and finance minister, but the coalition government has been seriously weakened by developments and may ultimately be suspended, leading to a restoration of direct British rule from Westminster. The crisis stems in large part from a police finding that that Irish Republic Army dissidents were involved in last month's killing of former IRA member Kevin McGuigan, a development that Robinson said raised serious doubts about the future of the coalition government that is a prime achievement of the 1998 peace agreement.

Federal investigators on Thursday were analyzing flight data and cockpit voice recorders from a plane that caught fire on a Las Vegas runway, while the pilot credited with aborting its takeoff said he plans to retire. National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Eric Weiss said the black boxes from British Airways Flight 2276 have arrived in Washington, D.C., and an NTSB team in Las Vegas could provide preliminary findings as early as Thursday.

Arizona authorities confirmed Thursday that 11 vehicles area have been shot with bullets or other projectiles in the last two weeks, nearly all of them on freeways in the Phoenix area. The latest confirmed shooting involved a commercial truck whose driver reported a bullet hole in the cargo area Thursday morning. The driver had been making deliveries for hours, and wasn't sure when or where the truck was shot, Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Raul Garcia said. Most of the vehicles hit since the gunfire began on Aug. 29 were traveling on Interstate 10, a main route through central and west Phoenix. No one has been seriously injured.

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