Monitor Daily News Briefing - September 13, 2013

September 13, 2013 - Daily News Briefing

Words can commit people in ways that aren’t apparent when they utter them. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s op-ed in The New York Times yesterday may be an example of that.

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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad publicly agreed Thursday to a Russian plan to secure and destroy his chemical weapons, but said the proposal would work only if the US halts threats of military action. Assad also said his government will start submitting data on its chemical weapons stockpile a month after signing the convention banning such weapons, while the UN said Thursday that it received a letter from Syria stating its intention to join. The treaty states that a nation becomes a party 30 days after such a letter is submitted. But American officials, meeting with their Russian counterparts in Geneva, insisted on a speedier Syrian accounting of their stockpiles.

European lawmakers approved legislation Thursday establishing a new, centralized oversight for Europe’s largest banks, marking what is considered a key step toward stabilizing the bloc’s financial system. The centralized bank supervision authority, which will be anchored by the European Central Bank, will be up and running next year following a thorough stress test of banks’ balance sheets.

NASA’s Voyager I probe has left the solar system, boldly going where no machine has gone before. Thirty-six years after it rocketed away from Earth, the plutonium-powered spacecraft has escaped the sun’s influence and is now cruising 11-1/2 billion miles away in interstellar space, in the vast, cold emptiness between the stars, NASA said Thursday.

An American who became one of Somalia’s most visible Islamic rebels and was on the FBI’s most wanted terrorist list with a $5 million bounty on his head was killed Thursday by rivals in the Al Qaeda-linked extremist group Al Shabab, militants said. The killing of Omar Hammami, an Alabama native known for his rap-filled propaganda videos, may discourage other would-be jihadis from the US and elsewhere from traveling to Somalia, terrorism experts said.

Heavy rains and scarring from recent wildfires sent walls of water crashing down mountainsides early Thursday in Colorado, cutting off mountain towns and forcing the University of Colorado to cancel classes. At least three people are reported dead.

Thousands of fish are expected to die in Honolulu waters after a leaky pipe caused 1,400 tons of molasses to ooze into the harbor and kill marine life, state officials said. Hundreds of fish have been collected so far, the state Department of Health said in a statement Wednesday. Many more fish are expected to die and thousands will likely be collected, it said. The fish are dying because the high concentration of molasses is making it difficult for them to breathe.

Actress Shirley MacLaine and four standout musicians spanning rock, jazz and opera – Billy Joel, Herbie Hancock, Carlos Santana, and Martina Arroyo – were named Thursday to receive Kennedy Center Honors. Top entertainers will salute them in a gala performance Dec. 8 in Washington to be broadcast Dec. 29 on CBS.

Compiled from wire service reports

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