Midday Roundup: Debris washed ashore in Africa could be from MH370

Another clue. Aviation experts say a piece of a Boeing 777 found off the coast of Mozambique this weekend likely came from the Malaysian Airlines flight that went missing two years ago this month. According to U.S. officials, the wreckage is a piece of horizontal stabilizer skin. It is now on its way to Malaysia for analysis. Despite expectations that it will be a match to Flight MH370, Malaysian officials said making any connection at this point was too speculative. But no other Boeing 777 is known to be missing. The plane’s disappearance remains a mystery that has spawned multiple possible explanations and even some conspiracy theories. The only other sign of the missing aircraft came in September, when French investigators confirmed debris that washed ashore on Reunion Island in July came from the downed plane. The aircraft disappeared on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board. It presumably crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean, but investigators still have no idea why it was so far off its scheduled course or what brought it down.

No damage done. A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck this morning off the Indonesian island of Muara Siberut, about 500 miles west-southwest of Sumatra. Although the shallow quake, recorded at 15 miles deep, triggered tsunami warnings and fears of widespread damage, none has been reported so far. Large earthquakes are common in Indonesia, which is part of the “Ring of Fire” fault lines circling the Pacific Basin. The last earthquake in the region that caused significant damage occurred in 2004, when a 9.1 magnitude tremor off the coast of Northern Sumatra generated a tsunami that killed 225,000 people in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania and Bangladesh. Another quake in the area in 2006 killed 5,750 people.

Not backing down. President Barack Obama and top Democrats met yesterday with Senate Republican leaders about replacing the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The meeting lasted less than an hour. Both sides dug in, and not much changed. The president insists he will nominate a replacement for Scalia and Republicans should allow a confirmation vote. Republicans say a lame-duck president in an election year doesn’t get to make that call. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., accused Republicans after the meeting of ignoring the Constitution. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, are holding their ground. The Constitution requires the president to get the Senate’s consent before a nominee can be appointed to the Supreme Court, but it does not require the Senate to consider a nomination. And on 25 occasions, the Senate has refused to hold hearings on Supreme Court nominations.

Bomb test backlash. The UN Security Council voted unanimously today to impose new sanctions against North Korea for its recent hydrogen bomb and long-range missile tests. The sanctions are the toughest enacted in 20 years against the country’s autocratic rulers. The United States and China reached agreement on the resolution earlier in the week, paving the way for a final vote yesterday. But Russia demanded further review of the sanctions, delaying the vote for at least 24 hours. The package includes mandatory inspections of all cargo going into or out of North Korea, travel bans, and asset-freezing for a list of North Korean entities operating in Syria, Iran, and Vietnam.

Last will. Osama bin Laden was a wealthy terrorist mastermind—if you believe his handwritten will. U.S. intelligence has released the al-Qaeda leader’s will and more than 100 other bin Laden documents recovered during the 2011 Seal Team 6 raid in Pakistan that killed him. In his will, bin Laden claimed almost $30 million in personal wealth, and not surprisingly, he wanted the bulk of that money to be used for jihad against the West. Only a small portion would go to his family. The other released documents include letters bin Laden wrote to his father asking for prayer should he be killed during his war against infidels. It’s not clear how much bin Laden’s estate was actually worth or whether any of it made its way into al-Qaeda’s war chest.

WORLD Radio’s Mary Reichard and Jim Henry contributed to this report.