10 things you need to know today: September 16, 2013

(Image credit: (REUTERS/Mohamed Abdullah))

last updated 8 January 2015

1. Summers drops out of contention to lead the Federal Reserve

Lawrence Summers withdrew his name from consideration to be the next Federal Reserve chairman on Sunday, after opposition from key Democrats indicated that he faced a tough, possibly fruitless confirmation fight. Summers, a former Treasury secretary, was widely known to be Obama's top pick to replace Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke when his second term ends in January. Now the frontrunner is Federal Reserve Vice Chairwoman Janet Yellen. [New York Times]

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United Nations inspectors are expected to say in a report being released Monday that sarin nerve gas was used in an August attack in Syria that the White House estimates killed 1,429 people, including hundreds of children. The assessment reportedly suggests that only the Syrian military has the missiles necessary to launch such an attack. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will brief the Security Council as its members discuss a plan to seize Syria's chemical stockpile. [ABC News, CNN]

Colorado authorities are taking advantage of clear skies to rescue stranded Coloradans by helicopter on Monday, after heavy rains hampered rescue efforts on Sunday. Seven days of downpours have destroyed 1,500 homes and left 1,254 people unaccounted for. Authorities believe most of the missing are safe — their families just couldn't reach them on the phone. However, five people have died already, and the number is expected to rise. [Fox News, USA Today]

Vice President Joe Biden forcefully defended the Obama administration's record on Sunday at Sen. Tom Harkin's annual steak fry in the early presidential prize of Iowa, fueling speculation that Biden is gearing up for a third run for the White House. Biden faces an uphill battle in the primaries, though. A new CNN poll found that 65 percent of Democrats and left-leaning independents favor Hillary Clinton. [Washington Post, CNN]

Collisions between icy comets and planets might help create the building blocks of life, potentially offering clues about how life began on Earth, according to a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience. The researchers say that such high-speed collisions can turn simple organic compounds found in comets and on icy planets into amino acids, which make proteins, cells, and ultimately all living organisms. [Guardian]

Salvage crews on Monday began a complex, $795-million operation to raise the capsized ocean liner Costa Concordia in Italy. The ship ran aground 50 yards off the tourist port of Giglio in January 2012, killing 32 people. The goal is to rotate the 952-foot ship off the seabed and onto an underwater platform, slowly enough to keep it from breaking apart. The effort to refloat it and tow it to the mainland won't come until spring 2014. [CBS News]

A Charlotte police officer was charged with voluntary manslaughter over the weekend for allegedly shooting and killing an unarmed man who was apparently seeking help after surviving a car accident. A woman called police after the man, former Florida A&M football player Jonathan Ferrell, knocked on her door. When police showed up, Ferrell ran toward them, and Officer Randall Kerrick reportedly fired his gun, killing Ferrell. [Associated Press]

Japan shut down its last working nuclear reactor for maintenance on Sunday, leaving it temporarily nuclear free for the second time in two years. The reactor was one of just a few to restart after the March 2011 tsunami that caused a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant. Japan generated 30 percent of its electricity from nuclear power before the disaster. With all 50 of its reactors now idle, Japan might face power shortages this winter. [CNN]

South Korean soldiers shot and killed a man who jumped into a river and tried to swim to North Korea on Monday. The two countries are still technically at war, although the fighting stopped under an armistice in 1953. Thousands of defectors from communist North Korea have crossed the heavily militarized border into the South, but it is rare for anybody to make the dangerous trip in the other direction. [BBC News]

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.

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