World/Nation

Police cases stir national debate on racial justice

NEW YORK - From the White House to the streets of some of America's biggest cities, the New York chokehold case converged with the Ferguson shooting and investigations from South Carolina and Cleveland to stir a national conversation Thursday about racial justice and police use of force.

A day after a grand jury cleared a white New York City officer in the death of a black man, civil rights leaders pinned their hopes on a promised federal investigation. Demonstrators protested for a second night in New York, carrying replicas of coffins across the Brooklyn Bridge, and rallied in such cities as Denver, Detroit and Minneapolis. And politicians and others talked about the need for better police training, body cameras and changes in the grand jury process to restore faith in the legal system.

"A whole generation of officers will be trained in a new way," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed as he and his police commissioner outlined previously announced plans to teach officers how to communicate better with people on the street.

This year's flu vaccine may be less effective

NEW YORK - The flu vaccine may not be very effective this winter, according to U.S. health officials who worry this may lead to more serious illnesses and deaths.

Flu season has begun to ramp up, and officials say the vaccine does not protect well against the dominant strain seen most commonly so far this year. That strain tends to cause more deaths and hospitalizations, especially in the elderly.

"Though we cannot predict what will happen the rest of this flu season, it's possible we may have a season that's more severe than most," said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a news conference Thursday.

CDC officials think the vaccine should provide some protection and still are urging people to get vaccinated. But it probably won't be as good as if the vaccine strain was a match.

Flu vaccine effectiveness tends to vary from year to year. Last winter, flu vaccine was 50 to 55 percent effective overall, which experts consider relatively good.

Report: Cleveland police are poorly trained, reckless

CLEVELAND - A U.S. Justice Department report released Thursday spared no one in the Cleveland police chain of command amid findings of excessive use of force and civil rights violations.

It was the second time in recent years the Justice Department has taken the Cleveland police to task over the use of force. But unlike in 2004, when the agency left it up to local police to clean up their act, federal authorities will intervene this time by way of a consent decree.

"These are problems long in the making," said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder during a news conference Thursday in Cleveland.

Holder said the DOJ's 18-month investigation was prompted by more than the November 2012 event in which 13 police officers fired 137 shots into a car after a high-speed chase, killing two unarmed suspects. Ohio Attorney General Mike Dewine has called the killings of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams a "systemic failure" on the part of the police.

Mayor Frank Jackson said Thursday that he continues to disagree with DeWine's characterization of the police response, but noted that he was among those who asked the Justice Department to conduct its investigation.

Islamic militants attack Chechen capital

GROZNY, Russia - Police waged hours-long gunbattles with Islamic militants who attacked Chechnya's capital Thursday, leaving at least 20 people dead and underscoring Russia's vulnerability just as President Vladimir Putin used patriotic and religious imagery in his state-of-the-nation address to defend his standoff with the West.

The clashes in Grozny, the city's biggest in years, dented a carefully nurtured image of stability created by Chechnya's Kremlin-backed strongman after two separatist conflicts. The new violence raised fears of more attacks in Chechnya and widening unrest in the rest of Russia's volatile North Caucasus region.

The insurgents in Chechnya and other Caucasus regions want to create an independent state governed by their strict interpretation of Islamic law. Some Caucasus militants have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join up with the Islamic State group. IS has vowed to launch attacks in Russia, but there have been no indications to date that it has followed through.

Cosby seeks dismissal of recent lawsuit

LOS ANGELES - A woman suing Bill Cosby for sexual battery attempted to sell a story about the comedian to a tabloid a decade ago and tried to extort money in exchange for her silence, Cosby's attorney said in a court filing Thursday.

Attorney Martin Singer wrote in the filing that the lawsuit by Judy Huth and her attorney followed a failed attempt to extort $250,000 from Cosby. In the filing, Cosby seeks more than $33,000 from Huth and her attorney.

The filing comes two days after Huth sued, claiming the comedian forced her to perform a sex act in 1974 when she was 15. The incident occurred in a bedroom of the Playboy Mansion after Cosby gave Huth and a 16-year-old friend alcohol, according to her lawsuit.

"(Huth's) claims are absolutely false," Cosby's filing states.

The filings state that Singer and Huth's attorney, Marc S. Strecker, had several conversations about the allegations in the weeks before the lawsuit was filed.

- The Associated Press