Hundreds are killed in Kashmir flooding – The Queen will not intervene in Scotland – Michael Schumacher goes home – One of histories great mysteries may just have been solved – And much more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

A massive explosion and fire rocked a chemical plant in the northern German city of Ritterhude, damaging the plant and several surrounding buildings.  Despite the force of the blast, police did not evacuate the nearby residential buildings.  But one employee of “Organo Fluid” is missing and another was sent to hospital with third degree burns.  International importance: None.  Great Video:  Yep.

Former Formula One champion Michael Schumacher has been moved from hospital to the family home on the Lake Geneva shoreline in Lausanne, Switzerland.  The family says efforts to rehabilitate Schumacher “will continue from now on from home.”  Schumacher suffered a devastating head injury while skiing in France some nine months ago, and he’s been in hospital until Tuesday.  Knocking down any premature optimism about his condition, the family says, “There is still, however, a long and difficult road ahead.”

Queen Elizabeth will not be using her influence to dissuade Scots from voting for independence from the UK.  A Buckingham Palace spokesman said, “The sovereign’s constitutional impartiality is an established principle of our democracy and one which the Queen has demonstrated throughout her reign.”  This comes after press reports saying the Queen was worried about the prospect of Scottish independence, and after Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond posited the Queen “will be proud” to be the monarch of an independent Scotland.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) accuses Israel of unlawfully coercing some 7,000 African nationals to leave the country, denying them access to fair and efficient asylum procedures.  Israel argues the Eritrean and Sudanese are economic migrants, not asylum seekers.  HRW says Israel uses “indefinite detention, obstacles to accessing Israel's asylum system, the rejection of 99.9% of Eritrean and Sudanese asylum claims, ambiguous policies on being allowed to work, and severely restricted access to healthcare” to try to get the Africans to leave.

Boko Haram militants shot and wounded the son of Nigeria’s former president Olusegun Obasanjo in a battle to try and retake parts of the northeast from the Islamist group.  The younger Obasanjo is a Lieutenant Colonel in Nigeria’s military.  His dad, a former military ruler who later won two elections when Nigeria returned to multi-party democracy, says that current President Goodluck Jonathan is “overwhelmed” by the Boko Haram insurgency and should not run for reelection next year.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet says the bombing that injured at least 14 people in the capital Santiago is “terrorist act, one of the most cowardly we have seen”.  It’s the worst attack since Chilean democracy was restored in 1990.  The Socialist president’s mother had been in the vicinity of the explosion in the Escuela Militar Metro train station.  No one has claimed responsibility.

Honduras has captured a former Social Security official on charges of stealing more than US$330 Million in public money.  Mario Zelaya headed the national health and pension fund IHSS under former president Porfirio Lobo.  He was captured in Nicaragua after being on the run for eight months.

The raging monsoon floods in the Kashmir region have killed more than 440 people in India and Pakistan.  Downstream in Pakistan, some 700,000 people have been told to leave their homes, which will likely be inundated in the next four days.  On the Indian side of the heavily militarized de facto border that divides the Himalayan region, more than 2,000 villages and the city of Srinagar were submerged.

Police near Cleveland, Ohio have identified suspects in a disgusting and cowardly prank based on the “Ice Bucket Challenge” which you’ve probably seen on the Internet in the past few weeks.  A group of thoroughly rotten teenagers told a 15-year old autistic boy he was taking part, but instead dumped a large bucket of urine, feces, spit, and cigarette butts on him, using his own cell phone to record it.  Causing nationwide disgust over its content and cruelty, the evil prank prompted Cleveland’s famous son TV Comedian and game show host Drew Carey to offer a $10,000 reward for capturing the perps.  Other celebs followed suit.

Bored little kid does a faceplant on the Oval Office couch while Mon and Dad talk with President Obama.  

Searchers have found one of two British ships that disappeared 160 years ago while charting the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic.  Sir John Franklin led the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror and 129 men in 1845 to chart the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic – and that was it.  The disappearance was one of the great mysteries of the Victorian Era.  Canada’s government in 2008 began searching for Franklin ships, and now, sonar images from the Victoria Strait off King William Island shows the image of one ship.  Some archeologists are calling it the biggest find since King Tut’s tomb a century ago.