When Pope John Paul II visited Damascus in May 2001, Bashar used his welcoming speech to denounce the Jews, saying, “They tried to kill the principles of all religions with the same mentality in which they betrayed Jesus Christ and the same way they tried to betray and kill the Prophet Muhammad.”   read more

Exactly how 32 American lobsters wound up in Swedish waters isn't clear. But many suspect they were exported to Europe and then either escaped or were set free by animal rights activists. Whatever the case, their discovery has set off a high-stakes trade dispute between Sweden on one side and the U.S. and Canada on the other. The North Americans are recruiting members of Maine's congressional delegation and U.S. ambassadors and asking Secretary of State John Kerry and the White House for help.   read more

Men with the top 1 percent in income lived 15 years longer than men with the lowest 1 percent in income; for women that gap was 10 years. The lowest life expectancies for the poorest men and women — less than 78 years — were in Indiana, Nevada and Oklahoma. For the richest, the lowest life expectancies — less than about 85 years — were in Hawaii, Nevada and Oklahoma. The poorest Americans fared best in affluent cities with highly educated populations.   read more

California’s medical marijuana czar says she believes there’s a need for weed, although she’s never smoked pot herself. “Unlike regulating alcohol, I’m not a user of marijuana, so I am not familiar with how that affects people or what it does,” Lori Ajax said. “But from the outreach I’ve done since I got here, it appears there is a medical need, and I’m tasked with doing this, and I’m going to do it.”   read more

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, the Ohio A. Philip Randolph Institute and the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless allege that Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted’s “actions violate the roll-maintenance provisions of the National Voter Registration Act,” causing many Ohioans to be deprived of their voting rights “merely because they had not voted for a period of six years.”   read more

The U.S. Supreme Court may have struck down mandatory life sentences for minors, but a new federal complaint says hundreds of these “juvenile lifers” have received no “meaningful opportunity for release.” Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit Wednesday on behalf of the Maryland Restorative Justice Initiative, a nonprofit prisoners’ rights advocacy organization.   read more

A challenge to what 12 Democratic voters claim is “one of the worst partisan gerrymanders in American history” is headed to trial in Wisconsin next month. The voters sued the individual members of Wisconsin’s Government Accountability Board in 2015, claiming that Republican lawmakers secretly crafted and hurriedly passed a redistricting plan that would give them overwhelming – and unfair – control of the state legislature.   read more

Recruiters, on-campus career specialists and economists remain generally upbeat about prospects for this year’s graduates. Michigan State University’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute projects that hiring will be up 15% across all degree levels from last year, part of a stuttering rebound from the Great Recession and its aftermath, 2009 to 2013. Of course, applicants’ experiences will vary, perhaps significantly, depending on their field of study and position sought.   read more

For decades, both major parties have used a somewhat convoluted process for picking their nominees, one that involves ordinary voters in only an indirect way. As Americans flock this year to outsider candidates, the kind most hindered by these rules, they are suddenly waking up to this reality. And their confusion and anger are adding another volatile element to an election being waged over questions of fairness and equality.   read more

Prosecutors said Friday that Wells Fargo will pay $1.2 billion to settle claims of mortgage fraud related to government-insured loans, a penalty that represents a fraction of the lender's profits. Wells Fargo Bank admitted that it told the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that certain residential home mortgage loans were eligible for federal housing insurance when they were not.   read more

Under a new rule implemented by Arizona's Republican House Speaker David Gowan, reporters convicted of “a felony within the last 10 years or a misdemeanor within the last five years, excluding traffic arrests” would be denied “non-employee” badges. Non-employee badges are typically held by law enforcement officers and reporters. The rule comes after the Arizona Capitol Times reported in January that Gowan racked up travel costs at the state’s expense.   read more

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band canceled their North Carolina concert because of the state’s new law blocking anti-discrimination rules for the LGBT community, said guitarist Steven Van Zandt, calling it the kind of legislation that’s like an “evil virus” spreading around the U.S. The band had been scheduled to play Sunday in Greensboro.   read more

The spill that TransCanada officials initially called “small in scope” released almost 17,000 gallons of oil into South Dakota farmland near the small town of Freeman, according to the company’s most recent estimates. TransCanada crews have been at the site of the spill around the clock since it was discovered last weekend by local landowner Loren Shultz. So far, they have excavated 100 miles of pipeline in search of the spill’s source, according to the Associated Press   read more

The Justice Department urged a U.S. judge late Friday to keep secret many of the court records in the now-abandoned lawsuit over leaks in the investigation that led to the resignation of former Central Intelligence Agency director David Petraeus. The files include transcripts of sworn interviews with senior Obama administration officials about the sex scandal and its fallout.   read more

The possible sentence raised questions with Judge Franz Zibilich, who was overseeing Grimes' arraignment last week. "Isn't this a little over the top?" Zibilich said. "Twenty years to life for a Snickers bar, or two or three or four." Grimes' lawyer agreed, saying: "They're spending their time to lock someone up for years over $31 worth of candy." The D.A.'s office emphasized that the alleged crime was considered a felony by the state.   read more

The agency’s executive director, Brian D. Newby, had been in his job less than three months in January when he unilaterally reversed a policy that the body’s commissioners, two Democrats and two Republicans, had endorsed since the agency’s creation in 2002: that people registering to vote need offer no proof, beyond swearing an oath, that they are American citizens. There was but one problem, critics say: Newby had no authority to make policy, a power reserved to the agency’s four commissioners.   read more

Judge Coffin rejected motions by the U.S. government and big energy companies to dismiss the lawsuit by 21 plaintiffs ages 8 to 19. Hundreds of people came to show their support for the youths, who contend the release of dangerous carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere is a violation of their constitutional rights. They are demanding the U.S. government create a plan to significantly cut the emissions. "The future of our generation is at stake," said plaintiff Victoria Barrett, age 16.   read more