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

In the U.S., 28 people were executed in 2015, nearly half in Texas, the most active death penalty state, which put 13 people to death, the report said. Missouri executed six people, Georgia five, Florida two and Oklahoma and Virginia one each. Amnesty said 60% of those executed were black or Hispanic, double their percentage in the population. Executions in Saudi Arabia increased by 76% and in Iran they rose 31%. In China, data on the death penalty is considered a state secret.   read more

The bill passed by lawmakers has alarmed those who think it sets a dangerous precedent by closing the gap between church and state. Both this bill and the one that would give a place of honor to a rifle with the power to take down a commercial aircraft are ways of playing “political football” with social issues, said ACLU's Hedy Weinberg. Last year, the state's attorney general said designating the Bible as an official state book violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.   read more

The Obama administration brushed over the threat that climate change poses to the snow-loving wolverine when it denied protections for the predator, a judge ruled Monday. The Fish and Wildlife Service had rejected the views of many of its own scientists and decided not to protect the wolverine, saying the effects of climate change on the animals remained ambiguous. Judge Christensen ordered officials to act quickly to protect the species as it becomes vulnerable to a warming planet.   read more

The U.S., with $596 billion in defense spending, and China, with an estimated $215 billion, led all countries in 2015. For weapons manufacturers, the nonstop pace of airstrikes targeting ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria, as well as Saudi-led bombing of Yemen's Shiite rebels and their allies, means billions of dollars more in sales. But activists question continued U.S. arms deals to Saudi Arabia as its Yemen campaign has killed civilians.   read more

The recommendations call for allowing drones to fly unrestricted over people, including crowds. Drone makers would have to certify that if the drone hit someone, there would be no more than a 1% chance that the impact would cause a serious injury. In other categories, the drones would have to fly at least 20 feet over the heads of people and keep a distance of at least 10 feet laterally from someone.   read more

The decision rejected a challenge from Texas voters that could have diluted the voting power of urban Democrats, to the benefit of rural Republicans. In Texas, and other states with large immigrant populations, urban districts include many more people who are too young, not yet citizens, in the country illegally or otherwise ineligible to vote. Civil rights groups said forcing states to change their method of constructing districts would have damaged Latino political influence.   read more

Tax inversions have sparked a political outcry. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Treasury's new rules are designed to make inversions less economically beneficial for companies. Several Democrats have announced bills to make it harder for U.S. corporations to invert. But prospects for passing such legislation in an election year are not deemed high, given the wide differences between Democrats and Republicans on taxes.   read more

While SeaWorld's decision last month to end its orca breeding program delighted animal rights activists, it disappointed many marine scientists, who say they will gradually lose vital opportunities to learn things that could help killer whales in the wild. As SeaWorld's orca population dwindles, researchers will lose chances to collect health data and make other observations, such as drawing blood, measuring their heart rates and lung capacity, and documenting their diets and their growth.   read more

A vast trove of documents on offshore financial dealings of wealthy, famous and powerful people around the world is raising questions over the widespread use of such tactics to skirt financial oversight. The cache of 11.5 million records exposed offshore assets of politicians and celebrities. "It allows a never-before-seen view...at how dark money flows through the global financial system, breeding crime and stripping national treasuries of tax revenues," the ICIJ said.   read more

The Innocence Project, a legal group that advocates for the wrongfully convicted, examined 660 cases of prosecutorial error or misconduct in five states and found that only one prosecutor was disciplined. Convictions were thrown out in 133 of the cases. "There are almost no adequate systems in place to keep prosecutorial error and misconduct in check and, in fact, prosecutors are rarely held accountable even for intentional misconduct," according to the report.   read more

"There are countless issues that may be legitimately important to many customers, and the courts are not suited to determine which should occupy the limited surface area of a chocolate wrapper," Judge Spero wrote. More than 4,000 children work at forced-labor plantations in Ivory Coast to produce cocoa. Some children are sold by their parents to traffickers, while others are kidnapped. The children are threatened with beatings and forced to work long hours, according to the complaints.   read more

The total rise of the sea could reach 5 or 6 feet by 2100, the researchers found. That is roughly twice the increase reported as a plausible worst-case scenario by a U.N. panel just three years ago, and so high it would likely provoke a profound crisis within the lifetimes of children being born today. The situation would grow far worse beyond 2100, with the rise of the sea exceeding a pace of 1 foot per decade by the middle of the 22nd century.   read more

The aim of soda tax has been to reduce consumption of sugary drinks, said to cause increases in obesity and diabetes. But the message has been a tough political sell. Soda tax proposals, fought by the soda industry as nanny-state excess, have failed. This new soda tax pitch isn’t for the nanny state; it’s for the needy state. Governments are starting to think of soda taxes as the next sin tax — an untapped source of revenue that could help with other things.   read more

The IRS says it prevented $24.2 billion in payments to identity thieves in 2013...but paid $5.8 billion in federal returns later determined to be fraudulent. The GAO study called such scams a "large, continually evolving threat that is costing taxpayers billions of dollars per year." Commissioner Dan Bork said he understands the public might find it frustrating that their returns could be delayed, but "we would rather protect their refund than have it end up in the hands of criminals."   read more

Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington are among the states with active "Fight for $15" efforts, and even economic experts who oppose the increased rate see it gaining momentum. "In the beginning, it looked impossible," said Alvin Major, a fast-food worker and leader of the Fight for $15 campaign. But now, "what happened in New York, in California, it's going to spread around the country."   read more

All 50 states had joined the FTC in a complaint against four cancer charities, saying they wasted and misused $187 million in charitable contributions. Each of the charities claimed to directly support people with cancer - saying donation dollars bought patients medications, transportation to doctors and hospice care. The government said none of the organizations provided any such services. Instead, they went to "fund someone's lavish lifestyle."   read more