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

The House provision is drawing protests from officials suing Monsanto to try to recover costs associated with PCB cleanups, and from lawyers trying to collect damages for individuals with health problems linked to PCB exposure. “Call me a dreamer, but I wish for a Congress that would help cities with their homeless crises instead of protecting multinational corporations that poison our environment,” said attorney Pete Holmes, suing Monsanto to cover costs of reducing PCB from Seattle sewers.   read more

High prices for cancer medicines aren't the only reason they cost insurers and patients so much. Waste pads the bill, a study finds, because cancer drugs are distributed in the U.S. in vials that usually contain more medicine than most patients need. Most of the time that excess is thrown out, even though it's perfectly good — and worth hundreds or thousands of dollars. Researchers estimate that wasted cancer medicine in the U.S. this year will add up to nearly $3 billion in excess costs.   read more

He has been depicted as a snarling demagogue in France, equated with Donald Duck in Spain, and described as worse than Lord Voldemort in Britain. In Europe, Trump has been treated variously as a disturbing curiosity or an entertaining political show barker. Commentators on both left and right have dismissed the notion of U.S. President Donald Trump as the stuff of fantasy, or, at worst, a momentary lapse of reason. The reaction is a mix of befuddlement, outrage and panic.   read more

Some billboards have been equipped with small cameras that collect information about the people walking by. Privacy advocates, however, have long raised questions about mobile device tracking, particularly as companies have melded this location information with consumers’ online behavior to form detailed audience profiles. “People have no idea that they’re being tracked and targeted,” said CDD's Jeffrey Chester. “It is incredibly creepy, and it’s the most recent intrusion into our privacy.”   read more

Basin & Range Watch posted a video that it says shows birds flying into the solar beams and "incinerating in the intense reflected heat." About 115 birds were set aflame that way, the group says. The video shows them "being burned and literally turning to smoke as they fly through the concentrated solar rays," says the complaint. Biologists calls these bird deaths "streamers," due to the smoke they give off as their feathers catch fire and the birds fall to the ground in the 900-degree beam.   read more

The FBI did not help its case with lawmakers when Comey acknowledged the mistake of changing the iCloud password. “There was a mistake made in that 24 hours after the attack,” Comey told lawmakers at a hearing on the government’s attempt to force Apple to help “unlock” the iPhone. “If the FBI hadn’t instructed San Bernardino County to change the password to the iCloud account, all this would have been unnecessary, and you would have had that information,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.   read more

It wasn't just one question; it was a string of them in an exchange that lasted several minutes. Thomas' gravelly voice unexpectedly filled the courtroom and enlivened an otherwise sleepy argument about gun rights. He peppered Justice Department lawyer Ilana Eisenstein with 10 or so questions that seemed to be a vigorous defense of the constitutional right to own a gun. It provoked gasps from the audience, but none of the other justices visibly reacted to Thomas' remarks.   read more

The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that home begins at the window screen - even if only the fingertips have succeeded in breaking and entering. Anthony Holt was convicted of breaking and entering a home in Las Cruces and was sentenced to five years and five months in prison. He appealed, claiming that only his fingertips had entered the home, as the homeowner heard him, and when she caught him in the act, he said, "Oh, I'm sorry," and vamoosed.   read more

The lawsuit asks a judge to force the state to prevent women from being sexually abused by male guards. The prison culture permits supposed "willing" or "consensual" sexual contact between prisoners and guards even though "state law, prison policy, and common sense make clear that women in custody are unable to consent in the coercive prison environment," the lawsuit said. Guards are so unlikely to be punished for misbehavior that they freely disregard policies that would stop them, it said.   read more

The story of how some of the country’s leading civil society advocates came to lose faith in the White House’s privacy initiative does not follow the typical plot of Washington gridlock. It is a tale of clashing visions for U.S. society and commerce. And it provides an instructive preview of looming battles among government agencies for control over industries like drones, smartphones and gadgets yet to come.   read more

State and local officials assured the public on several occasions that the water was safe. But many residents here believe the damage has already been done in Hoosick Falls. Families have lined up to have their blood drawn and their wells tested. Banks stopped giving out mortgages, and some local residents stopped washing their dishes, their clothes and themselves. Erin Brockovich has been to town.   read more

The complaint claims that the voting law affects more than 600 mentally ill residents, and could affect up to 850 given the maximum occupancy of the five state hospitals that house such residents. Featherston claims the law is a form of discrimination because similar restrictions do not apply to college students and those who live in a veterans home, who are allowed by law to vote in those precincts. The residents of those facilities have no other homes where they could claim residency to vote.   read more

In March 2011, Marciel had to deal with the fallout from the WikiLeaks release of State Department cables that accused Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of corruption and abuse of power, including using the national intelligence service to spy on his political rivals. He also helped Boeing sell $23 billion worth of planes to an Indonesian airline.   read more

In January, a government-appointed panel recommended that all pregnant women and new mothers be screened for depression. Public health advocates rejoiced. But the panel didn't mention one possible consequence of a diagnosis: Life and disability insurance providers have sometimes penalized women with these mental illnesses by charging them more money, excluding mental illness from coverage or declining to cover them at all. And it’s perfectly legal.   read more

This year I saw every one of the 31 nominated feature films and 15 nominated shorts. My favorite film of the year was The Big Short. As for the other nominees, I actually liked—or at least was entertained by—all of them. I found Spotlight, The Martian, Bridge of Spies and even Mad Max: Fury Road, to be standard, template Hollywood-type films: well-made and engaging, but nothing special.   read more

The tax collecting agency said 390,000 more taxpayer accounts may have compromised than the 334,000 it warned about a year and a half ago. The breach was first discovered in May 2015, and the increase first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The sensitive information can be used for identity theft or to claim fraudulent tax refunds. In addition, hackers have tried to access almost 600,000 additional IRS accounts in an attempt to gain private information on taxpayers.   read more