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 findings by U.S. Health and Human Services' Inspector General include that the Medicaid agency did not — as of 2013 — have a security plan for its computer system, had no encryption for laptops and had not properly trained employees. The review followed the massive hacking at the state's Revenue Dept, which involved data stolen from the electronically filed tax returns of 3.8 million adults and 700,000 businesses. The stolen data included unencrypted Social Security and bank account numbers.   read more

Ohio began its program ahead of a White House initiative launched in 2015 to spend $41 million to accelerate testing nationwide of an estimated 400,000 rape kits that have been back logged in law enforcement storage rooms and crime labs. "This is a tremendous milestone," Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said. "The testing of these 10,000 kits has helped identify hundreds of alleged assailants, many of whom repeatedly committed violent attacks."   read more

The string of nine consecutive record hot months matches June 1997 to February 1998, which was the last time Earth had a large El Nino. It is still behind the 10 straight months of record heat in 1944. It's likely we'll tie that record in February, Blunden said. NASA said January 2016 was 2.03 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. The NOAA, which calculates temperatures differently, said last month was 1.87 degrees (1.04 degrees Celsius), which is the second biggest margin in history.   read more

All five defendants contend they were tortured in secret CIA prisons. Chief Prosecutor Brigadier General Mark Martins promised to deliver more than 1,000 pages of documents for judicial review by March 22. Defense attorneys criticized the prosecution's plan, saying it gives the government too much power to pick and choose what evidence is relevant. "This is by far the most restrictive discovery regime I have ever seen in my career," said defense attorney Cheryl Bormann.   read more

Beginning in 1996, he was the diplomatic advisor to the governor of Macau, General Vasco Rocha Vieira. In that post he coordinated border issues with China as Portugal prepared to hand over the colony in 1999. He later served as consul general in São Paulo, Brazil. In 2002 was named deputy permanent representative to the European Union (EU) in Brussels, where he represented Portugal in the Kyoto Protocol negotiations.   read more

When Bush entered the White House race last year, the petroleum sector saw him as their natural choice: he was the son and brother of former presidents and he came from a West Texas family with historically close ties to the oil industry. "Bush is part of a family that is a friendly face to the oil industry," said Emerson. He drew more than $2 million from the CEOs of companies like Exxon Mobil and Halliburton in 2015, making up about 56% of all the industry’s contributions to the race so far.   read more

White supremacists have said they are encouraged by the success of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has referred to Mexicans as "rapists" and called for a ban on all Muslim immigrants. The San Bernardino massacre spurred a wave of vandalism and harassment directed at U.S. Muslims. At least 52 people were killed by domestic extremists, the highest figure since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.   read more

"Whether the sign in question says 'no Muslims' or whether it says 'no coloreds' or whether it says 'no women' or 'no Christians' or 'no Buddhists' ... it is just as un-American and fundamentally it is just as wrong," Henderson said. Claims of discrimination by business owners against Muslims have been reported in numerous states. "It's one of those issues that's tied to the overall rise of anti-Muslim bigotry in our society," Hooper said.   read more

Consumer confusion over organic marijuana peaked in Colorado earlier this year, when Denver health authorities seized thousands of marijuana plants from growers suspected of using off-limits chemicals on their plants. Most of the plants were ultimately released, but some were sold with names that suggested the products were natural or organic. "That misleads people," said Larisa Bolivar. "You need to know that when something says organic, it's organic."   read more

A trial judge had denied Freeport’s post-verdict motion for a judgment as a matter of law on the grounds that Hispanic does not constitute a distinct race under antidiscrimination laws. But a three-judge panel of the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals found that Hispanic has long been considered a separate race in civil rights cases. The judges pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court has previously held that racial discrimination includes bias based on ancestry or ethnic characteristics.   read more

A majority of Democrats said they wanted someone pragmatic and willing to compromise, with 53% of Republicans saying they wanted someone ideologically pure. Despite its polarizing effect, the Supreme Court issue does not appear to be a priority for voters surveyed. More Americans think the executive and legislative branches of government wield greater influence than the judiciary, and fewer than 10% thought nominating justices to the high court was a presidential duty most relevant to them.   read more

The NSA defended hiding key details of its process for deciding whether to exploit or disclose software security flaws that make people vulnerable to hackers. The EFF sued the NSA in 2014 for withholding records on the government's handling of newly discovered security flaws not yet fixed by software developers. It had been reported that for two years the government knew about and exploited a security flaw affecting an estimated two-thirds of the world's websites, without disclosing the threat.   read more

An election watchdog filed a complaint Friday with the FEC over a $500,000 donation to a super PAC aiding Marco Rubio from a mystery firm headed by a New York investor. Efforts by good government groups to stem the use of shadowy corporate entities to channel large political donations have been long stymied by the FEC's internal political paralysis. The complaint seeks an investigation into IGX LLC for masking the donation.   read more

Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker signed two bills into law on Thursday that block federal funding from Planned Parenthood and could cost the local organization millions of dollars. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin could lose about $7.5 million a year because of the measures, an organization spokeswoman said. Texas, Louisiana other Republican-controlled states have tried to halt funding for the reproductive health organization.   read more

Facebook said it condemns terrorism but will "fight aggressively" against requirements for companies to weaken the security of their systems. "These demands would create a chilling precedent and obstruct companies' efforts to secure their products,"the statement said. Google CEO Sundar Pichai also voiced support for Apple. "Forcing companies to enable hacking could compromise users' privacy," Pichai wrote, adding that the case "could be a troubling precedent."   read more

The Great Plains states led the nation in healthy sleep, buoyed by South Dakota, where 72 percent of those surveyed said they averaged at least 7 hours nightly. The South and Appalachian states got the least sleep as a region. But Hawaii was the worst individual state, where 56 percent of respondents got the recommended amount of sleep. The report also found that while two-thirds of white people nationally got enough sleep, only about half of blacks, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders did.   read more