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

When Sen. McConnell said the next president, rather than Obama, should select a successor to Scalia, his words struck a familiar and painful chord with many black voters. “Our president...has been disrespected from day one,” said Carol Richardson. “The words that have been said, the things the Republicans have done they’d have never have done to another president.” Said Rep. G.K. Butterfield: “It’s more than a political motive — it has a smell of racism."   read more

The death toll published by the Observatory, which tracks the war using a network of contacts on the ground, included at least 15 people killed when strikes hit a bakery in the city of al-Shadadi near the border with Iraq on Tuesday. Air raids in at least three other villages killed 15 others on Thursday, including three children, while eight more civilians died in air strikes elsewhere, it said.   read more

"I do not believe handguns belong on a university campus, so this decision has been the greatest challenge of my presidency to date," University of Texas President Gregory Fenves said. Professors protested the law with some saying they feared discussing grades with a pistol-packing student, while others said youths and firearms were a deadly combination. "As a professor, I understand the deep concerns raised by so many. However, as president, I have an obligation to uphold the law," he said.   read more

Written by Rep. Ann Coody, the bill states: "the Legislature hereby affirms that it is the public policy of the State of Oklahoma to make a value judgment favoring childbirth over abortion." Rep. Emily Virgin and Rep. Jason Dunnington asked Coody why the bill did not address sex education. "There is only one sure prevention of pregnancy, and that's not to cause it in the first place," Coody responded.   read more

The report found care at the hospital, which treats 40,000 veterans, had been cut to save money, and described surgical instruments delivered to operating rooms contaminated with blood and bone debris from previous surgeries. The report also alleged a top hospital official was improperly drawing two salaries and had prescribed controlled pain medication to the spouse of the regional director without a valid license. The VA declined to comment directly on the allegations.   read more

NOAA exceeded its authority to regulate fishing, plaintiffs say. Industrial aquaculture in open waters is associated with many serious environmental and health concerns, including the escape of farmed fish into the wild, outcompeting wild fish for habitat, food and mates or intermixing with wild fish and altering their genetics and behaviors; the spread of diseases and parasites from farmed fish to wild fish and other marine life; and pollution flowing through the open pens into natural waters.   read more

Men who had said their sexual functioning had been flagging reported moderate increases in their interest in sex and in their performance, although when it came to erections, a drug like Viagra or Cialis would be more effective, the researchers reported. Those who said they felt blue reported a small improvement in mood. But the drug had no discernible effect on vitality or walking speed in men with those complaints.   read more

Apple CEO Cook responded with a blistering, 1,100-word letter to Apple customers, warning of the “chilling” breach of privacy posed by the government’s demands. He said the order would effectively require it to create a “backdoor” to get around its own safeguards, and Apple vowed to appeal the ruling by next week. “The same engineers who built strong encryption into the iPhone to protect our users would, ironically, be ordered to weaken those protections and make our users less safe,” Cook said.   read more

The crisis hotline received more than 450,000 calls in 2014, a 40% increase over the previous year. About 1 in 6 calls are redirected to backup centers when the crisis line is overloaded, the report said. Calls went to voicemail at some backup centers, including at least one where staffers apparently were unaware there was a voicemail system. Hotline callers "made numerous complaints of long wait times for responders, being put 'on hold' or calls 'not being put through' to a responder."   read more

Rep. Marsha Blackburn said she'd subpoenaed documents from three groups she said are withholding information. Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky, top Democrat on the investigative panel, called the subpoenas unjustifiable and abusive. Schakowsky said Republicans want to build a database of patients, doctors and researchers that would risk their privacy and safety. The subpoenas are "a new low in the Republicans' attack on women's health care," Schakowsky said.   read more

About 38,300 people were killed on U.S. roads, and 4.4 million people were seriously injured, the council said. That would make 2015 the deadliest driving year since 2008. The council said a stronger economy and lower unemployment rates were probably among the key factors, along with lower gas prices. With driving more affordable, more people are on the road. Average gas prices were 28 percent lower last year than in 2014 and are projected to continue dropping this year.   read more

AMD is entering a partnership with AP to push virtual-reality technology the news organization can use for its reports. AMD will provide high-end computer hardware and its suite of virtual-reality software tools, dubbed "LiquidVR," to help AP create more 360-degree video and virtual-reality reporting. "VR promises to be the next revolution," said AP's Paul Cheung. "It can get the user deep inside the story."   read more

Did you ever buy porn, sniff glue, have sex in junior high? Exactly how many times? White House lawyers are scouring a life's worth of information about President Obama's potential picks for the Supreme Courtl. Prospective justices are put through the nation's most thorough background check, an invasive process where nothing is off-limits. Candidates' taxes, writings, childhoods, business dealings, medical histories and, yes, love lives, are all scrutinized for potential red flags.   read more

The Justice Department has found that bringing cases against kleptocrats and seizing their assets has been daunting. Government prosecutors have taken aim at funds held by officials from Nigeria, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, South Korea, Taiwan, Honduras and even Canada. One case involves the glamorous Gulnara Karimova, the Harvard-educated daughter of the Uzbek president, said to have absconded with $300 million and stashed in an American bank’s overseas branch.   read more

The number of earthquakes with a magnitude 3.0 or greater has risen in Oklahoma from a few dozen in 2012 to more than 900 last year. Recent peer-reviewed studies suggest injecting high volumes of wastewater could aggravate natural faults. SandRidge Energy initially refused to comply before reaching an agreement with the agency last month. Oklahoma House Speaker Jeff Hickman is pushing a bill to make clear the Corporation Commission has the power to order wells to shut down or reduce volume.   read more

The proposed rules are designed to ensure that the more than 46 million Americans who use food stamps have better access to healthy foods although they don't dictate what people buy or eat. A person using food stamp dollars could still purchase as much junk food as they wanted, but they would at least have more options in the store to buy fruits, vegetables, dairy, meats and bread. In all, the rules would require stores to stock at least 168 items that USDA considers healthy.   read more