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

Zimroth said he's discovered that many officers and higher-ups don't understand what's expected of them and are unaware of the changes. The message "needs to be communicated and reinforced better, not just at the top, but throughout the department," he wrote. Zimroth said that part of the reform must be to make sure the practice is done correctly. "Getting it right means this: that police officers understand their lawful authority and limit their activities to what is permitted by law."   read more

An international animal advocacy group launched a protest against a New Hampshire winter carnival event billed as a "Greased Pig on Ice," but withdrew it after learning there's no pig in the act — just a man on skates in a pig costume with dollar bills tied to his tail. The carnival's Steve Smith said People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals launched its alert despite his reassurances that no pigs would be harmed during the event. Smith received about 100 emails from concerned animal lovers.   read more

In a class action filed Wednesday in Federal Court, plaintiff Bryan Strother says the National Guard offered soldiers bonuses in order to inflate its reserves and that the plaintiff class is "victims of one of the most egregious mass frauds in U.S. Military history." According to the complaint, the Defense Dept. has mismanaged $8.5 trillion and that it uses computer software dating back to 1959. The "archaic accounting systems" contributed to defendants' decision to recoup bonuses from vets.   read more

The report could put embarrassing pressure on the U.S. over support for Saudi Arabia. The Americans have sold arms and furnished training and expertise to a Saudi-led coalition that has faced widespread criticism for what rights groups call an indiscriminate bombing campaign in Yemen. “Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners, as well as their U.S. supplier, are blatantly disregarding the global standard that says cluster munitions should never be used under any circumstances,” said the report.   read more

The Hellfire is a laser-guided, air-to-surface missile that weighs about 100 pounds. U.S. officials had been trying to recoup the missile for several months. The shipping error was attributed to Lockheed's freight forwarders. Cuba said the missile had arrived as a result of "error or mishandling" in its country of origin. "For Cuban authorities, the arrival in the country of U.S.-made military equipment that hadn't been declared as such on the cargo manifesto was worrying," the government said.   read more

"Our whole team was angry... You could see that there was a intentional, deliberate method to prevent us from doing our job," said DEQ's Jim Henry. He said his office had urged involvement of the Centers for Disease Control, but the DEQ prohibited further communication on the matter. "They prevented that team from coming here and helping us to find the source," Henry said. After that, he said, there more cases of Legionnaires' in the summer of 2015, four of them fatal.   read more

State Rep. Mary Lou Marzian said the bill is symbolic but she is trying to make a point about government intrusion. "My point is to illustrate how intrusive and ridiculous it is for elected officials to be inserting themselves into private and personal medical decisions," she said. Marzian introduced the bill days after Republican Governor Matt Bevin signed an informed consent law that requires women to consult with a doctor before having an abortion.   read more

WTOL-TV reports that a computer malfunction dropped prices at one north Toledo gas station, and another across the street lowered its prices to stay competitive early Sunday. Customer Taylor Kline told the station he filled his empty tank for just 26 cents. The extra-low pricing lasted at least three hours before returning to normal.   read more

American and British regulators are likely to charge several banks with rigging interest rates, including Citigroup, the third-largest U.S. bank, and London-based HSBC Holdings, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority were preparing a final round of civil charges against the banks for rate manipulation in the Libor scandal, the newspaper reported, citing people close to the investigation.   read more

Argentina’s main farm group on Friday took complaints against Monsanto to local regulators, accusing the company of abusing its dominant position in the market by ordering exporters to inspect soy cargos for second-generation genetically modified seeds. The Argentine Rural Society filed the complaint before the National Commission for the Defense of Competition, or CNDC. The SRA argues that under local law farmers must pay for Monsanto technology only at the time they originally buy seeds.   read more

In a federal complaint filed Thursday in Washington, the James Madison Project and reporter Ken Dilanian say they are seeking documents that could shed light on the extent to which the agencies may have targeted John Kiriakou, a CIA agent from 1990 to 2004, after he disclosed to a reporter the agency’s use of waterboarding, which many believe is a form of torture.   read more

The federal government plans to spend $80 million assessing whether its hottest nuclear waste can be stored in 3-mile-deep holes, a project that could provide an alternative strategy to a Nevada repository plan that was halted in 2010. The five-year borehole project was tentatively slated to start later this year on state-owned land in rural North Dakota, but it has already been met with opposition from state and local leaders.   read more

About 4 billion people face severe water shortages during at least one month every year, far more than was previously thought, according to new research. Half of the 4 billion people who experience conditions of severe water scarcity at least one month of the year live in either China or India. Of the remaining 2 billion, the majority live mostly in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Mexico and the western and southern parts of the United States, such as California, Texas and Florida.   read more

Development of a futuristic weapon depicted in video games and science fiction is going well enough that a Navy admiral wants to skip an at-sea prototype in favor of installing an operational unit aboard a destroyer planned to go into service in 2018. The Navy has been testing an electromagnetic railgun and could have an operational unit ready to go on one of the new Zumwalt-class destroyers under construction at Bath Iron Works.   read more

The evacuations of more than 6,400 hospital and nursing-home patients in New York City after Hurricane Sandy reinforced concern about the readiness of health care providers during emergencies. However, federal rules do not require that critical medical institutions make even minimal preparations for major emergencies, from hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes to bioterrorist attacks and infectious epidemics such as Ebola and Zika.   read more

The D.C. Circuit is considering whether the passage of the USA Freedom Act renders moot the injunction issued against the National Security Agency’s bulk collection program in November. The USA Freedom Act modified several provisions of the Patriot Act and purported to end the NSA’s bulk collection of metadata, though this is disputed by activist Larry Klayman, who currently has three cases against the NSA and other government agencies pending in Leon’s court.   read more