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

"Bernie's Yearning" is mint ice cream topped with a solid chocolate disk, to reflect Sanders' campaign theme of economic inequality, said Ben & Jerry's Ben Cohen. "The chocolate disc represents the huge majority of economic gains that have gone to the top 1 percent since the end of the recession. Beneath it, the rest of us," according to the label. Cohen has made just 40 pints of the new ice cream and is giving 25 of them to the Sanders campaign. The rest will be awarded later in a drawing.   read more

Fanning was deputy director of the Committee on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism. The group was an outgrowth of the 9/11 Commission and assessed activities aimed at preventing WMD proliferation. In 2009, Fanning was named deputy under secretary of the Navy, where he worked to bring efficiencies to the service’s processes. If he’s confirmed by the Senate, Fanning will be the first openly gay civilian head of an armed forces branch.   read more

The former officer is seeking permission to present evidence to a forthcoming parliamentary inquiry that British officials saw detainees being tortured in December 2002. Details of torture were disclosed during meetings held at the London headquarters of Britain's MI5 in 2002 and the evidence is believed to include claims that British officials witnessed inmates being chained, hooded, waterboarded and subjected to mental abuse by CIA officials, the report said.   read more

Cabañas is Cuba’s first ambassador to the United States in more than 50 years. His appointment to the post came two months after a restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries, which had ended during Cold War hostilities in 1961. Cabañas maintained a somewhat higher profile than his predecessors, traveling around the United States speaking to various organizations. He was the first head of Cuba’s Interests Section to allow himself to be filmed at such events.   read more

In 2012, Malac was given her first ambassadorial post, in Liberia. Her tenure there was fairly routine until the summer of 2014, when the Ebola outbreak began in that country. She helped coordinate the U.S. response to the disease, even to the point of reassuring Liberians that American troops sent to help with logistics and other issues relating to the outbreak were not in the country to stage a coup against President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.   read more

He got a taste of Washington life when he interned for Sen. Ted Kennedy. He later worked for Rep. Wayne Dowdy, a fellow Millsaps graduate. In 1988, Dowdy tried to make the jump to the Senate with Pittman running his campaign, but they lost to Republican Trent Lott. Pittman did a tour in Iraq, serving as deputy director in the Governance Office of the Coalition Provisional Authority for an eight-month period. He came home in 2007 for what turned out to be a long stay in Washington.   read more

In 2007 Peterson served as cultural officer in Abuja, Nigeria. In 2009,she was made deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Yaounde, Cameroon, serving at times as chargé d’affaires. She was brought home in 2012 to serve as director of the Office of Multilateral and Global Affairs in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Much of her work there focused on the treatment of LGBT people in other countries. She held that post until her nomination as ambassador.   read more

NHTSA and automakers have come under harsh criticism on auto safety issues from Congress and others in the wake of General Motors' delayed recall of 2.6 million vehicles for ignition switch defects linked to 124 deaths. Since then, the NHTSA has made a series of reforms and pledged to make more improvements. The agency has pressured automakers to recall more vehicles more quickly - and imposed record-setting fines. As a result, last year's recall campaigns numbered the most in U.S. history.   read more

Murray had thought of studying art, but a little sibling rivalry changed that. Her brother John, a physics student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told Cherry that she wouldn’t be able to handle the physics curriculum at MIT. She decided to prove him wrong. She earned her bachelor’s degree there in 1973 and went on to earn a Ph.D. in physics, also at MIT, in 1978.   read more

In 2005, Darling went to work for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, initially as an environmental and land-use counsel, as well as its privacy administrator. He was promoted in 2009 to be deputy chief of staff and assistant general counsel for the authority. Darling went to Washington in 2012 as chief counsel for the FMCSA. He was made acting administrator two years later upon the departure of Administrator Anne Farro.   read more

From 2003 to 2004 he served as the elected Chairman of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force against drug trafficking and money laundering.   read more

Darius-Clarke is from Castries, Saint Lucia’s capital. She was educated at St. Joseph’s Convent and later earned a B.A. at the University of the West Indies, an M.A. at the University of Manchester and another M.A. at Durham University. Darius-Clarke is a management consultant and for more than 20 years has been an educator, most recently on the faculty of Monroe College’s Saint Lucia campus. Darius-Clarke’s husband, Leo Clarke, is general secretary of the ruling Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP).   read more

The accident occurred to a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile assigned to the 90th Missile Wing in northern Colorado, the Air Force reported. The missile was damaged while the airmen were troubleshooting a problem with a diagnostic test. An investigation found that the maintenance team chief did not follow the technical guidance, said the Air Force. The team chief and two of his airmen were decertified but returned to duty after being retrained and certified.   read more

Since the beginning of the campaign, 120 allegations of civilian casualties had been received, 87 of which were deemed not credible. This latest news brings the total number of civilians likely killed to 16. In one case an air strike targeting 16 bridges likely killed a civilian driving a truck with a trailer, said Central Command. In another case, a secondary explosion from a vehicle near the intended target probably killed a civilian. Four others were wounded in strikes in Syria and Iraq.   read more

Bergdahl's legal team has been monitoring statements by the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination as possibly affecting their client's right to a fair trial. Fidell said the defense has compiled an eight-page log of "some of the various appalling comments that Mr. Trump has made in an effort to – it's like a lynch mob actually – to incite ill will and vilification of Sgt. Bergdahl. [Trump] may wind up facing a defamation case down the road,"   read more

Cigna had "widespread and systemic failures" that prevented patients from accessing medical services. and it didn't handle complaints and grievances properly from patients who had been denied coverage, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. Officials also found Cigna didn't handle its requests for prior authorization and exceptions as it should have. These deficiencies posed "a serious threat to the health and safety of Medicare beneficiaries" and followed years of noncompliance.   read more