Ray Mossholder

CHRISTIAN NEWS FROM RAY

A free service of Jesus Christ is Lord Ministries

News selected and edited by Ray Mossholder

Friday, January 24, 2014

ISRAEL UNDER HEAVY ALERT

The takedown of an Al Qaeda cell that officials say planned to attack the American Embassy in Tel Aviv has laid bare the threat Israel faces from the world’s most infamous terrorist network as it becomes more dominant in the Sinai Peninsula and the Palestinian territories, say security experts.

Never before has Al Qaeda specifically sought to carry out a terrorist attack on Israeli soil, but in a sign that confidence is high amongst the international network and its affiliates after notable successes of late in Iraq and neighboring Syria, the foiling of a potentially horrific multiple attack inside Israel suggests the Al Qaeda hierarchy has now set itself a new goal.

Three radicalized, locally-grown terrorists, whose chain of command stretched all the way up to Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, planned to stage simultaneous suicide bombings of both the International Conference Center in Jerusalem and the U.S. Embassy. The terrorists planned to strike the Jerusalem target again once emergency services arrived. Israeli security agency Shin Bet said there were additional plans for bus attacks, shootings and kidnappings in the pipeline.

Israel has long dealt with enemy jihadists from Hamas, in the Gaza Strip, and Fatah, in the West Bank. But the aggressive emergence of Al Qaeda attempting to strike within the Jewish state is seen as an extremely troubling development.

It is not clear how close the terror cell was to carrying out the plot, but Shin Bet sources said the men had been recruited online by a notorious Gaza-based operative, Arib a-Shaham, who answers directly to al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian-born successor to Usama Bin Laden. Demonstrating Al Qaeda’s links between the two Palestinian territories, a-Shaham in Gaza recruited the three would-be West Bank terrorists, unaware that the Shin Bet was monitoring their traffic on both Facebook and Skype.

Of particular concern to Israel security services is the fact that the three key members of the plot had joined Al Qaeda soon after becoming radicalized online, choosing to fight for that cause rather than support either Hamas and Fatah. Last week, Israel’s Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center revealed that some 20 Arab Israelis and 30 Palestinians have been fighting for Al Qaeda-linked militias in Syria.

In recent months there has been growing evidence of Al Qaeda and other Sunni Jihadists gaining a foothold in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In November, three Al Qaeda-inspired terrorists, whose car was loaded with explosives, were killed in a gun battle with members of Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Unit near Hebron. The apparent increasing radicalization of elements in the West Bank isn’t just worrying for Israel, it’s bad news for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose half-hearted attempts at reaching a peace deal with Israel appears to have driven some disaffected young Palestinians toward the more violent promises of Al Qaeda.

Ironically, Al Qaeda’s move into the Palestinian territories may have been caused in part by the Egyptian government’s recent clampdown on the smuggling tunnels leading into the Gaza Strip that flourished during former President Mohammad Morsi’s brief tenure, say experts.

Without a flow of money and goods through the tunnels, the cash-strapped Hamas regime has reportedly allowed Al Qaeda — and Islamic Jihad — to have a fairly free hand in return for financial support from a number of sources, including Qatar. The recent upsurge of rocket attacks from Gaza and Sinai into Israel – there were 13 last week alone which Hamas claimed they had tried to stop – strongly suggests that Gaza is being used as a launch pad by a number of terror groups.

“Clearly Hamas has the capacity to enforce its will over all the groups,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told FoxNews.com. “So many [rocket] shootings over such a short time could reflect in theory a loosening of Hamas control, or they could simply reflect a cynical game by Hamas, instrumentalizing these organizations in the same way [Yasser] Arafat did with Hamas in his time.”

With Al Qaeda apparently encroaching on both Hamas and Palestinian Authority territory, and gaining a growing foothold on four of Israel’s borders — Gaza, Sinai, the West Bank and the northern border with Syria and Lebanon – regional experts suggest the foiled U.S. Embassy bomb plot clearly reveals the necessity for Israel’s military and intelligence services to remain vigilant, and on a heightened state of alert.

Paul Alster is an Israel-based journalist who can be followed on twitter @paul_alster and at www.paulalster.com

A PAUSE IN UKRAINE HOSTILITIES?

The chances of ending the violence that has convulsed the Ukrainian capital are high, a spokeswoman for a top opposition leader said late yesterday after a meeting with the president. That came after opposition leaders gave a next Thursday evening deadline to make concessions or face renewed clashes.

Olha Lappo, a spokeswoman for Arseniy Yatsenyuk, made the statement on his Facebook page Thursday after an hours-long meeting with President Viktor Yanukovych. She did not provide details, but the assessment appeared to be the first sign of progress in resolving the two-month crisis that is threatening to spread well beyond Kiev.

However, some protesters were resistant on Thursday night. Opposition leader and world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, one of those who met with Yanukovych, went to the site of clashes to try to persuade demonstrators to hold to an uneasy truce, but was booed and some cried “Shame!” The demonstrators again set aflame barricades of tires that had been quenched with gasoline when opposition leaders offered the deadline. The clash site is a few hundred meters (yards) away from the protester tent camp on Independence Square, where around-the-clock demonstrations have been held since early December.

The president called a special session of parliament next week to discuss the tensions, telling the parliament speaker: “The situation demands an urgent settlement.” But there was no indication that the move represented a compromise, since the president’s backers hold a majority of seats.

Enraged protesters stormed government offices in three western Ukraine cities Thursday. In Lviv, a city in near the Polish border 450 kilometers (280 miles) west of Kiev, hundreds of activists burst Thursday into the office of regional governor Oleh Salo, a Yanukovych appointee, shouting “Revolution!” and singing Christmas carols. After surrounding him and forcing him to sign a resignation letter, an activist ripped it out of Salo’s hands and lifted it up to the cheers and applause of the crowd. Salo later retracted his signature, saying he had been coerced.

Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters smashed windows, broke doors and stormed into the governor’s office in the city of Rivne, shouting “Down with the gang!” — a common reference to Yanukovych’s government. Once inside, they sang the national anthem. Angry crowds also besieged government offices in other western regions.

Anger spread after a video was released online appearing to show police abusing and humiliating a naked protester in what looked like a location close to the site of the Kiev clashes. In the video, a young man, his body covered in multiple bruises, wearing nothing but socks, is made to stand on the snow in freezing temperatures, while a policeman punches him in the head and others force him to pose for photos. The Interior Ministry issued a statement, apologizing “for the impermissible actions of people wearing police uniforms” and launched an investigation into the incident.

The Interior Ministry said Thursday that 73 people have been detained, 52 of whom are being investigated for “mass riots” — a new criminal charge that carries a prison sentence of up to eight years.

CHINA WAR RATTLING

BEIJING – China has begun issuing warnings to foreign military planes entering its self-declared air defense zone over the East China Sea that has been blamed for raising tensions in the region.

State media quotes air force spokesman Shen Jinke as saying that multiple types of Chinese planes recently conducted a long-range patrol inside the sweeping zone that was declared in November.

Shen said the Chinese planes identified a number of foreign military aircraft, flew alongside them and issued warnings to them. He didn’t identify the planes or say when the patrol was conducted.

The U.S., Japan and other countries denounced the zone’s declaration as provocative and said they would ignore China’s demands that their military aircraft announce flight plans, identify themselves and follow Chinese instructions.

VATICAN PREPARING TO FACE CHARGES OF GLOBAL SEXUAL ABUSE

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican is gearing up for a bruising showdown over the global priest sex abuse scandal, forced to defend itself publicly for the first time against allegations it enabled the rape of thousands of children by protecting pedophile priests and its own reputation at the expense of victims.

The Holy See on Thursday will be grilled by a U.N. committee in Geneva on its implementation of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which among other things calls for signatories to take all appropriate measures to protect children from harm and to put children’s interests above all else.

The Holy See ratified the convention in 1990 and submitted a first implementation report in 1994. But it didn’t provide progress reports for nearly a decade, and only submitted one in 2012 after coming under criticism following the 2010 explosion of child sex abuse cases in Europe and beyond.

Victims groups and human rights organizations rallied together to press the U.N. committee to challenge the Holy See on its abuse record, providing written testimony from victims and evidence outlining the global scale of the problem. Their reports cite case studies in Mexico and Britain, grand jury investigations in the U.S., and government fact-finding inquiries from Canada to Ireland to Australia that detail how Vatican policies, its culture of secrecy and fear of scandal contributed to the problem.

Their submissions reference Vatican documentation that show its officials knew about a notorious Mexican molester decades before taking action, correspondence from a Vatican cardinal praising a French bishop’s decision to protect his abusive priest, and even quotes from the former Vatican No. 2 saying bishops shouldn’t be expected to turn their priests into police.

“For too many years, survivors were the only ones speaking out about this and bearing the brunt of a lot of criticism and ridicule,” said Pam Spees, a human rights attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which provided a key report to the committee. “And so this is a very important moment for many, many people who are here in Geneva and around the world who will be watching as the Holy See is called for the first time ever to actually answer questions.”

Indeed, to date the Holy See has never had to defend its record in public or in court since it has successfully argued that it is immune from lawsuits as a sovereign state and that, regardless, bishops were responsible for pedophile priests in their care, not the pope or his policies. Even efforts to have the Vatican investigated for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court withered. But the Vatican was compelled to submit to the U.N. rights scrutiny as a signatory of the convention, and officials have privately said they are hoping at best to do damage control at Thursday’s session.

The Vatican will be represented by its most authoritative official on the issue, Monsignor Charles Scicluna, for a decade the Holy See’s chief sex crimes prosecutor. He is credited with having overhauled the Vatican’s procedures to better prosecute pedophiles in-house, but the Vatican to date has refused to instruct its bishops to report suspected cases of abuse to police, saying they need only do so when required by local laws.

“When abusers are in jail, they don’t harm kids,” said Miguel Hurtado, a member of the main U.S.-based victims’ advocacy group SNAP, who said he was abused by a priest in the Catholic youth group he attended as a youngster in Catalonia, Spain. “And they failed to do that.”

The committee has also asked the Holy See to provide detailed information on all cases of abuse that were brought to its attention — a number the Vatican has acknowledged tops 4,000.

But in its written response to the committee submitted last month, the Vatican declined to provide such information and ducked many of the committee’s questions. It argued that it was not responsible for the actions of every Catholic, much less every priest or parish in the world. It says it is really only responsible for implementing the U.N. treaty where it exercises territorial control: the 44 hectares (110 acres) of the Vatican City State in downtown Rome, where 31 children currently live.

“This representation by the Holy See is particularly disingenuous in light of the all-too-numerous accounts of efforts by bishops, archbishops, cardinals and other church officials around the world to cover up these crimes and subvert the course of justice in other states, further compounding the harm to victims,” the Center for Constitutional Rights and SNAP said in response. They accused the Vatican of failing to acknowledge the “authority, control and oversight it exercises” over church institutions and personnel worldwide.

While arguing that its jurisdiction is limited to the Vatican City State, the Holy See at the same time sought to highlight the ways in which it has promoted programs to protect children and keep pedophiles out of the priesthood. Bishops’ conferences are now required to have guidelines to fight abuse. Last month, Pope Francis established a commission to study best practices and the Vatican last summer updated its local laws to criminalize abuse of children.

The U.N. committee, which is composed of independent experts, not other U.N. member states, will issue its final observations and recommendations February 5.

Heilprin reported from Geneva

EACH YEAR MILLIONS OF AMERICAN COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ARE RAPED

President Obama has shone a light on a college sexual assault epidemic that is often shrouded in secrecy, with victims fearing stigma, police poorly trained to investigate and universities reluctant to disclose the violence.

A White House report highlights a stunning prevalence of rape on college campuses, with 1 in 5 female students assaulted while only about 1 in 8 reports it.

“No one is more at risk of being raped or sexually assaulted than women at our nation’s colleges and universities,” said the report by the White House Council on Women and Girls. Nearly 22 million American women and 1.6 million men have been raped in their lifetimes, according to the report. It chronicled the devastating effects, including depression, substance abuse and a wide range of physical ailments such as chronic pain and diabetes.

The report said campus sexual assaults are fueled by drinking and drug use that can incapacitate victims, often at student parties at the hands of someone they know.

Perpetrators often are serial offenders. One study cited by the report found that 7 percent of college men admitted to attempting rape, and 63 percent of those men admitted to multiple offenses, averaging six rapes each.

Obama, who has overseen a military that has grappled with its own crisis of sexual assaults, spoke out against the crime as “an affront on our basic decency and humanity.” He then signed a memorandum creating a task force to respond to campus rapes.

Obama said he was speaking out as president and a father of two daughters, and that men must express outrage to stop the crime. “We need to encourage young people, men and women, to realize that sexual assault is simply unacceptable,” Obama said. “And they’re going to have to summon the bravery to stand up and say so, especially when the social pressure to keep quiet or to go along can be very intense.”

Obama gave the task force, comprised of administration officials, 90 days to come up with recommendations for colleges to prevent and respond to the crime, increase public awareness of each school’s track record, and enhance coordination among federal agencies to hold schools accountable if they don’t confront the problem.

Among the federal laws requiring colleges to address sexual assault are: Title IX, which prohibits gender discrimination in education; the renewed Violence Against Women Act Obama, which was signed into law last year with new provisions on college sexual assault; and the Clery Act, which requires colleges and universities to publicly report their crime statistics every year.

The Education Department has investigated and fined several schools for not accurately reporting crimes. Most notably was a 2006 case at Eastern Michigan University, in which the government eventually fined the school a then-record $357,000 for not revealing a student had been sexual assaulted and murdered in her dorm room.

Violent crime can be underreported on college campuses, advocates say, because of a university’s public-image incentive to keep figures low, or because crimes can occur off campus and instead investigated by local police. Other times, schools put such suspects before a campus court whose proceedings are largely secret and not subjected to judicial review.

Students Active for Ending Rape, a nonprofit group that works with student activists to push for sexual assault policy changes on their campuses, said in a report last year that schools often do not fully address the problem.

The report gave more than 80 percent of college policies a grade C or below, an F to nearly one-quarter and said one-third don’t fully comply with the Clery Act.

The White House report also declares that the criminal justice response to sexual assault broadly is too often inadequate. The report blames police bias and a lack of training to investigate and prosecute sex crimes for low arrest rates and says the federal government should promote training and help police increase testing of DNA evidence collected from victims.

The report mentions sexual assaults in the military — Obama last month directed the Pentagon to better prevent and respond to the crime within its ranks or face further reforms. White House officials say they want to set the example by turning around the sexual assault problem in the military. “I’ve made it clear I expect significant progress in the year ahead,” Obama said.

SYRIA SAYS IT WILL TALK

Delegations representing the Syrian regime and its main Western-backed opposition have reportedly agreed to start direct talks when negotiations resume today. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Sky News that he had held discussions with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem and the Syrian National Coalition’s Ahmed Jarba after a contentious first day of talks Wednesday that featured accusations of wrongdoing from both sides of the conflict. Lavrov told Sky News that he had urged both sides not to focus on replacing Syrian President Bashar Assad, adding, “The main thing is to start the process.”

United Nations mediator Lakhdar Brahimi told a news conference that he had held separate talks with both sides and noted that he had “some fairly clear indications that the parties are willing to discuss issues of access to needy people, the liberation of prisoners and local cease-fires.”

The government’s determination to keep Assad in power appears to have strengthened after Secretary of State Kerry stated that Assad had lost his legitimacy by crushing the protest movement against his regime that started in early 2011. “We really need to deal with reality,” Kerry said. “There is no way possible in the imagination that the man who has led the brutal response to his own people could regain the legitimacy to govern.”

The Syrian Foreign Minister refused to offer comment on Kerry’s statement, telling the secretary of state that only the Syrian people could decide Assad’s future. The Syrian National Coalition and its Western allies have advocated the creation of a transitional national government and the rebels have said that any push from the government to secure Assad’s power would result in them ending the talks.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called Thursday for a new election in Syria, saying his nation would respect the results. “The best solution is to organize a free and fair election in Syria” and, once the ballots are cast, “we should all accept” the outcome, he said.

Iran, a close ally of Assad’s, was barred from participating in the Swiss-based talks to end Syria’s civil war

At least 130,000 people have been killed in the fighting that began with a peaceful uprising against Assad’s rule, according to activists, who are the only ones still keeping count. The fighting in Syria has become a proxy war between regional powers Iran and Saudi Arabia, and taken on post-Cold War overtones with Russia and the United States backing opposite sides.

Syria’s ambassador to the U.N., Bashar Jaafari, said Wednesday that his government had offered a cease-fire in the northern city of Aleppo and had yet to hear back from the Americans. U.S. officials have described that as “a capitulation initiative” in the war’s most contested city, and not a truce. And rebels within Syria say the government has used past cease-fires to buy time or consolidate gains.

The leader of Al Qaeda called on rival Islamic groups in Syria to end their infighting and focus on battling Assad’s forces in a recording released Thursday, Fox News confirmed.

The call by Ayman Al-Zawahiri came as activists said that fighting between the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and an array of other Islamic militant groups intensified in northern Syria. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “Islamic State” fighters fully captured the northern town of Manbij on Thursday after days of fighting.

The Observatory said that 1,395 people, mostly rebel fighters, have been killed since the infighting began January 3, the worst clash among opposition groups since Syria’s crisis began in March 2011.

Zawahri said the internal fighting “between the holy warriors of Islam has bloodied our hearts” and that it should stop immediately. He called on Islamic groups in Syria to set up an Islamic court that would mediate and resolve their differences.

He said Islamic fighters should focus on “bringing down Assad’s secular, sectarian, unjust and criminal regime to set up a just Islamic state.”

Zawahri’s 5-minute audio message was posted online Thursday to websites commonly used by militant groups.

Fox News’ Catherine Herridge and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

PALESTINE SAYS IT WILL STOP TALKING

JERUSALEM, Israel — Palestinian Authority officials say they will not extend peace talks with Israel when the nine-month timeframe expires in April, not even by a day.

In a press conference Tuesday following a visit with Romanian President Traian Basescu, Palestine Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said there had been no talk of extending the timeframe. Earlier in the week, Abbas blamed Israel for the lack of progress, saying “the problem is with the Israeli side and not with us,” Arutz Sheva reported.

Meanwhile, P.A. chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said they would not sanction even a one-day extension. “We renewed the talks on terms defined in advance and in a J clear manner for a period of nine months,” the P.A.’s official Ma’an news agency quoted Erekat. He denied rumors of “secret talks” in Washington.

“They talk about secret talks in Washington and here I am in Jericho. It’s a complete lie,” Erekat said.

OLYMPICS “SHOULD BE” SAFE

Representative William Keating said Wednesday Americans traveling to Sochi for the Winter Olympic Games should be safe if they take precautions, even as some athletes were telling their loved ones to stay home because of potential terrorist threats.

The Massachusetts Democrat, just back from a trip to Sochi that included a tour of safety measures undertaken by the Russian government at the site of the Olympics, voiced concern about the possibility of a terror attack at the Games, which begin Feb. 7.

“When there’s three…suicide bombing attempts…you know there’s going to be those efforts,” Keating told reporters at Boston’s Logan International Airport. “If someone wants to go there I think your chances of being secure and safe are enhanced greatly by being vigilant, by listening to what the experts, our experts, our countries’ experts are saying and adhering to that.”

Keating said the Russian government will be deploying a security force of 100,000 people, including 40,000 police and 30,000 active military personnel, along with drones and six anti-missile systems, The Boston Globe reported.

He expressed concern that terrorists may have embedded people or explosives in Sochi before security forces imposed a strict security zone that limited access to the Olympic areas. He also said that terror groups seeking to establish an independent Islamic state in Russia’s North Caucasus could hit targets outside the security zones, The Globe reported.

“These terrorists can move it out from areas that are less secure, and make a statement there,” he told reporters, adding that possible attacks by “lone wolf” terrorists are also a concern.

Keating and other members of Congress have expressed serious concerns about the safety of Americans in Sochi and frustration with Russian cooperation. The U.S. State Department has advised Americans at the Olympics to stay vigilant about security because of not only potential terrorist threats but crime and uncertain medical care.

“Russia is not great at sharing information with the United States,” Keating said. “We’re willing to do everything we can…but it’s their country. When you do it with the US and Russia there’s room for improvement.”

Meanwhile, Minnesota Wild defenseman Ryan Suter, who will skate for Team USA next month, said Wednesday that his wife and two young children won’t be traveling to Russia for the Winter Games. The long trip is part of the reason, but recent news about terroristic threats made the decision “a little bit easier.” Suter said he’s confident in USA Hockey and International Olympic Committee officials to keep the event safe, but anxiety is human nature. “You hear all these stories about different things, and it’s definitely a concern,” Suter said. “But at the same time, I feel that the U.S. government and the Russian government is going to do everything in their power to protect us.”

Speedskater Tucker Fredricks has asked his family to stay home in Wisconsin next month because of security concerns. His parents traveled to Turin in 2006 and Vancouver in 2010 to watch him, but they’ll rely on television this time so their son can focus on the competition and not worry about their well-being.

And Suter’s friend and Wild forward Zach Parise, who will also play for the U.S. team, advised his parents and relatives not to come. His wife recently gave birth to twins, so travel for them was already impractical. But his supporters who went to Vancouver in 2010 won’t be in attendance this time.

“It’s nerve-wracking, that’s for sure. I guess there’s no way around it,” Parise said, adding: “I watch the news. I see that stuff going on. It’s not very comforting.”

For other countries, too. Vancouver Canucks teammates Roberto Luongo (Canada) and Daniel Sedin (Sweden) each said safety is the reason their families won’t be traveling to Russia.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

WARNING TO AMERICAN OLYMPIC ATHLETES:

“YOUR OLYMPIC CLOTHING COULD BE A TARGET”

Due to a high terrorist alert all through the coming Olympic Games, the State Department is telling American athletes competing in the upcoming Sochi Winter Olympics to avoid wearing team gear outside the 1,500-mile so-called “Ring of Steel” security perimeter established by Russian security forces. Amidst terrorist threats in that city.

“The U.S. Department of State has advised that wearing conspicuous Team USA clothing in non-accredited areas may put your personal safety at greater risk,” said the memo, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Designer Ralph Lauren on Thursday unveiled the official uniforms that American athletes will wear to the Opening ceremony. The uniforms feature a knit patchwork cardigan emblazoned with big stars, an American flag, and the Olympic rings. They are very striking.

“A dynamic mix of patriotic references in a classic color palette of red, white and navy defines the Ralph Lauren 2014 Team USA Opening ceremony uniform, which is proudly Made in America,” the company said in a statement Thursday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

BUDDHISTS KILL MUSLIMS IN MYANMAR

YANGON, MYANMAR – The United Nations has confirmed that at least 48 Muslims appear to have been killed when Buddhist mobs attacked a village in an isolated corner of western Myanmar, a massacre that has been the vehemently denied by the government since it was first reported by The Associated Press just over a week ago. Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist nation of 60 million people, has been grappling with sectarian violence since June 2012.

The incident in Du Chee Yar Tan, a village in northern Rakhine state, appears to be the deadliest in a year, and would bring the total number of mostly Muslims killed in violence nationwide to more than 280. Another 250,000 people have fled their homes.

Northern Rakhine — home to 80 percent of the country’s 1 million long-persecuted Muslim Rohingya population — is off-limits to foreign journalists and humanitarian aid workers have limited access, adding to the difficulties of confirming details about the violence. Attacks began January 9 and peaked five days later, according to residents.

Buddhist Rakhine mobs, seeking retaliation for the abduction and killing of a police officer by Rohingya villagers, entered under the cloak of darkness with knives, sticks and guns and went on a killing spree, residents in the area told the AP on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals. Many of the victims were women and children, hacked to death by the mobs, they said. The humanitarian aid group Doctors Without Borders has appealed to the government for safe access to the affected populations, many of whom are still in hiding.

The first reports about the massacre occurred as Myanmar was hosting foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations as chair of the regional bloc. It was supposed to be an event showing how far the country had come since ending a half-century of military dictatorship two years ago and handing over power to a nominally civilian government. The government of President Thein Sein, himself a former army general, has won international praise for implementing political and economic reforms, but it has also been criticized for failing to investigate and prosecute those responsible for killings linked to sectarian violence. In many cases security forces have either stood by and watched as Buddhist mobs went after Muslims with machetes and clubs. Other times they have been accused of actively taking part.

Presidential spokesman Ye Htut denied the AP report during the ASEAN meeting, insisting Du Chee Yar Tan was calm, with no killings, aside from that of the police sergeant. Daily articles denying that the massacre took place appeared daily in state-run newspapers.

Smith, of Fortify Rights, called on the government to give humanitarian workers, independent observers and journalists unfettered access to the area. He said hundreds are still in hiding and may need help. He also called for an end to mass arrests, saying that in the hours that followed the killings, riot police started rounding up all male Rohingya, including children over the age of 10, in surrounding areas.

There are around 1 million Rohingya in Myanmar. The United Nations has called them one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Some of the Rohingya are descended from families that have been there for generations. Others arrived more recently from neighboring Bangladesh. All have been denied citizenship, rendering them stateless. For decades, they have been unable to travel freely, practice their religion, or work as teachers or doctors. They need special approval to marry and are the only people in the country barred from having more than two children.

NIGERIAN PROTESTERS VIOLENT TOWARD GAYS

Nigerian security personnel were on Wednesday forced to fire guns into the air to disperse thousands of protesters who threw stones at a court containing men accused of being gay.

The demonstrators threw rocks at the Sharia court in Bauchi city, urging the conviction and execution of eleven men arrested for belonging to gay organisations.

After dispersing the crowd, the prisoners were returned safely to the prison, and Judge El-Yakubu Aliyu closed the court following the disruptions.

Predominantly Muslim states in Nigeria introduced Sharia law, a legal system based on Islamic theory and philosophy of justice, in 2000.

It sanctions severe physical penalties for violating its code.

MOSQUITO VIRUS SPREADING IN THE CARIBBEAN

KINGSTON, JAMAICA – A mosquito-borne virus appears to be spreading quickly in the Caribbean just weeks after epidemiologists first found local transmission occurring in St. Martin.

St. Martin now has as many as 200 cases of chikungunya, a virus found mainly in Africa and Asia that can cause a debilitating sickness with fever, rash and intense muscle and joint pain.

The virus then spread to neighboring Dutch St. Maarten, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says new cases have also been confirmed in the French Caribbean islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe and St. Barthelemy. The British Virgin Islands reported three cases.

PRESIDENT OBAMA REFUSES TO BELIEVE INVESTIGATIVE REPORT

The White House on Thursday disputed the findings of an independent review board that said the National Security Agency’s mass data collection program is illegal and should be ended, indicating the administration would not be taking that advice. “We simply disagree with the board’s analysis on the legality of the program,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said.

He was responding to a scathing report from The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), which said the program ran afoul of the law on several fronts. “The … bulk telephone records program lacks a viable legal foundation,” the board’s report said, adding that it raises “serious threats to privacy and civil liberties” and has “only limited value.” The report, further, said the NSA should “purge” the files.

The president did not go nearly as far when he called last week for ending government control of phone data collected from hundreds of millions of Americans. “The administration believes that the program is lawful,” Carney said.

Nevertheless, the findings could be used as leverage in federal lawsuits against NSA spying. The report concluded that the NSA collection raises “constitutional concerns” with regard to U.S. citizens’ rights of speech, association and privacy. “The connections revealed by the extensive database of telephone records gathered under the program will necessarily include relationships established among individuals and groups for political, religious, and other expressive purposes,” it said. “Compelled disclosure to the government of information revealing these associations can have a chilling effect on the exercise of First Amendment rights.” The panel added that the program “implicates constitutional concerns under the First and Fourth Amendments.”

The recommendations are sure to meet resistance in Washington. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., who has been a staunch defender of the NSA, voiced dismay at the report’s findings. “I am disappointed that three members of the Board decided to step well beyond their policy and oversight role and conducted a legal review of a program that has been thoroughly reviewed,” he said in a statement, noting that federal judges have found the program to be legal dozens of times.

Both the Bush and Obama administrations have been criticized by civil liberties advocates and by tech industry officials for failing to provide clear public explanations of the decision-making behind their surveillance policies. The oversight board’s executive director David Medine concluded, “When the government collects all of a person’s telephone records, storing them for five years in a government database that is subjected to high-speed digital searching nd analysis, the privacy implications go far beyond what can be revealed by the metadata of a single telephone call,” the majority wrote.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

OBAMA FOE INDICTED

The conservative filmmaker behind a hit anti-Obama documentary was indicted last night on charges he violated federal campaign laws, in what a close colleague is calling a “selective prosecution.” Dinesh D’Souza, whose “2016: Obama’s America” is the second-highest grossing political documentary of all time, will appear in U.S. District Court in New York Friday.

The indictment states the 52-year-old best-selling author and activist will be charged with one count of illegally donating to a Senate campaign and one count of causing false statements to be made to authorities in connection with the contributions.

FoxNews.com has confirmed that the donation in question was made to Republican Wendy Long, who lost a 2012 Senate bid against New York Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

D’Souza is accused of directing various donors to give contributions to Long’s campaign totaling $20,000, and then reimbursing them. Individuals are only allowed to donate a maximum of $5,000 to a candidate per election cycle.

“Trying to influence elections through bogus campaign contributions is a serious crime,” George Venizelos, the assistant director in charge of the New York FBI office said in a statement. “Today, Mr. D’Souza finds himself on the wrong side of the law.”

D’Souza’s co-producer in “2016” Gerald Molen, who won an Oscar for “Schindler’s List” told FoxNews.com he believes D’Souza is being singled out by federal authorities.

The 2012 film examined President Obama’s past and early influences that may have shaped his political ideology and was a surprise hit, making over $33 million at the box office. The duo is teaming up again for a new film “America,” which Molen said will be released on schedule in July 2014 regardless of what happens in the case.

“Neither the filmmakers nor the American public can allow this prosecution to deter us from the film’s release, and I am calling upon the American people to show their elected officials that this kind of selective prosecution will not stand, by joining us at the box office,” Molen said. “I look forward to my good friend Dinesh being vindicated for what appears to be nothing more than a misunderstanding.”

The indictment states the alleged illegal contributions came to light during the FBI’s routine examination of campaign contributions filed with the FEC during the 2012 election year.

D’Souza faces a maximum of two years in prison for the illegal contributions charge and a maximum of five years in prison for the false statements charge. The indictment was announced by Venizelos and U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who was appointed by President Obama in 2009.

PHILIPPINE DRUG BUSTS NET MILLIONS

MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Philippine police have arrested four men and seized 1 billion pesos ($22 million) worth of methamphetamine in the second large drug bust in Manila in 10 days.

Last week, the National Bureau of Investigation arrested four Canadian men suspected of trafficking drugs from Mexico in separate raids on posh condominiums. Agents recovered 100 million pesos ($2.25 million) worth of cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA, which is similar to Ecstasy.

Police said they were investigating an “unholy alliance” between Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel and Chinese drug syndicates operating in the Philippines.

OBAMACARE COSTLY AT DEATH

Though many may not realize it, states are allowed to recover the cost of health care after someone’s death by seizing their assets. It applies to Medicaid recipients who are between the ages of 55 and 64. The law has been in place since 1993, when Congress realized states were going broke over rising Medicaid expenses. But under ObamaCare, Medicaid eligibility has expanded dramatically along with the promise that the federal government will pick up the cost of the higher tab — at least for the first few years, after which states will be on the hook for a portion of the increase.

A Washington couple actually got married recently so that they would not be affected by Medicaid. They married primarily because Sophia Prins owns a home and wants to will it to her children without any worry that the government will attach a lien for the cost of her medical care. Prins doesn’t think it’s fair to go after the assets of people who get government assistance through Medicaid, but not those getting taxpayer subsidies through the exchange plans.

The story prompted Washington’s Democratic governor, Jay Inslee, to issue an emergency rule change. It says the state may only recover the cost of nursing home care provided to Medicaid recipients in that 55-64 age group. That’s the minimum allowable under the 1993 law.

Oregon followed suit. But the 23 other states that expanded Medicaid under ObamaCare have not changed their estate recovery policies. A lot of money is at stake.

In 2004, California collected $44.6 million through estate recovery. It’s a number that is certain to rise dramatically. MediCal officials tell Fox News they expect 1 million-2 million additional enrollees by 2015.

Minnesota, a much smaller state than California, managed to collect $25 million in 2004. It, too, is keeping its estate recovery policy in place.

“I think that people are maybe in for a shock when they find out their heirs are going to be paying for their care, because they got into a system under false pretenses,” said Dr. Jane Orient of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a group opposed to the Affordable Care Act.

The estate recovery law is so under the radar right now that interest groups like the AARP are still studying how it will play out under ObamaCare for seniors.

Dan Springer joined Fox News Channel (FNC) in August 2001 as a Seattle-based

0BAMACARE “CARELESS”

(CBN) If you signed up for Obamacare, your personal information may be extremely vulnerable to hackers, according to expert hacker David Kennedy. He warned not much has changed since he first hacked the site in November. Kennedy told Fox News he has been able to access the private information of 70,000 Americans within just four minutes. And he said he’s sure he could hack hundreds of thousands more if he wanted.

The Obama administration told Congress last week they’ve fixed the site’s security problems.

Meanwhile, a different computer expert, Kevin Mitnick, who’s considered the world’s greatest hacker, also calls the Obamacare site’s security “shameful” and “minimal.”

ROBOTS MAY SOON REPLACE ONE QUARTER OF U.S. ARMY

Cash-strapped and somewhat adrift in terms of missions, the U.S. Army is in the midst of an existential crisis. Once ballooning in budget and size, the Army now says it wants to be “a smaller, more lethal, deployable, and agile force.” And it’s going to need robots to do it right.

General Robert Cone, head of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, spoke about the future of the service at the Army Aviation Symposium last week. Faced with sequestration cuts, the Army is thinking about cutting the size of a brigade from 4,000 to 3,000 soldiers. It would fill the gap with robots and other unmanned systems. In fact, it’s been testing out possible combat drones for years now.

“Don’t you think 3,000 people is probably enough probably to get by?” General Cone asked the audience last week. Well, 3,000 plus robots. “When you see the success, frankly, that the Navy has had in terms of lowering the numbers of people on ships, are there functions in the brigade that we could automate—robots or manned/unmanned teaming—and lower the number of people that are involved given the fact that people are our major cost?” Reports indicate that the Army will shrink from its current size of 540,000 soldiers to just 420,000 in the next five years.

But replacing all those soldiers with drones won’t be an easy task. After its finally developed the right technology—and you know DARPA’s working hard on it—then the Army has the terrible task of convincing the public that it’s okay to kill people with robots. Of course, we’ve been doing that for years, though, haven’t we? [Defense News]

FAULTY SPEED CAMERAS COST BALTIMORE DRIVERS MILLIONS

Baltimore’s speed cameras likely charged motorists for thousands more erroneous tickets than previously disclosed, according to data from a secret audit conducted for the city last yearand obtained by The Baltimore Sun.

Consultant URS Corp. evaluated the camera system as run by Xerox State and Local Solutions in 2012 and found an error rate of more than 10 percent — 40 times higher than city officials had claimed. The city got those findings last April but never disclosed the high error rate, refusing calls by members of the City Council to release the audit.

The city issued roughly 700,000 speed camera tickets at $40 each in fiscal year 2012. If 10 percent were wrong, 70,000 would have wrongly been charged $2.8 million.

City Council members reacted with dismay and anger when told Wednesday of the audit’s results, asking why the Rawlings-Blake administration didn’t reveal the high error rate months ago and take steps to fully refund fines paid by motorists.

“It’s outrageous. No, it’s beyond outrageous,” said City Councilman Carl Stokes, who has been calling on the city to release the audit. “Who ever heard of a secret audit? We should have told the public immediately. We should have declared complete amnesty, that all of the tickets were null and void. If anybody paid, they should be paid back.”

The audit identified 13 cameras with double-digit error rates, one that was giving out more erroneous tickets than accurate citations.

BY JEFF SCHAPIRO, CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER

Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning doesn’t publicly discuss his faith as frequently as some other Christian athletes, but he has said that he wants his actions to speak louder than his words.

Manning led his team to a Super Bowl berth by throwing for 400 yards and two touchdowns in last Sunday’s AFC Championship Game against the New England Patriots, which the Broncos won by a score of 26-16. The four-time league MVP has been stellar throughout the season, setting NFL regular season records in both passing yards (5,477) and touchdowns (55).

But while many people focus primarily on Manning’s performance on the field, the part of his life that he has said is most important – his Christian faith – is rarely discussed.

In Manning, the book published in 2001 that he co-wrote with his father, the quarterback shares how he came to faith in Christ in a New Orleans church as a 13-year-old boy. His priorities in life, he wrote, have been faith, family, friends and football – in that order.

“Some players get more vocal about it – the Reggie Whites, for example – and some point to Heaven after scoring a touchdown and praise God after games,” wrote Manning. “I have no problem with that. But I don’t do it, and don’t think it makes me any less a Christian. I just want my actions to speak louder, and I don’t want to be more of a target for criticism than I already am.”

Off the field, one of the ways Manning is working to help others is through the PeyBack Foundation. Manning and his wife, Ashley, started the Indianapolis-based organization as a way to support programs that benefit disadvantaged youth, though the foundation has also funded and operated several programs of its own. Since it was founded in 1999, the PeyBack Foundation has donated more than $6.5 million to youth organizations in Louisiana, Tennessee, Indiana and Colorado, according to the organization’s website.

DOES PRAYER WIN GAMES?

Was it skill that got the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos to the Super Bowl, or did their fans just pray harder?

Fans have plenty of faith when it comes to sports, according to a new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). In fact, half of fans see supernatural forces at play in sports, meaning they either pray to God to help their team, have thought their team was cursed at some point in time, or believe that God plays a role in determining the outcome of sporting events.

“Anyone who knows a sports fan has probably heard of some crazy ritual that they’re doing to help their team win but there’s been surprisingly little scientific research on it,” said Dr. Robert P. Jones, CEO of PRRI. “We decided to ask Americans both what rituals they did and whether they thought there was the supernatural was in any way at play in the outcome of sporting events.”

The survey showed football fans are a highly spiritual bunch. Of the 1,011 surveyed, 55 percent of football fans said they believe in some type of supernatural forces at play in sports. Another 33 percent pray for God to help their team. One-fourth of football fans perform a pre-game or game-time ritual and 31 percent believe their team has been cursed.

“While most of the fans who said they had some rituals were about wearing jerseys and more mundane things, there were some other that were quite specific,” said Jones. “One fan, for example, told us that he puts on his dirty underwear on top of his pants, then puts on his jersey.”

It’s unclear if that particular ritual resulted in a win.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Here are 10 steps for how to get rid of the blues:

Go out and do something good for someone.

Then do that again nine more times.

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