Egypt’s Christians Face Backlash for Morsi Ouster

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Photo Credit: APWith a mob of Muslim extremists on his tail, the Christian businessman and his nephew climbed up on the roof and ran for their lives, jumping from building to building in their southern Egyptian village. Finally they ran out of rooftops.

Forced back onto the street, they were overwhelmed by several dozen men. The attackers hacked them with axes and beat them with clubs and tree limbs, killing Emile Naseem, 41. The nephew survived with wounds to his shoulders and head and recounted the chase to The Associated Press.

The mob’s rampage through the village of Nagaa Hassan, burning dozens of Christian houses and stabbing to death three other Christians as well, came two days after the military ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi from power. It was no coincidence the attackers focused on Naseem and his family: He was the village’s most prominent campaigner calling for Morsi’s removal.

Some Christians are paying the price for their activism against Morsi and his Islamist allies in a backlash over his ouster last week.

Since then, there has been a string of attacks on Christians in provinces that are strongholds of hard-liners. In the Sinai Peninsula, where militant groups run rampant, militants gunned down a priest in a drive-by shooting as he walked in a public market.

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Union Prevents Commissioner From Canceling IRS Bonuses as Promised

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Photo Credit: Daily CallerActing IRS commissioner Danny Werfel’s promise to suspend taxpayer-funded bonuses to IRS officials might not be fully realized because it will violate a contract between the scandal-plagued agency and a public-employee labor union.

“In this unprecedented budget situation, I do not believe the IRS should pay performance awards this year to employees, managers or executives,” Werfel wrote in an email to IRS employees this week.

“This is not a reflection of the quality or performance of the work done by you and your colleagues, but rather an unfortunate byproduct of the difficult budgetary situation we find ourselves in,” Werfel wrote. The IRS is currently under fire after revelations that it improperly targeted the tax-exempt nonprofit status of conservative groups.

But due to a union contract Werfel will not be able to successfully halt all bonuses this year. The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents IRS employees, said that bonuses already promised to unionized IRS workers must be paid, because the bonuses represent work done in 2012, before Werfel canceled bonuses.

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N.C. House Approves Restrictive Abortion Legislation

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Photo Credit: Gerry BroomeRepublican lawmakers pushed ahead Thursday with their demand for new rules at North Carolina’s abortion clinics, saying they will make the procedure safer for women. Opponents argued it was a blatant attempt to shut down clinics and curb a woman’s right to choose.

The House voted 74-41 to approve new rules after a highly-charged, three-hour debate watched from the gallery by advocates on both sides of the issue.

The bill directs state regulators to change standards for abortion clinics to bring them in line with more regulated outpatient surgical centers. It also requires doctors to be present for an entire surgical abortion and when a patient takes the first dose for a chemically induced abortion.

The bill was tweaked after Republican Gov. Pat McCrory threatened to veto a separate bill approved quickly by the Senate last week. The governor said he supported more safety measures but was worried it would result in restricting a woman’s access to an abortion.

House leaders adjusted the Senate’s language with input from McCrory’s top health agency administrator. The standards have not been changed since 1994, officials have said. The governor hasn’t spoken publicly about the updated measure, which now must return to the GOP-led Senate next week. It would have to get approved there before it goes to McCrory’s desk.

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Federal Appeals Court Rejects Christian University’s Request to Overturn ObamaCare

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Photo Credit: APA federal appeals court in Virginia on Thursday rejected a Christian university’s bid to overturn the Obama administration’s health care law.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed a lower court ruling dismissing Liberty University’s lawsuit.

Liberty argued the employer health insurance mandate of the Affordable Care Act violates the school’s religious rights by requiring it to provide coverage for abortion inducing drugs. The appeals court found no merit in the claim.

“Plaintiffs present no plausible claim that the act substantially burdens their free exercise of religion, by forcing them to facilitate or support abortion or otherwise,” Judge James A. Wynn Jr. wrote in the opinion. He wrote the law “allows an individual to obtain, and an employer to offer, a plan that covers no abortion services at all.”

The opinion was joined by Judges Andre M. Davis and Diana Gribbon Motz. Davis and Wynn are Obama appointees, and Motz was appointed by Bill Clinton. The same panel in 2011 ruled Liberty’s lawsuit was premature. The Supreme Court upheld the health care law in another case in June 2012, and in November the justices ordered the appeals court to reconsider Liberty’s case in light of that ruling.

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What Boondoggle? Carney Unaware of $34M Military HQ Troops Won’t Use

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Photo Credit: APWhite House Press Secretary Jay Carney apparently isn’t reading his hometown paper.

The Washington Post carried a fairly explosive story on Wednesday about a $34 million military headquarters in southwestern Afghanistan that probably will never be used by U.S. forces. A scathing inspector general letter was also released Wednesday morning on the war-zone boondoggle.

But asked on Thursday whether President Obama was outraged by the waste, Carney said he hadn’t heard anything about it.

“I would have to take the question. I haven’t seen the report,” Carney said.

He added: “But we’re obviously outraged by wasteful spending in general — again, I’m not aware of this report, or any specifics about the base that you described.”

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Convicted Child Sex Abusers Sue For $10M, Claim NY State Program Violated Their Rights

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Photo Credit: rakkhiThey are some of the most sexually violent predators, convicted of hideous crimes, such as sexually abusing a five-year-old.

Now they want $10 million.

The civil case in Manhattan’s federal court pits half a dozen child sex offenders against the former governor of New York, George Pataki, and a slew of former state prison and health officials. The six are suing the officials over a 2005 state government program that was designed to keep child sex offenders off the streets, but was disbanded a year later after a New York court ruled against it.

The plaintiffs were serving their prison sentences for their crimes. But they claim that the program, “The Sexually Violent Predator Initiative,” violated their rights by confining them to psychiatric hospitals without a court hearing, just before their sentences were scheduled to be completed.

The lawsuit of lead plaintiff Kenneth Bailey says that “after twelve years behind bars, in the final days of his sentence, [he] was deprived of his freedom and civilly committed to an indefinite sentence in a state-run psychiatric facility. Although the New York State Corrections Law requires that a specific procedure be followed when an inmate is to be confined in a psychiatric facility, those responsible for putting plaintiff there blatantly and deliberately ignored the prescriptions of that law.”

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Fugitive Snowden to Meet with Human Rights Groups

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Photo Credit: ReutersFormer intelligence agency contractor Edward Snowden asked to meet human rights groups at a Moscow airport on Friday to discuss what he called “threatening behaviour” by the United States to prevent him gaining asylum.

The meeting would be the first of its kind since Snowden flew to Moscow from Hong Kong on June 23. He has been stranded in the transit area of Sheremetyevo airport ever since, unable to take up asylum offers from third countries.

Snowden is wanted by Washington on espionage charges for divulging details of secret U.S. surveillance programs. The email address from which he sent the invitation to human rights groups was confirmed as authentic by an airport official.

“In recent weeks we have witnessed an unlawful campaign by officials in the U.S. Government to deny my right to seek and enjoy this asylum under Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Snowden wrote.

“The scale of threatening behavior is without precedent,” read the letter, a copy of which was posted to Facebook by an official of Human Rights Watch.

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House Narrowly Passes Farm Bill After Republicans Carve Out Food Stamps

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsThe House on Thursday narrowly passed a massive farm bill, after Republicans took the risky step of carving out the food stamp program — a move Democrats effectively boycotted.

The bill passed on a 216-208 vote. Zero Democrats voted for it.

House Democrats spent most of the afternoon lambasting their Republican colleagues for dropping the food stamp component, making clear that House Speaker John Boehner would need to rely on Republicans only to pass the bill. After some marathon nose-counting, GOP leaders were able to minimize the number of Republican defectors — just 12 Republicans voted against it on Thursday.

The farm bill historically has been a vehicle for both billions in farm subsidies and billions in food stamps. Twinning the two massive programs has in the past helped win support from rural-state lawmakers and those representing big cities. But after the bill failed in the House last month amid opposition from rank-and-file Republicans, House leaders removed the food stamp portion in a bid to attract conservative support.

The fate of the measure is unclear, though, as the matter now kicks back to the Senate or to a so-called conference committee to resolve differences between the two chambers’ bills. The Democratic-led Senate overwhelmingly passed a farm bill with smaller cuts to food stamps, but would be reluctant to go along with a bill that carves out food stamps.

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Dad, Son Arrested For Setting 7-Year-Old On Fire, Videotaping It (+video)

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Photo Credit: CBSA Saxonburg man has been arrested for dousing his then-girlfriend’s 7-year-old son with a flammable liquid.

Then, police say the man’s own 15-year-old son set the younger boy’s shirt on fire.

Edward B. Myers, 35, allegedly used his cell phone to film the attack at his Carol Drive home as he watched the boy burn.

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Hospital in Zimbabwe Where Desperately Poor Women Are Charged $5 Every Time They Scream During Childbirth

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Photo Credit: AFP/GettyPoor women have been exploited at their most vulnerable time by a hospital that charged them $5 every time they screamed during child birth.

The shocking discovery was made by a U.S. group that campaigns against corruption, as it released its annual Global Corruption Barometer.

At the hospital in Zimbabwe, one of the poorest countries in the world, the fine was said to be for ‘raising a false alarm’, according to Transparency International.

Women who were unable to pay the fine were allegedly kept in the hospital until their families could pay. Interest was also added to the fines, according to the Washington Post.

Many mothers already avoid hospital deliveries in the African nation because of the $50 cost, which is about the third of the average $150 income.

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