Pope Francis makes first Curia appointment

VATICAN CITY (AP) ? Pope Francis on Saturday named a Spanish Franciscan to be the No. 2 at the Vatican's office for religious orders, his first appointment to the Vatican bureaucracy badly in need of a shakeup.

Jose Rodriguez, who also was elevated to archbishop, replaces U.S. Archbishop Joseph Tobin, who was transferred from the high-ranking Vatican post to a Midwestern U.S. archdiocese following his efforts to mediate tensions between the Vatican and American nuns, who in the view of theological conservatives had become too secular and political.

Rodriquez, 60, is an outsider to the Vatican administration and comes from the world of religious orders, like Francis who is a Jesuit. Rodriguez is well-thought of among the orders, and last year was elected president of an international association that gathers the heads of the male orders. He has been twice elected head of the Franciscans' Friars Minor order, one of the main branches of the Franciscan order founded by St. Francis of Assisi, the pope's namesake.

American nuns have seen the election of a Jesuit pope devoted to the poor as a glimmer of home following a Vatican crackdown under Francis' predecessor, Benedict XVI. The nuns were accused of focusing too much on social justice ? one of Francis' priorities ? at the expense of other church issues, like abortion.

Rodriguez' predecessor, Tobin, is now archbishop of Indianapolis, which has fewer than 230,000 parishioners.

One of the important tasks facing Francis is the reform of the scandal-plagued Curia, or Vatican administration, which decides everything from bishop appointments and liturgy, to parish closings and discipline for abusive priests. Benedict commissioned a report on the Curia for papal eyes only following such scandals as VatiLeaks, in which Benedict's butler leaked the pope's private papers revealing feuding, corruption and cronyism at the highest levels of administration.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-francis-makes-first-curia-appointment-111935229.html

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A Reporter Explains Why Gun Coverage Is So Biased (Powerlineblog)

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BoJ policy welcome for world growth: IMF's Lagarde

By Koh Gui Qing

BOAO, China (Reuters) - The head of the International Monetary Fund hailed Japan's unprecedented monetary policy boost this week as a welcome support for a world economy that she said has improved from a year ago.

Christine Lagarde said on Sunday the radical $1.4 trillion stimulus from the Bank of Japan (BoJ) would help strengthen the advanced economies, saying growth in countries such as the United States was gaining speed.

But without referring specifically to Japan, Lagarde warned policymakers against thinking that super-loose monetary policy alone could do the heavy lifting in reviving economies, when growth may instead be stifled by unhealthy private and public finances.

"Monetary policies, including unconventional measures, have helped prop up the advanced economies, and in turn, global growth," Christine Lagarde told a forum in south China.

"The reforms just announced by the Bank of Japan are another welcome step in this direction," she said. "There is, however, a limit to how effectively monetary policy can continue to shoulder the lion's share of this effort."

Central banks still need to heed broken balance sheets that impede lending and plan for and guard against uncertainties arising from any policy change, the IMF chief said.

Japan stunned investors on Thursday by unleashing the world's most intense burst of monetary stimulus, which will pump $1.4 trillion into its economy in under two years. It hopes the shock therapy will end two decades of stagnation.

But the move is a huge gamble. It heavily exposes the BoJ to Japan's mountain of public debt and carries the potential for big losses if inflation spikes and investors lose faith in its viability.

Japan's government debt, at twice the size of its $5 trillion economy, is proportionally the highest among developed nations.

Lagarde said fiscal problems in developed nations such as Japan and the United States marred the global economic recovery and contrasted with emerging economies, where a broadening rebound is brightening the outlook.

ENVIABLE

Lagarde said the IMF expected Asian economies to grow by nearly 6 percent this year, "an enviable performance by any measure", as resilient domestic demand and accommodative policies power the region.

She said the impressive growth rate is customary for Asia, which has accounted for two-thirds of global growth in the last five years since the financial crisis struck.

Asia's buoyancy has rubbed off on the rest of the world.

"A substantial portion of the global economy looks better today than it did last year," Lagarde said. "And we are beginning to see momentum pick up in the United States."

In the euro zone, however, she said debt problems are weighing on growth and dragging out a recession.

Lagarde said the main task for the currency zone right now is to push for a banking union, a plan that is meant to put an end to the euro zone's debt troubles by severing the link between sovereign borrowers and banks.

Last month, however, Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said European aid for troubled banks is a last resort, which raised doubts about the plan for a banking union.

Dijsselbloem made the comments after a rescue program was agreed for Cyprus that imposed steep losses on depositors, leading to suggestions that the Cypriot deal could serve as a precedent for future bank bailouts in the bloc.

Lagarde said Cyprus was not a model for the rest but that the pecking order for investors to absorb losses including depositors must be respected.

"When a financial institution goes under, a resolution process has to take place that will constantly be shouldered by taxpayers, either in the country or in the region or in the world," she said.

(Editing by Benjamin Kang Lim and Jane Baird)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bojs-policy-welcome-world-growth-imfs-lagarde-115348411--business.html

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Israel Braces for Massive Cyber-Attack

JERUSALEM, Israel -- The hacktivist group Anonymous plans to launch a massive cyber-attack against Israel, beginning Sunday and continuing through Monday, coinciding with the Jewish state's observance of Holocaust Memorial Day.

Several other anti-Israel hactivist groups have joined the #OpIsrael effort, whose goal is to "launch a coordinated, massive cyber-attack on Israeli targets with the intent of erasing Israel from the Internet."

On Wednesday, about 15,000 Israeli Facebook accounts were hacked, Israel Hayom reported.

According to the report, a virus unleashed through a malicious IP address allowed the virus to attack other computers through theirs.

It's not the first time the pro-Palestinian group has targeted Israel. During last November's military incursion in the Gaza Strip to stop Palestinian rocket attacks, the group launched a major offensive against Israeli government websites, banks, businesses credit card companies, and private websites.

Since 2008, Anonymous began focusing on collective hacktivism, and by 2011, CNN positioned it among the top three successors to WikiLeaks.

Knesset members and staff have been alerted to expect "an unusual level" of cyber-attacks."

Source: http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2013/April/Israel-Braces-for-Massive-Cyber-Attack-/

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Cop, suspect killed inside Miss. police HQ

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) ? A murder suspect being interviewed at the Jackson, Miss., police headquarters shot a detective Thursday and those who came to investigate the gunfire found both men dead, authorities said.

The suspect was being questioned on the third floor of the building when the shooting happened, said Police Chief Rebecca Coleman. Police did not release any details on the sequence of what happened.

The officer was identified as Det. Eric Smith, 40, who was assigned to the Robbery-Homicide Division and had been with the department since 1995.

Late Thursday, police identified the murder suspect as Jeremy Powell, 23. Both the detective and the suspect had been shot multiple times.

Police said Powell was in the process of being arrested in the killing Monday of Christopher Alexander. News outlets reported that the 20-year-old Alexander's body was found Monday near a Jackson street and he had been stabbed in the neck.

City police spokesman Chris Mims described Smith as "a decorated detective and well-respected law-enforcement person throughout the state of Mississippi."

"He was in the processing of questioning that suspect," Mims said of the detective. "Other officers in the police department heard gunshots ring out and when they went to the interview room, discovered that both the suspect and the detective were deceased."

The police headquarters was on lockdown Thursday night, Mims said.

Jackson City Councilman Chokwe Lumumba was in police headquarters with the mayor afterward and said Smith was shot by the suspect. He did not know how the suspect ended up dead.

"I understand there may have been more than one police officer in the room," Lumumba said outside the police building.

The headquarters was blocked off and surrounded by crime tape. Law enforcement and Jackson city officials rushed to the scene.

Mims said the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation has taken over the investigation, which is standard procedure.

"This is a very tragic situation," he said. "The entire city of Jackson and the Jackson Police Department family are all hurting. We are asking for the public's patience while we find out why this tragic incident happened and how it happened."

At least 30 Jackson Police and Hines County Sheriff's office vehicles were haphazardly parked across multiple, major downtown Jackson streets. Officers were visibly shaken, wiping their eyes, and Assistant Chief Lee Vance could be seen comforting Chief Rebecca Coleman at one point, putting his arm around her shoulder outside the building. A 2008 photo on the department's website shows a smiling, fit Smith, in a shirt and tie, accepting a certificate of commendation on behalf of a detective, with Coleman and Vance on each side of him.

Lumumba, who is a lawyer, said Smith was fairly new to being a homicide detective and that he first met Smith in the late 1990s. The then-officer had testified on some of Lumumba's cases.

"I had great respect for his work and his integrity," Lumumba said. He added that Smith's stepson had played basketball on an Amateur Athletic Union team that Lumumba worked with.

"Eric helped take young men all over the country," the councilman said. "He's a real man in every sense of the word."

Mayor Harvey Johnson, Jr. also addressed the officer's death.

"Detective Smith was an excellent officer in all respects," the mayor said. "I want everyone to keep the Smith family in their prayers and in their thoughts."

Lumumba said that Smith was married and had another son.

A monument outside police headquarters lists 14 officers killed in the line of duty ? before today.

____

Mohr reported from Brandon, Miss. AP writer Jackie Quinn reported from Washington.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/murder-suspect-shoots-miss-cop-inside-police-hq-015304181.html

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Pat Curran, Uriah Hall, and fight-ruining cuts: Where do they fall on Cagewriter?s Hot or Not list?

Leading into UFC on Fuel and Invicta, it's been a drama-filled week of MMA. What was hot and what wasn't?

Hot ? Pat Curran: Bellator's featherweight champion held onto his belt on Thursday night with a first-round submission of Shabhulat Shamhalaev. It's been two years since his last loss. Since then, he has six wins, including two title defenses.

Not ? Practical jokes: When Alexander Gustafsson's status for Saturday's fight was still uncertain, Wanderlei Silva tweeted that he was in for Gustafsson against Gegard Mousasi. He even told media members privately that he was fighting. But the next day he revealed it was an "April Fool's Day" joke. A joke, or a lie?

Hot ? Uriah Hall: When he knocked out Adam Cella in the first round of "The Ultimate Fighter," it was hailed as the nastiest knockout ever on TUF. Then Hall went and topped it. He knocked out Bubba McDaniel in a vicious, nine-second bout that ended with McDaniel asking what happened, and UFC president Dana White wondering if it was right to applaud Hall's performance.

Not ? Fight-ruining cuts: What was worse ? Gustafsson getting cut a week before his fight with Mousasi, or the will-he-or-won't-he drama leading up the the Swedish MMA Federation's medical committee deciding that he couldn't fight? Or was the worst part that they made that decision days before the weigh-in when they could have given the cut more time to heal? It's a bad deal all around.

Still taking temperature ? Ilir Latifi: Gustafsson's training partner has the opportunity of his life as he steps in on Saturday to fight Mousasi in the main event of UFC on Fuel 9. He can make his UFC debut very memorable, but will it be good or bad for him.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/pat-curran-uriah-hall-fight-ruining-cuts-where-182918892--mma.html

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New Zealand Withdraws Its Troops From Afghanistan, Grants Afghan Interpreters Residency

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