Priest molested girl who wore Snow White costume, records show

More disturbing stories of priests' molestations of children -- and questionable actions by church leaders -- emerged in 12,000 pages of once-confidential
personnel files.

The
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles posted the documents on its website Thursday night, an hour
after a Los Angeles judge ended 5-1/2 years of legal wrangling
over the release of the files with an order compelling the church to
make the documents public within three weeks.

Victims, their lawyers, reporters and other members of the public spent
hours Friday poring through records that stretched back to the 1940s and
provided details about the scope of abuse in church ranks never before
seen.

The archdiocese of Los Angeles learned in the late 1970s that one of
its priests had sexually assaulted a 16-year-old boy so violently that
he was left bleeding and "in a state of shock." The priest said he was
too drunk to remember what happened and officials took no further
action.

But two decades later, word reached Cardinal Roger M. Mahony
that the same priest was molesting again and improperly performing the
sacrament of confession on his victim. The archdiocese sprang to action:
It dispatched investigators, interviewed a raft of witnesses and
discussed the harshest of all church penalties — not for the abuse but for
the violation of church law.

"Given the seriousness of this abuse of the sacrament of penance … it
is your responsibility to formally declare the existence of the
excommunication and then refer the matter to Rome," one cleric told
Mahony in a memo.

Full coverage: Priest Abuse Scandal

The case of Father Jose Ugarte is one of several instances detailed
in newly released records in which archdiocese officials displayed
outrage over a priest's ecclesiastical missteps while doing little for
the victims of his sexual abuse.

The files also suggested that the attempts to protect abusers from
law enforcement extended beyond the L.A. archdiocese to a Catholic order
tasked with rehabilitating abusers.

"Once more, we ask you to PLEASE DESTROY THESE PAGES AND ANY OTHER
MATERIAL YOU HAVE RECEIVED FROM US," the acting director of the order's
treatment program wrote to Mahony in 1988 in a letter detailing
therapists' reports about a prolific molester. "This is stated for your
own and our legal protection."

The order, the Servants of the Paraclete, closed the New Mexico
facility where many Los Angeles priests were sent amid a flood of
lawsuits in the mid-1990s. A lawyer for the order declined to comment,
but indicated in a 2011 civil court filing that all treatment records
were destroyed.

Mahony disregarded the order's advice, and therapy memos are among the most detailed records in the files.

One evaluation recounts how Father Joseph Pina, an East L.A. parish
priest, said he was attracted to a victim, an eighth-grade girl, when he
saw her in a costume.

"She dressed as Snow White … I had a crush on Snow White, so I
started to open myself up to her," he told the psychologist. In a report
sent to a top Mahony aide, the psychologist expressed concern the abuse
was never reported to authorities.

"All so very sad," Mahony wrote years later after Pina was placed on leave. He was defrocked in 2006.

The limitations of the treatment at the Servants' center are evident
in the file. After months of therapy in 1994, Father John Dawson was
allowed to leave the facility for a weekend. Among the first things
Dawson, who had been accused of plying altar boy victims with pot and
beer, did was apply for a job at the Arizona Boys School in Phoenix.

Treatment center staff found out only after the school phoned Dawson to
arrange an interview. "Had they not called the Villa, it is doubtful
that Fr. Dawson would have informed us of that job application and
interview," according to a 1994 letter to Mahony's vicar for clergy,
Msgr. Timothy Dyer.

Responding to a public rebuke by his successor, Mahony
insisted Friday that he tried his best to deal with the priest molestation
scandal but fell short because not enough was known about the problem
early in his career.

In an extraordinary open letter to Archbishop Jose Gomez, Mahony
insisted Friday that he ultimately instituted state-of-the-art
protections against child sexual abuse
within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He seemed to
suggest that Gomez had acted unfairly by publicly announcing that he was
stripping the cardinal of any public role in the local church.

"Not once over these past years
did you ever raise any questions about our policies, practices or
procedures in dealing with the problem of clergy sexual misconduct
involving minors," he wrote.

PHOTOS: Cardinal Roger Mahony over the years

"Unfortunately, I cannot return now to the 1980s and reverse actions and
decisions made then," he added. "But when I retired as the active
archbishop, I handed over to you an archdiocese that was second to none
in protecting children and youth."

Mahony posted the letter on his blog Friday afternoon, hours after he said he had sent it to Gomez.

In a letter Thursday to parishioners, Gomez announced that "effective
immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have
any administrative or public duties." The move came a week after the
release of church records showing Mahony worked to conceal abusers from
police in the 1980s.

-- Harriet Ryan, Victoria Kim, Ashley Powers, Mitchell Landsberg and Teresa Watanabe

Photo: At a news conference Friday at the
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Esther Miller, 54, holding photos
of other victims, breaks down while talking about being abused by a
Catholic priest when she was a young girl.
Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

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Letter From Washington: A Rocky Road to Reforming Immigration

WASHINGTON — Immigration reform is having a “Kumbaya” moment, with support from the White House, a bipartisan contingent in Congress, business and labor.

The Republicans are petrified after their dismal showing among the fastest-growing slices of the electorate, Hispanics and Asians; President Barack Obama wants to reward the loyalty of those voters. Business and labor, as well as many politicians, want to fix a totally dysfunctional system. There are more than 11 million undocumented immigrants, 5 percent of the work force. Many of these people live in fear of discovery, while jobs go unfilled in some areas.

Hold the Champagne. When it comes to immigration laws, the concept is always easier than the reality. Change failed to happen six years ago, despite the push from the high-powered coalition led by President George W. Bush and Senators John McCain and Edward M. Kennedy. The dynamics are more favorable today. Still, the same obstacles persist; the powerful countervailing considerations include these issues:

A predicament on citizenship There’s a fairly broad consensus for ending the illegal status of the undocumented. The White House, Hispanic groups and most Senate supporters insist that any overhaul must lead to a pathway to citizenship.

That approach, however, faces great resistance. Some lawmakers demand that any move toward citizenship must come second to solving the border-security problem, at a minimum. For some, this is a political cover; under the Obama administration, resources for border security have been increased sharply, including the use of drones. And deportations of undocumented immigrants are at a record high.

A border-security trigger is realistic if it includes quantifiable goals, like the number of new Border Patrol agents, the amount of resources allocated and the new technologies utilized. It isn’t reasonable if it requires meeting an amorphous standard like “operational control” of a border that is always changing.

Hispanic groups assert that the real motive for such demands is to unreasonably stretch out any possibility of granting citizenship.

“There would be a backlash if citizenship is delayed for 15 or 20 years,” warns Gary M. Segura, a Stanford University professor and co-founder of Latino Decisions, the leading research organization on Hispanic public opinion.

The future of immigration policy Equally contentious is the question of future flows of immigrants. One proposal would link the number of legal immigrants to economic conditions: More would be let in when times are good, fewer in tougher times. That sounds easier than it is. There will be clashes over how great a priority should be given to those with high-tech skills or to agriculture workers or to family reunification. Small businesses will rebel against any costly verification plan.

Most independent studies show that immigration is a decided economic plus, bringing in revenue and increasing productivity and innovation.

Yet the arguments of the populist right may resonate more as the debate heats up. NumbersUSA, a leading anti-immigration group, is reviving charges that an immigration overhaul would drive down wages for middle- and low- income workers. Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state who authored anti-immigration measures in several states and the Republican Party’s platform position on the issue last summer, charges that taxpayers would be hit with $2.6 trillion in added food stamps, Medicare and Medicaid, which are government health care programs, and in welfare costs. That estimate is refuted by reliable studies; it still cuts.

The House Republican leadership J. Dennis Hastert, a former Republican speaker of the House, decreed that any bill must command majority support among majority party members. Last month, the House speaker, John A. Boehner, waived the rule twice to pass measures, one avoiding the so-called fiscal cliff and another providing aid to victims of Hurricane Sandy.

The speaker, along with most party leaders, understands his party’s serious difficulties with Hispanic voters and fears making matters worse by blocking an overhaul. Two of the most virulent anti-immigration Republicans in the House, Lamar Smith of Texas and Steve King of Iowa, no longer hold important committee chairmanships.

Yet with anti-immigration sentiment still running high among many Republican rank-and-file voters, it’s tough to imagine a majority of the party’s House members backing a comprehensive bill, even if, as is certain, the Senate goes first. Mr. Boehner’s only option might be to let a bill pass primarily with Democratic votes.

To do that, he would need the support of the House majority leader, Eric Cantor, and the whip, Kevin McCarthy; there’s no shrewder politician than Mr. McCarthy, who is always attuned to the party’s base. He’s also from California, where, since Governor Pete Wilson played the anti-immigration card in 1994, the Democrats completely dominate politics.

The lack of a skilled deal maker The successful, if flawed, passage of Mr. Obama’s health care measure probably wouldn’t have been possible without the savvy hand of Rahm Emanuel, who was the White House chief of staff. Congressional Democrats and some outside advocates see no Emanuel counterpart in the current White House; privately, some say they would like the White House to enlist a special envoy — perhaps Henry G. Cisneros, former housing secretary and former mayor of San Antonio, Texas, or Tom Daschle, the former Senate majority leader — to shepherd legislation.

Egos and tensions already are surfacing among supporters of an overhaul; Republicans don’t trust the White House, and some Democrats worry that Marco Rubio, the ambitious young Republican senator from Florida, will look for a reason to peel off as he comes under pressure from his party’s right wing. There is no senator today who possesses Mr. Kennedy’s skill for navigating these shoals.

It’s still a slightly better bet that a big immigration bill will be enacted in this Congress. Getting there will be ugly, and the measure will seem to die more than once as it battles these cross-pressures.

Read More..

Kuwaiti gets five years for insulting ruler

KUWAIT (Reuters) – A Kuwaiti court sentenced a man to five years in prison on Sunday for insulting the emir on Twitter, a rights lawyer and news websites said, in the latest prosecution for criticism of authorities via social media in the Gulf Arab state.

The court gave Kuwaiti Mohammad Eid al-Ajmi the maximum sentence for the comments, news websites al-Rai and alaan.cc reported.

In recent months Kuwait has penalized several Twitter users for criticizing the emir, who is described as “immune and inviolable” in the constitution.

“We call on the government to expand freedoms and adhere to the international (human rights) conventions it has signed,” said lawyer Mohammad al-Humaidi, director of the Kuwait Society for Human Rights, commenting on the case.

Courts in Kuwait generally do not comment to the media.

Amnesty International said in November Kuwait had increased restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly.

It urged Kuwait to ensure protection for users of social media, whether they supported or opposed the government, as long as they did not incite racial hatred or violence.

Kuwait, a U.S. ally and major oil producer, has been taking a firmer line on politically sensitive comments aired on the internet. Twitter is extremely popular in the country of 3.7 million.

In January, a court sentenced two men in separate cases to jail time for insulting the emir on Twitter.

In June 2012, a man was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he was convicted of endangering state security by insulting the Prophet Mohammad and the Sunni Muslim rulers of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain on social media.

Two months later, authorities detained Sheikh Meshaal al-Malik Al-Sabah, a member of the ruling family, over remarks on Twitter in which he accused authorities of corruption and called for political reform.

The recent Twitter cases have been carried out under the state security law and penal code. Last year Kuwait passed new legislation aimed at regulating social media.

Public demonstrations and debates about local issues are common in a state that allows the most dissent in the Gulf, but Kuwait has avoided the kind of mass unrest that unseated four heads of Arab states in 2011.

But tensions intensified between authorities and opposition groups last year ahead of a parliamentary election deemed unfair by opposition politicians and activists.

The opposition movement said new voting rules introduced by Sheikh Sabah by emergency decree in October would skew the December 1 election in favor of pro-government candidates. The emir said the old voting system was flawed and that his changes were constitutional and necessary for Kuwait’s “security and stability”.

(Reporting by Ahmed Hagagy, Writing by Sylvia Westall; editing by Sami Aboudi and Andrew Roche)

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Justin Timberlake Kicks Off Super Bowl Weekend By Returning to the Stage

By Maggie Coughlan

02/03/2013 at 02:30 PM EST

Justin Timberlake is bringing music back in a major way.

The singer – who says he'll release a new album this year – marked his return to the stage at DirecTV's Super Saturday Night event in New Orleans.

And for those lucky enough to attend, Timberlake, 32, performed his single "Suit & Tie" with Jay-Z.

Paul McCartney and wife Nancy Shevell, Nashville's Hayden Panettiere, Sofia Vergara, David Arquette, Kate Upton, Will Ferrell, Aaron Paul and more were just a few of the A-listers enjoying the show.

John Legend and fiancé Chrissy Teigen posed for photos with Jay-Z and Timbaland and showed them off on Twitter.

Questlove of The Roots also shared his two cents on Timberlake's return by posting on Instagram. "Dude is KILLLIINNNNGGG it," he wrote, sharing a photo of Timberlake at the mic.

But Timberlake wasn't the only one to take the stage – Katy Perry, The Fray performed and Questlove, Jersey Shore's Paul "Pauly D" DelVecchio and Tom Cruise's son, Connor, all played deejay sets.

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New rules aim to get rid of junk foods in schools

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most candy, high-calorie drinks and greasy meals could soon be on a food blacklist in the nation's schools.

For the first time, the government is proposing broad new standards to make sure all foods sold in schools are more healthful.

Under the new rules the Agriculture Department proposed Friday, foods like fatty chips, snack cakes, nachos and mozzarella sticks would be taken out of lunch lines and vending machines. In their place would be foods like baked chips, trail mix, diet sodas, lower-calorie sports drinks and low-fat hamburgers.

The rules, required under a child nutrition law passed by Congress in 2010, are part of the government's effort to combat childhood obesity. While many schools already have improved their lunch menus and vending machine choices, others still are selling high-fat, high-calorie foods.

Under the proposal, the Agriculture Department would set fat, calorie, sugar and sodium limits on almost all foods sold in schools. Current standards already regulate the nutritional content of school breakfasts and lunches that are subsidized by the federal government, but most lunchrooms also have "a la carte" lines that sell other foods. Food sold through vending machines and in other ways outside the lunchroom has never before been federally regulated.

"Parents and teachers work hard to instill healthy eating habits in our kids, and these efforts should be supported when kids walk through the schoolhouse door," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.

Most snacks sold in school would have to have less than 200 calories. Elementary and middle schools could sell only water, low-fat milk or 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice. High schools could sell some sports drinks, diet sodas and iced teas, but the calories would be limited. Drinks would be limited to 12-ounce portions in middle schools and to 8-ounce portions in elementary schools.

The standards will cover vending machines, the "a la carte" lunch lines, snack bars and any other foods regularly sold around school. They would not apply to in-school fundraisers or bake sales, though states have the power to regulate them. The new guidelines also would not apply to after-school concessions at school games or theater events, goodies brought from home for classroom celebrations, or anything students bring for their own personal consumption.

The new rules are the latest in a long list of changes designed to make foods served in schools more healthful and accessible. Nutritional guidelines for the subsidized lunches were revised last year and put in place last fall. The 2010 child nutrition law also provided more money for schools to serve free and reduced-cost lunches and required more meals to be served to hungry kids.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has been working for two decades to take junk foods out of schools. He calls the availability of unhealthful foods around campus a "loophole" that undermines the taxpayer money that helps pay for the healthier subsidized lunches.

"USDA's proposed nutrition standards are a critical step in closing that loophole and in ensuring that our schools are places that nurture not just the minds of American children but their bodies as well," Harkin said.

Last year's rules faced criticism from some conservatives, including some Republicans in Congress, who said the government shouldn't be telling kids what to eat. Mindful of that backlash, the Agriculture Department exempted in-school fundraisers from federal regulation and proposed different options for some parts of the rule, including the calorie limits for drinks in high schools, which would be limited to either 60 calories or 75 calories in a 12-ounce portion.

The department also has shown a willingness to work with schools to resolve complaints that some new requirements are hard to meet. Last year, for example, the government relaxed some limits on meats and grains in subsidized lunches after school nutritionists said they weren't working.

Schools, the food industry, interest groups and other critics or supporters of the new proposal will have 60 days to comment and suggest changes. A final rule could be in place as soon as the 2014 school year.

Margo Wootan, a nutrition lobbyist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said surveys by her organization show that most parents want changes in the lunchroom.

"Parents aren't going to have to worry that kids are using their lunch money to buy candy bars and a Gatorade instead of a healthy school lunch," she said.

The food industry has been onboard with many of the changes, and several companies worked with Congress on the child nutrition law two years ago. Major beverage companies have already agreed to take the most caloric sodas out of schools. But those same companies, including Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, also sell many of the non-soda options, like sports drinks, and have lobbied to keep them in vending machines.

A spokeswoman for the American Beverage Association, which represents the soda companies, says they already have greatly reduced the number of calories that kids are consuming at school by pulling out the high-calorie sodas.

___

Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mcjalonick

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Priest molested girl in 'Snow White' costume, files reveal

More disturbing stories of priests' molestations of children -- and questionable actions by church leaders -- emerged in 12,000 pages of once-confidential
personnel files.

The
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles posted the documents on its website Thursday night, an hour
after a Los Angeles judge ended 5-1/2 years of legal wrangling
over the release of the files with an order compelling the church to
make the documents public within three weeks.

Victims, their lawyers, reporters and other members of the public spent
hours Friday poring through records that stretched back to the 1940s and
provided details about the scope of abuse in church ranks never before
seen.

The archdiocese of Los Angeles learned in the late 1970s that one of
its priests had sexually assaulted a 16-year-old boy so violently that
he was left bleeding and "in a state of shock." The priest said he was
too drunk to remember what happened and officials took no further
action.

But two decades later, word reached Cardinal Roger M. Mahony
that the same priest was molesting again and improperly performing the
sacrament of confession on his victim. The archdiocese sprang to action:
It dispatched investigators, interviewed a raft of witnesses and
discussed the harshest of all church penalties — not for the abuse but for
the violation of church law.

"Given the seriousness of this abuse of the sacrament of penance … it
is your responsibility to formally declare the existence of the
excommunication and then refer the matter to Rome," one cleric told
Mahony in a memo.

Full coverage: Priest Abuse Scandal

The case of Father Jose Ugarte is one of several instances detailed
in newly released records in which archdiocese officials displayed
outrage over a priest's ecclesiastical missteps while doing little for
the victims of his sexual abuse.

The files also suggested that the attempts to protect abusers from
law enforcement extended beyond the L.A. archdiocese to a Catholic order
tasked with rehabilitating abusers.

"Once more, we ask you to PLEASE DESTROY THESE PAGES AND ANY OTHER
MATERIAL YOU HAVE RECEIVED FROM US," the acting director of the order's
treatment program wrote to Mahony in 1988 in a letter detailing
therapists' reports about a prolific molester. "This is stated for your
own and our legal protection."

The order, the Servants of the Paraclete, closed the New Mexico
facility where many Los Angeles priests were sent amid a flood of
lawsuits in the mid-1990s. A lawyer for the order declined to comment,
but indicated in a 2011 civil court filing that all treatment records
were destroyed.

Mahony disregarded the order's advice, and therapy memos are among the most detailed records in the files.

One evaluation recounts how Father Joseph Pina, an East L.A. parish
priest, said he was attracted to a victim, an eighth-grade girl, when he
saw her in a costume.

"She dressed as Snow White … I had a crush on Snow White, so I
started to open myself up to her," he told the psychologist. In a report
sent to a top Mahony aide, the psychologist expressed concern the abuse
was never reported to authorities.

"All so very sad," Mahony wrote years later after Pina was placed on leave. He was defrocked in 2006.

The limitations of the treatment at the Servants' center are evident
in the file. After months of therapy in 1994, Father John Dawson was
allowed to leave the facility for a weekend. Among the first things
Dawson, who had been accused of plying altar boy victims with pot and
beer, did was apply for a job at the Arizona Boys School in Phoenix.

Treatment center staff found out only after the school phoned Dawson to
arrange an interview. "Had they not called the Villa, it is doubtful
that Fr. Dawson would have informed us of that job application and
interview," according to a 1994 letter to Mahony's vicar for clergy,
Msgr. Timothy Dyer.

Responding to a public rebuke by his successor, Mahony
insisted Friday that he tried his best to deal with the priest molestation
scandal but fell short because not enough was known about the problem
early in his career.

In an extraordinary open letter to Archbishop Jose Gomez, Mahony
insisted Friday that he ultimately instituted state-of-the-art
protections against child sexual abuse
within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He seemed to
suggest that Gomez had acted unfairly by publicly announcing that he was
stripping the cardinal of any public role in the local church.

"Not once over these past years
did you ever raise any questions about our policies, practices or
procedures in dealing with the problem of clergy sexual misconduct
involving minors," he wrote.

PHOTOS: Cardinal Roger Mahony over the years

"Unfortunately, I cannot return now to the 1980s and reverse actions and
decisions made then," he added. "But when I retired as the active
archbishop, I handed over to you an archdiocese that was second to none
in protecting children and youth."

Mahony posted the letter on his blog Friday afternoon, hours after he said he had sent it to Gomez.

In a letter Thursday to parishioners, Gomez announced that "effective
immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have
any administrative or public duties." The move came a week after the
release of church records showing Mahony worked to conceal abusers from
police in the 1980s.

-- Harriet Ryan, Victoria Kim, Ashley Powers, Mitchell Landsberg and Teresa Watanabe

Photo: At a news conference Friday at the
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Esther Miller, 54, holding photos
of other victims, breaks down while talking about being abused by a
Catholic priest when she was a young girl.
Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

Read More..

Marxist Group Claims Attack on U.S. Embassy in Turkey

ISTANBUL — A Marxist group with a history of political violence in Turkey claimed responsibility on Saturday for a suicide bombing at the American Embassy in Ankara the day before, releasing a statement calling the United States “the murderer of the peoples of the world.”

The statement, which also denounced American foreign policy, was released by the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, and a translation was distributed by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors the communications of extremist groups. The message, which was posted on a Web site that has previously carried statements from the group, condemned Turkey’s policy of supporting Syrian rebels fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

After conducting DNA tests, the Turkish authorities on Saturday identified the man who detonated himself at the embassy, killing himself and a Turkish embassy guard, as Ecevit Sanli, 40, also known as Alisan Sanli. Mr. Sanli was a convicted terrorist who had twice attacked government facilities in Istanbul but was released from prison under an amnesty program. Earlier Saturday, officials in the Black Sea town of Ordu said he was a resident.

The Ankara police said they had detained three people thought to have helped Mr. Sanli and had found a handgun linked to the militant group. They also released security footage from the embassy in which Mr. Sanli was shown pretending to be a courier.

The statement by the group included two photographs of Mr. Sanli. In one, he is holding an assault rifle, and a banner bearing the hammer-and-sickle symbol of communism is behind him.

The attack, coming in the wake of the attack on an American diplomatic mission y in Benghazi, Libya, by Islamic extremists in September, initially raised fears that it was the work of jihadists. That the bomber has ties to a relatively minor Marxist group is likely to challenge assumptions about the nature of international terrorism and the risks to American interests abroad. American officials, however, have not confirmed the identity of the attacker or a motive, and the United States plans to investigate.

In a statement on Saturday, Ordu officials said Mr. Sanli spent five years in prison after being arrested in 1997 for attacking a military hostel and police station in Istanbul. He was released in 2001 under an amnesty program for inmates with medical conditions, the statement said. Mr. Sanli reportedly had Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a brain disorder caused by malnutrition that he acquired during a jailhouse hunger strike.

The authorities said Mr. Sanli lobbed a hand grenade during Friday’s attack just before detonating his explosives-packed vest, suggesting that there were actually two explosions.

The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported that Mr. Sanli had fled to Germany after being released from prison, and returned to Turkey illegally only a few days before the attack by taking a boat from a Greek island across the Aegean.

The group has struck American and other Western targets in Turkey before, including during the gulf war in the early 1990s, and in its statement, the group condemned NATO’s recent deployment of Patriot missile batteries in southern Turkey to protect against cross-border strikes from Syria.

In a report published several days before the bombing, Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish research program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, warned that the country’s support of Syrian rebels was rallying Turkey’s extreme left.

“The country’s political landscape still bears vestiges of violent leftist movements from the 1970s, as well as deeply anti-American ultranationalism,” he wrote.

In the weeks before the attack, Turkish security forces arrested dozens of people thought to be members of the group, though human rights activists say those arrested have no links to terrorism.

Read More..

Twitter, Washington Post targeted by hackers

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Social media giant Twitter is among the latest U.S. companies to acknowledge that it is among a growing list of victims of Internet security attacks, saying that hackers may have gained access to information on 250,000 of its more than 200 million active users. And now, The Washington Post is joining the chorus, saying that it discovered that it was the target of a sophisticated cyberattack in 2011.

Twitter said a blog post on Friday it detected attempts to gain access to its user data earlier in the week. It shut down one attack moments after it was detected.

But Twitter discovered that the attackers may have stolen user names, email addresses and encrypted passwords belonging to 250,000 users they describe as ‘a very small percentage of our users.”

Nonetheless, the company reset the pilfered passwords and sent emails advising the affected users.

The online attack comes on the heels of recent hacks into the computer systems of U.S. media and technology companies, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Both American newspapers reported this week that their computer systems had been infiltrated by China-based hackers, likely to monitor media coverage the Chinese government deems important.

On Friday, The Washington Post disclosed in an article published on its website that it was the target of a sophisticated cyberattack, which was discovered in 2011. The company’s spokeswoman, Kris Coratti, didn’t offer any details including the duration of the attack or the origins. But according to sources that the paper quoted, who it said spoke on condition of anonymity, the intruders gained access as early as 2008 or 2009.

The cyberattack was first reported by an independent cybersecurity blog on Friday.

“Like other companies in the news recently, we face cybersecurity threats,” Coratti was quoted as saying. “We have a number of security measures in place to guard against cyberattacks on an ongoing basis.”

According to Coratti’s comments made to the newspaper, the company worked with security company Mandiant to “detect, investigate and remediate the situation promptly at the end of 2011.”

Coratti couldn’t be reached immediately for comment by The Associated Press.

China has been accused of mounting a widespread, aggressive cyber-spying campaign for several years, trying to steal classified information and corporate secrets and to intimidate critics. The Chinese foreign ministry could not be reached for comment Saturday, but the Chinese government has said those accusations are baseless and that China itself is a victim of cyber-attacks.

“Chinese law forbids hacking and any other actions that damage Internet security,” the Chinese Defense Ministry recently said. “The Chinese military has never supported any hacking activities.”

Twitter’s director of information security, Bob Lord, said in the blog that the attack “was not the work of amateurs, and we do not believe it was an isolated incident.”

“The attackers were extremely sophisticated, and we believe other companies and organizations have also been recently similarly attacked,” Lord said. “For that reason we felt that it was important to publicize this attack while we still gather information, and we are helping government and federal law enforcement in their effort to find and prosecute these attackers to make the Internet safer for all users.”

One expert said that the Twitter hack probably happened after an employee’s home or work computer was compromised through vulnerabilities in Java, a commonly used computing language whose weaknesses have been well publicized.

Ashkan Soltani, an independent privacy and security researcher, said such a move would give attackers “a toehold” in Twitter’s internal network, potentially allowing them either to sniff out user information as it traveled across the company’s system or break into specific areas, such as the authentication servers that process users’ passwords.

The relatively small number of users affected suggested either that attackers weren’t on the network long or that they were only able to compromise a subset of the company’s servers, Soltani said.

Twitter is generally used to broadcast messages to the public, so the hacking might not immediately have yielded any important secrets. But the stolen credentials could be used to eavesdrop on private messages or track which Internet address a user is posting from.

That might be useful, for example, for an authoritarian regime trying to keep tabs on a journalist’s movements.

“More realistically, someone could use that as an entry point into another service,” Soltani said, noting that since few people bother using different passwords for different services, a password stolen from Twitter might be just as handy for reading a journalist’s emails.

___

AP reporters Anne D’Innocenzio in New York, Raphael Satter in London and Didi Tang in Beijing contributed to this report.

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Rihanna & Chris Brown Make Readers Mad, Ashley Judd Split Makes Them Sad

By Andrea Billups

02/02/2013 at 03:00 PM EST

Rihanna (left) and Ashley Judd

Michael Kovac/Getty; Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic

What's on the minds of PEOPLE readers this week? We love getting your feedback, and as always, you weighed in with plenty of strong reactions.

From your anger over Rihanna's confession that she and Chris Brown are once again in a relationship, to your love as a Houston waiter refused to serve a customer who'd insulted a boy with Down syndrome, you told us what got you talking – and also laughing out loud.

Check out the articles with the top reactions on the site this week, and keep clicking on the emoticons at the bottom of every story to tell us what you think!

After posting plenty of photos of them together, Rihanna finally came clean, much to readers' chagrin, that she and Chris Brown are back on as a couple. The pop star, 24, and Brown, 23, have had a rocky past after he was charged with assaulting her in 2009. She told Rolling Stone magazine, in a cover story, that the reconciled relationship was important to her, despite any public scrutiny it would invite. "Even if it's a mistake, it's my mistake," she says. "After being tormented for so many years, being angry and dark, I'd rather just live my truth and take the backlash. I can handle it."

Readers felt the love for Houston waiter Michael Garcia of Laurenzo's Prime Rib who put his job on the line when he came to the defense of a 5-year-old boy with Down syndrome, the son of Garcia's regular customers. When Milo Castillo, who has delayed speech issues, began to chat loudly about his recent birthday, a male customer nearby announced: "Special needs children need to be special somewhere else." An angry Garcia was angered refused to serve the man, and the story later lit up the restaurant's Facebook page with support.

They're famous and beautiful and now, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and his supermodel wife Gisele Bündchen own a $20 million, 22,000-square-foot castle-style Los Angeles home, replete with a moat. Wow, indeed. Brady, 35, and Bündchen, 32, will have plenty of room for their growing family, which includes son Benjamin, 3, and daughter Vivian, born Dec. 5, along with Brady's son, John, 5, from a previous relationship.

Fans were saddened by the split this week of longtime couple Ashley Judd, 44, and her husband of more than a decade, auto racing star Dario Franchitti, 39. Their exclusive statement to PEOPLE came as a surprise: "We have mutually decided to end our marriage. We'll always be family and continue to cherish our relationship based on the special love, integrity, and respect we have always enjoyed."

Outspoken Miley Cyrus, 20, drew laughs from readers when she referred to herself in a recent interview as already married. The singer, who's been engaged to actor Liam Hemsworth, 23, since May of last year, had also hinted at marriage in the past, posting photos on Twitter (since removed) of the couple wearing rings on their left hands. But she seems to just be jumping the gun. Hemsworth's rep confirmed to PEOPLE that the couple had not yet wed. "Definitely NOT married," said the rep.

Check back next week for another must-read roundup, and see what readers are reacting to here.

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New rules aim to get rid of junk foods in schools

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most candy, high-calorie drinks and greasy meals could soon be on a food blacklist in the nation's schools.

For the first time, the government is proposing broad new standards to make sure all foods sold in schools are more healthful.

Under the new rules the Agriculture Department proposed Friday, foods like fatty chips, snack cakes, nachos and mozzarella sticks would be taken out of lunch lines and vending machines. In their place would be foods like baked chips, trail mix, diet sodas, lower-calorie sports drinks and low-fat hamburgers.

The rules, required under a child nutrition law passed by Congress in 2010, are part of the government's effort to combat childhood obesity. While many schools already have improved their lunch menus and vending machine choices, others still are selling high-fat, high-calorie foods.

Under the proposal, the Agriculture Department would set fat, calorie, sugar and sodium limits on almost all foods sold in schools. Current standards already regulate the nutritional content of school breakfasts and lunches that are subsidized by the federal government, but most lunchrooms also have "a la carte" lines that sell other foods. Food sold through vending machines and in other ways outside the lunchroom has never before been federally regulated.

"Parents and teachers work hard to instill healthy eating habits in our kids, and these efforts should be supported when kids walk through the schoolhouse door," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.

Most snacks sold in school would have to have less than 200 calories. Elementary and middle schools could sell only water, low-fat milk or 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice. High schools could sell some sports drinks, diet sodas and iced teas, but the calories would be limited. Drinks would be limited to 12-ounce portions in middle schools and to 8-ounce portions in elementary schools.

The standards will cover vending machines, the "a la carte" lunch lines, snack bars and any other foods regularly sold around school. They would not apply to in-school fundraisers or bake sales, though states have the power to regulate them. The new guidelines also would not apply to after-school concessions at school games or theater events, goodies brought from home for classroom celebrations, or anything students bring for their own personal consumption.

The new rules are the latest in a long list of changes designed to make foods served in schools more healthful and accessible. Nutritional guidelines for the subsidized lunches were revised last year and put in place last fall. The 2010 child nutrition law also provided more money for schools to serve free and reduced-cost lunches and required more meals to be served to hungry kids.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has been working for two decades to take junk foods out of schools. He calls the availability of unhealthful foods around campus a "loophole" that undermines the taxpayer money that helps pay for the healthier subsidized lunches.

"USDA's proposed nutrition standards are a critical step in closing that loophole and in ensuring that our schools are places that nurture not just the minds of American children but their bodies as well," Harkin said.

Last year's rules faced criticism from some conservatives, including some Republicans in Congress, who said the government shouldn't be telling kids what to eat. Mindful of that backlash, the Agriculture Department exempted in-school fundraisers from federal regulation and proposed different options for some parts of the rule, including the calorie limits for drinks in high schools, which would be limited to either 60 calories or 75 calories in a 12-ounce portion.

The department also has shown a willingness to work with schools to resolve complaints that some new requirements are hard to meet. Last year, for example, the government relaxed some limits on meats and grains in subsidized lunches after school nutritionists said they weren't working.

Schools, the food industry, interest groups and other critics or supporters of the new proposal will have 60 days to comment and suggest changes. A final rule could be in place as soon as the 2014 school year.

Margo Wootan, a nutrition lobbyist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said surveys by her organization show that most parents want changes in the lunchroom.

"Parents aren't going to have to worry that kids are using their lunch money to buy candy bars and a Gatorade instead of a healthy school lunch," she said.

The food industry has been onboard with many of the changes, and several companies worked with Congress on the child nutrition law two years ago. Major beverage companies have already agreed to take the most caloric sodas out of schools. But those same companies, including Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, also sell many of the non-soda options, like sports drinks, and have lobbied to keep them in vending machines.

A spokeswoman for the American Beverage Association, which represents the soda companies, says they already have greatly reduced the number of calories that kids are consuming at school by pulling out the high-calorie sodas.

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Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mcjalonick

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