Two Iowa police officers slain in ambushes, suspect caught

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Staff in News Headlines, News Wire, North America, U.S. News // 0 Comments

Police in Urbandale, Iowa conduct an investigation after two police officers were shot and killed in separate attacks described as "ambush-style" in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. November 2, 2016. REUTERS/Brian Frank

By Scott Morgan

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) – Two Iowa police officers were shot dead on Wednesday while sitting in their patrol cars in what authorities called separate and unprovoked attacks, and a 46-year-old man suspect was captured hours later, police said.

The man, Scott Michael Greene, was taken into custody after police named him as their suspect in the ambushes in Des Moines and a suburb of the Iowa capital, a police spokeswoman in Urbandale, Iowa said. Police said it was unclear what provoked the attacks.(For live coverage of the Iowa police shootings click here:

http://live.reuters.com/Event/Des_Moines)

The shootings represented the latest attacks on police in the United States during a time of intense public debate over race and the criminal justice system in America.

Police said they found the first slain officer’s body about 1:06 a.m. (2.06 a.m. ET) in Urbandale, an affluent Des Moines suburb, and the second about 20 minutes later about two miles (3 km) away, in Des Moines. Police declined to release the names of the officers awaiting notification of their families.

A police cruiser at the site of the Des Moines shooting could be seen riddled with three bullet holes.

“These officers were ambushed,” Des Moines police spokesman Paul Parizek told a news conference prior to Greene’s arrest.

It appeared the suspect, who is white, had a recent run-in with police.

A 10-minute video posted on YouTube last month by a user calling himself Scott Greene showed an interaction with officers following an incident at a sports stadium in which he described holding up a Confederate battle flag during the playing of the U.S. national anthem. He is heard claiming that he was assaulted.

Reuters was unable to immediately confirm whether the video was made by the suspect, whose face does not appear in it. It records a male voice arguing with police over the incident.

The Confederate flag is a racially charged symbol for its association with the pro-slavery South in the U.S. Civil War.

Before the shootings in Iowa, 50 police officers had died by gunfire, two accidentally, in the line of duty in the United States this year, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page website.

A black Afghan war veteran who said he wanted to “kill white people” killed five police officers during a Dallas protest decrying police shootings of black men in July.

A black Iraq war veteran fatally shot three officers and wounded three others in Baton Rouge in an ambush later in July.

Both of those attacks on police followed fatal shootings by officers of black men in Minnesota and Louisiana.

Philadelphia police officers have been deliberately targeted by a gunman twice this year.

The Iowa killings came two years after two New York police officers were shot dead while sitting in their patrol car in Brooklyn by a man who said he wanted to avenge the deaths of unarmed black men killed by police.

Wednesday’s shootings came seven months after two Des Moines officers were killed when their vehicle was hit by a drunken driver. Another Des Moines police officer died in a motorcycle accident in August.

Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign canceled an event in Iowa on Wednesday with former President Bill Clinton and vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine after the shootings.

Republican candidate Donald Trump said on Twitter that he was praying for the slain Iowa officers’ families, adding, “An attack on those who keep us safe is an attack on us all.”

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee and Gina Cherelus, Dave Ingram and Michael Flaherty in New York; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Will Dunham)

Pope Francis praises secular Sweden over asylum seekers

Posted on November 1, 2016 by Staff in Christian News, Europe, News Wire // 0 Comments

Pope Francis spreads incense at the altar during Holy Mass at the Swedbank Stadion in Malmo, Sweden, November 1, 2016. REUTERS/Vincenzo Pinto/pool

By Alistair Scrutton and Philip Pullella

MALMO, Sweden (Reuters) – Pope Francis celebrated Mass on Tuesday for Sweden’s tiny Catholic community, made up of many refugees and migrants, praising as “blessed” those in this overwhelmingly non-religious nation who take in asylum seekers.

The main purpose of the pope’s two-day trip was to take part in a joint commemoration with Lutherans of the 500th anniversary of the start of the Reformation.

After the historic inter-religious ceremony on Monday, Francis turned his attention to largely secular Sweden’s record of accepting tens of thousands of asylum seekers last year, in contrast to many other European nations.

In a football stadium packed with some 15,000 spectators, Francis weaved his homily around Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount,” which lists the Beatitudes, but added a few modern twists.

“Blessed are those who look into the eyes of the abandoned and marginalized and show them their closeness,” the Argentine-born pontiff said. “Blessed are those who renounce their own comfort in order to help others.”

Francis’s statement held special symbolism in Malmo, which has become a gateway for thousands of immigrants who have fled from Middle East wars over the last few years.

The Mass was also a shot in the arm to Sweden’s small Catholic community, which numbers only about 150,000 out of a population of about 10 million. That total is less than the attendance for some papal ceremonies in Rome.

“A decade or so ago, people were even uneasy about wearing crosses, having to explain to Swedes who did not understand,” Josephine Kabogoza-Muksoke, a Ugandan-born Catholic, said as the pope drove by in a golf cart around Malmo stadium.

“That isn’t so now. Catholics have more confidence and there are more of us – thanks to immigration.”

ACCEPTANCE AND CRITICISM OF IMMIGRATION

Thousands of Swedes, many immigrants from Latin America, the Middle East and Asia, had lined up outside the stadium in cold autumn rain.

Sweden took in 163,000 asylum seekers last year, more than any other European Union state relative to population. Its reputation for tolerance and stability have made it a haven for refugees for decades.

Polls say Sweden is one of the world’s most irreligious nations. In a WIN-Gallup survey last year, around eight in 10 Swedes said they were either “not religious” or “convinced atheists.” Surveys show Swedes trust institutions like the tax agency more than the Lutheran Church.

Still, they have been more accepting of migrants and refugees than Catholic countries such as Poland and Hungary.

The mood started to change last year, with many Swedes unnerved by reports of rising foreigner crime including gang activity in immigrant-heavy cities.

Even many liberal Swedes are having second thoughts, put off by reports of crime including sexual assaults by asylum seekers and financial strains on the nation’s prized cradle-to-grave welfare system.

With about 17 percent of Swedes now foreign-born, multi-culturalism has challenged Sweden’s comfortable secular identity.

Concerns about immigration have boosted support for the rightist Sweden Democrats, now backed by around 17 percent of voters in polls, up from the 13 percent they received in a general election in 2014.

In his homily, the pope also appeared to praise Sweden for its strong defense of the environment and efforts to fight the effects of climate change, saying; “Blessed are those who protect and care for our common home.

(Editing by Tom Heneghan)

Pope says he believes ban on female priests is forever

Posted on November 1, 2016 by Staff in Christian News, News Wire // 0 Comments

Pope Francis looks on as he meets journalists on his flight back to Rome, Italy November 1, 2016. REUTERS/Ettore Ferrari/Pool

By Philip Pullella

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (Reuters) – Pope Francis said on Tuesday he believes the Roman Catholic Church’s ban on women becoming priests is forever and will never be changed, in some of his most definitive remarks on the issue.

He was speaking aboard a plane taking him back to Rome from Sweden, in the freewheeling news conference with reporters that has become a tradition of his return flights from trips abroad.

A Swedish female reporter noted that the head of the Lutheran Church who welcomed him in Sweden was a woman, and then asked if he thought the Catholic Church could allow women to be ordained as ministers in coming decades.

“St. Pope John Paul II had the last clear word on this and it stands, this stands,” Francis said.

Francis was referring to a 1994 document by Pope John Paul that closed the door on a female priesthood. The Vatican says this teaching is an infallible part of Catholic tradition.

The reporter then pressed the pope, asking: “But forever, forever? Never, never?

Francis responded: “If we read carefully the declaration by St. John Paul II, it is going in that direction.”

Francis has previously said that the door to women’s ordination is closed, but proponents of a female priesthood are hoping that a future pope might overturn the decision, particularly because of the shortage of priests around the world.

The Catholic Church teaches that women cannot be ordained priests because Jesus willingly chose only men as his apostles. Those calling for women priests say he was only following the norms of his time.

In August, Francis set up a commission to study the role of women deacons in early Christianity, raising hopes among equality campaigners that women could one day have a greater say in the 1.2 billion-member Church.

Deacons, like priests, are ordained ministers and must be men. They cannot celebrate Mass, the Catholic Church’s central rite, but they are allowed to preach and teach in the name of the Church, and to baptize and conduct wake and funeral services.

The Church barred women from becoming deacons centuries ago.

Scholars debate the precise role of women deacons in the early Church. Some say they were ordained to minister only to other women, for instance in baptismal immersion rites. Others believe they were on a par with male deacons.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

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Judicial Watch: Court Hearing Monday, November 7, in FBI Clinton Email Records Case

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Pagliano Emails Detail Attempts to Hack Clinton Unsecure Email Server 10 Times in Two Days in November 2010 – U.S. Secret Service Informed of Hacking Attempts -- The documents also reveal that Pagliano warned Cooper that because of an outside service vendor relied upon by the Clinton...READ MORE

Judicial Watch: Court Hearing Monday, November 7, in FBI Clinton Email Records Case -- The State Department has been producing documents in accordance with a September 23, 2016, court order issued by Judge...READ MORE

New State Department Documents Reveal More Clinton-Abedin Email Exchanges of Classified Information on Unsecure Server -- Also included in the newly obtained documents is an additional instance of the State...READ MORE

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Help Judicial Watch? Keep our investigators on the job uncovering the truth: >> add an extra contribution right now? <<  Media Coverage HUMA CALL YOUR OFFICE --- “On Friday FBI Director James Comey reopened his investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server and handling of classified information based on email discovered on a computer shared by Huma Abedin and her disgraced husband Anthony Weiner. But in sworn testimony given to Judicial Watch Abedin claimed she had already given all devices with State Department emails over. This new information could mean Abedin lied under oath- which would be very serious. Judicial Watch is investigating now”...http://jwatch.us/NZrrjf Huma Abedin Swore Under Oath She Gave Up ‘All the Devices’ With State Dept Emails --- via The Daily Beast  --- “But the new information that the FBI found State Department-related email on her home laptop also calls into question whether Abedin in fact turned over all of the devices she used to send and receive email while working at State. For her part, Abedin reportedly told the FBI she didn't know her emails were on the laptop. On June 28, 2016, Abedin said under oath in a sworn deposition that she looked for all devices that she thought contained government work on them so the records could be given to the State Department. (These records were subsequently reviewed by the FBI.) 'How did you go about searching for what records you may have in your possession to be returned to the State Department?' Attorney Ramona Cotca for Judicial Watch asked her"...http://thebea.st/2f3v3qP Tom Fitton on email investigation: Why did FBI wait so long?  --- http://bit.ly/2eaXMcd    425 3rd St, SW Suite 800 Washington, D.C. 20024 USA