Catholic News 2
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Some Australians foresee trouble in their country's traditionally strong alliance with the United States because of what they see as "unpresidential" behavior from President Donald Trump, while others think outspoken businessman-turned-Australian-leader Malcolm Turnbull is a good match for him....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Both the transgender teen who sued to use a boys' bathroom and the Virginia school board that won't let him still want the Supreme Court to issue a definitive ruling in their ongoing dispute, even after the Trump administration retreated from an Obama-era policy on bathroom use....
SOUTH OF MOSUL, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. Army Lt. Col. James Browning juggled phone calls on an overstuffed sofa in a small village south of Mosul. His counterparts in the Iraqi army's 9th Division were pushing toward western Mosul, just a few miles away and were coming under mortar fire from the Islamic State group as they moved on a power station....
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraqi forces on Friday gained control of most of Mosul's airport on the city's southwestern edge and all of a sprawling military base next to it, Iraqi officials said - key milestones in the first phase of the battle to rout Islamic State militants from the western part of Mosul....
BEIRUT (AP) -- Turkey's news agency says a car bomb north of a town just captured by Turkish forces and Syrian opposition fighters from Islamic State militants has killed at least 35 people....
The banned chemical weapon VX is considered by some experts to be the nastiest of the nasty nerve agents known to exist. With a consistency similar to motor oil, it lingers for long periods in the environment and even a tiny amount causes victims' bodies to flood with fluids, producing a feeling of drowning before death....
Austin, Texas, Feb 23, 2017 / 08:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Amid the controversy over investigative videos appearing to show illegal activities at Planned Parenthood, a federal judge has temporarily barred Texas from denying Medicaid funding to the abortion provider.Attorney General Ken Paxton said the decision is “disappointing” and “flies in the face of basic human decency.”“The raw, unedited footage from undercover videos exposed a brazen willingness by Planned Parenthood officials to traffic in fetal body parts, as well as manipulate the timing and method of an abortion,” he said Feb. 21. “Even the remains of the most vicious criminals are treated with respect.”“No taxpayer in Texas should have to subsidize this repugnant and illegal conduct,” Paxton added. “We should never lose sight of the fact that, as long as abortion is legal in the United States, the potential for these types of horrors will continue.”U.S...
Austin, Texas, Feb 23, 2017 / 08:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Amid the controversy over investigative videos appearing to show illegal activities at Planned Parenthood, a federal judge has temporarily barred Texas from denying Medicaid funding to the abortion provider.
Attorney General Ken Paxton said the decision is “disappointing” and “flies in the face of basic human decency.”
“The raw, unedited footage from undercover videos exposed a brazen willingness by Planned Parenthood officials to traffic in fetal body parts, as well as manipulate the timing and method of an abortion,” he said Feb. 21. “Even the remains of the most vicious criminals are treated with respect.”
“No taxpayer in Texas should have to subsidize this repugnant and illegal conduct,” Paxton added. “We should never lose sight of the fact that, as long as abortion is legal in the United States, the potential for these types of horrors will continue.”
U.S. District Court Judge Sam Sparks issued a preliminary injunction stopping the state from defunding the abortion provider’s 30 health centers, which receive $4 million for services not related to abortion, the New York Times reports.
On Dec. 20, 2016, the inspector general for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission ruled that Planned Parenthood was unqualified to provide medical services “in a professionally competent, safe, legal and ethical manner.”
Judge Sparks said that the inspector general did not present “even a scintilla of evidence” that Planned Parenthood was unqualified, that it had profited from fetal tissue, or that a doctor had altered an abortion procedure for any purpose.
Planned Parenthood came under heavy criticism after undercover investigators with the Center for Medical Progress produced videos appearing to show Planned Parenthood staff and leaders engaged in the illegal sale of fetal tissue and body parts from unborn babies.
Judge Sparks was dismissive of the videos and said the case was about “the State of Texas’ efforts to expel a group of health care providers from a social health care program for families and individuals with limited resources.”
The case will go to trial, and Paxton said Texas would appeal the judge’s injunction.
Cecile Richards, the president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and the daughter of former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, characterized the ruling as a “victory for Texas women.”
Planned Parenthood said its Medicaid-funded services in Texas include breast cancer and cervical cancer screening and treatment, contraception counseling, sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment, and primary health services.
The abortion provider has denied any accusations of wrongdoing and has claimed the videos were deceptively edited.
The videos, first released in July 2015, prompted a massive response from Planned Parenthood backers.
A grant proposal attributed to George Soros’ Open Society Foundations indicated at least $7-$8 million would be spent in a campaign to counter the videos and “transform the narrative.” While the document charged that the videos were doctored, it said the videos’ release was “severe and without warning” and would require “an enormous amount of resources and staff time” for Planned Parenthood to respond.
The grant proposal particularly voiced concern about state-level investigations, especially in Texas.
Federal courts have blocked at least five other states’ attempts to bar Planned Parenthood from Medicaid reimbursements: Arkansas, Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi and Louisiana.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Out of power and looking for a way forward, Democrats are hoping to harness the energy of an opposition movement that has flourished since President Donald Trump took office....
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) -- A man accused of opening fire in a crowded suburban Kansas City bar, killing one man and injuring two others in an attack that some witnesses said was racially motivated, was charged Thursday with murder and attempted murder....
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- The banned chemical weapon VX nerve agent was used to kill Kim Jong Nam, the North Korean ruler's outcast half brother who was poisoned last week at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, police said Friday. The announcement raised serious questions about public safety in a building that was never decontaminated....
