A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Abortion numbers fell again in 2014, sinking to their lowest in more than four decades, according to a new Centers for Disease Control report.

The CDC reports 652,639 abortions were performed in the United States in 2014, a 2-percent decrease from 2014. Abortions are down 21 percent across the past decade.

The abortion rate – the number of abortions per 1,000 women of childbearing age – also dropped to 12.1, a 2-percent decrease from the previous year. [ Source: Life News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Republicans and Democrats in Washington are vying to appear the more outraged by sexual harassment on Capitol Hill. Don’t be fooled. Groping, suggestive remarks and quid pro quos are business as usual on the Hill, thanks to a cover-up scheme devised by Congress itself using taxpayer dollars. The real scandal is that we the people pay the settlement costs and legal fees when members of Congress get caught with their pants down.

On Monday, the website BuzzFeed reported that in 2015 Michigan Rep. John Conyers, top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and the longest-serving current House member, used taxpayer funds to settle a complaint from a staff member about unwanted sexual advances. The $27,000 was paid in exchange for a confidentiality agreement. On Tuesday, Conyers denied harassing anyone, but acknowledged the settlement.

This year alone, the U.S. Treasury has confidentially paid $934,754 to settle sexual harassment and other complaints against members of Congress and their staff.

Similar hush money has been paid out yearly, since Congress passed the Congressional Accountability Act. The 1995 law makes members and their employees anything but accountable. If they’re accused of discrimination or harassment, their settlement costs get bankrolled by taxpayers. Secretly. [ Source: Real Clear Politics (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Russia’s UN ambassador said Wednesday the expert body that has determined responsibility for chemical weapons attacks in Syria “is dead” — but Moscow is ready to discuss “a new mechanism.”

Vassily Nebenzia told reporters after a closed Security Council discussion that the Joint Investigative Mechanism, or JIM, “has discredited itself completely.”

“But we are ready to talk about establishing a new mechanism that would replace the JIM and do the work in … a truly professional and objective” way, he said.

Russia vetoed two council resolutions last week to keep the JIM in operation, and this week it rejected a Swedish-Uruguayan draft resolution before it went to a vote to revive the joint investigative body of the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – An attempt to smuggle tons of explosive material into the Gaza Strip has been thwarted by the Israeli Ministry of Defense’s Crossing Authority, it was announced on Wednesday.

The attempt was foiled thanks to a new, advanced chemistry laboratory that was set up in recent weeks at Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing with Gaza.

The new laboratory is a joint project of the Ministry of Defense’s Crossing Authority, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Israel Police. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Israel sees Iranian activity in Syria as “a target” for its forces, and may carry out strikes against Iranian objectives if security needs require it, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told French President Emmanuel Macron in a phone call this week.

Channel 10 reported Wednesday that it had obtained a transcript of Sunday’s call. In it, Netanyahu is said to have told the French leader that “from now on, Israel sees Iran’s activities in Syria as a target. We will not hesitate to act, if our security needs require us to do so.”

“Israel has tried up until now not to intervene in what is going on in Syria. But after the victory over Islamic State, the situation has changed because the pro-Iranian forces have taken control,” the prime minister went on. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]