A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – After facing tragedy less than two months ago, First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas remembered the victims of November’s mass shooting in a special Christmas ceremony.

A gunman open fired on the church during Sunday morning worship on November 5th killing 26 people. Since then, the community has mourned and worked to recover from the horrible event.

Pastor Frank Pomeroy led the traditional Christmas Eve service where he told his congregation to look to the light and hope, WBTV reported. [ Source: CBN News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Three cities — New York City, San Francisco and Philadelphia — sued the U.S. Department of Defense on Tuesday over what they say are failures in reporting information to the federal database on gun licensing and sales.

The cities filed a lawsuit in federal court in Virginia, claiming the Pentagon didn’t report significant numbers of disqualifying records to the FBI’s national background check system, called the National Crime Information Center. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A U.S. appeals court in Washington on Tuesday upheld a lower court’s decision to allow President Donald Trump’s commission investigating voter fraud to request data on voter rolls from U.S. states.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) watchdog group, which filed the lawsuit, did not have legal standing to seek to force the presidential commission to review privacy concerns before collecting individuals’ voter data. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The Israel Defense Forces has reportedly warned senior government ministers the situation in the Gaza Strip is incendiary and could lead to a new round of violence with Hamas.

Senior defense officials told ministers at Sunday’s briefing for the high-level security cabinet that the Gaza-based terrorist group has no interest in starting another conflict with Israel, but the situation may nonetheless get out of hand, Hadashot news reported on Tuesday.

Ministers told the TV station they were informed by the military of a feeling of despair in Gaza due to the persistent humanitarian crisis there, the failure of the reconciliation deal between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, and the ongoing tensions in recent weeks over Jerusalem after US President Donald Trump recognized the city as the capital of Israel. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Hamas’ latest effort to join a Palestinian unity government is little more than a facade. Instead, the terror group’s top immediate objective is to seize control of Judea and Samaria and turn it into a second Gaza, according to the assessments of Israeli defense experts.

After years of failed attempts at reconciliation, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement and Hamas announced in October that they would implement a unity deal, which included the restoration of PA control in Gaza by December 1. But the so-called unification quickly ran into trouble, and was delayed until December 10. Now, the reconciliation agreement is apparently collapsing, and Hamas seems to be in no rush to revive it.

“Hamas is just waiting for Abbas to die, or that he agrees to elections, to try and take over the West Bank,” Dr. Ely Karmon, a senior scholar at Israel’s International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), told JNS. “And Hamas is again talking about close ties with Iran and Hezbollah.” [ Source:Algemeiner (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The United States announced sanctions on two North Korean officials behind their country’s ballistic missile program on Tuesday, while Russia reiterated an offer to mediate to ease tensions between Washington and Pyongyang.

The new U.S. steps were the latest in a campaign aimed at forcing North Korea – which has defied years of multilateral and bilateral sanctions – to abandon a weapons program aimed at developing nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the United States.

The U.S. Treasury named the officials as Kim Jong Sik and Ri Pyong Chol. It said Kim was reportedly a key figure in North Korea’s efforts to switch its missile program from liquid to solid fuel, while Ri was reported to be a key official in its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) development. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Russia has begun forming a “permanent presence” at two military bases in Syria, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said.

During a conference call on Tuesday, Shoigu said Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the structure and personnel strength at Russia’s main bases in Syria’s Tartus and Hmeymim bases, Russia’s state-run Tass news agency reported.

“We have started forming a permanent grouping there,” he said. [ Source: UPI (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Russia will get a country-wide biometric database for financial services starting next summer, the central bank said.

The system will expand access to banking by letting people open accounts without having to visit a branch and is a key milestone in digitizing financial services, the Bank of Russia said in a statement. The regulator said that data would only be stored with individuals’ consent. Legal changes needed for the system passed this month.

State-owned Rostelecom PJSC has been selected to run the database, which will collect personal data including images of faces, voice samples and, eventually, irises and fingerprints. Facial-recognition technology has been gaining consumer acceptance around the world, with Apple Inc.’s latest iPhone using it to unlock the device. In Russia, the authorities and government-linked companies are leading the charge. [ Source: Bloomberg (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Federal agents discovered four preserved fetuses in the Detroit warehouse of a man who sold human body parts, confidential photographs reviewed by Reuters show.

The fetuses were found during a December 2013 raid of businessman Arthur Rathburn’s warehouse. The fetuses, which appear to have been in their second trimester, were submerged in a liquid that included human brain tissue.

Rathburn, a former body broker, is accused of defrauding customers by sending them diseased body parts. He has pleaded not guilty and his trial is set for January. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Shares of U.S. department stores jumped on Tuesday as Mastercard Inc said shoppers spent over $800 billion during the season, more than ever before, boosted by growing consumer confidence, rising employment and early discounts.

The report said holiday sales in stores and online between Nov 1 and Dec 24 rose 4.9 percent, the fastest year-on-year pace of increase since 2011. Mastercard, which tracks spending by combining sales activity in its payments network with estimates of cash and other payment forms, excluded automobile sales from its figures.

Most U.S. retail stocks have tumbled this year as they continued to lose sales to online stores, mainly Amazon.com Inc. Traditional players have also been hurt by heavy investments in technology and discounting, made to keep up with online and off-price competition. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]