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Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Religious freedom laws like Indiana's not used against gays in past - The Denver Post


INDIANAPOLIS —Gov. Mike Pence asked lawmakers Tuesday to send him a clarification of Indiana's new religious-freedom law this week, while Arkansas legislators passed a similar measure, despite criticism that it is a thinly disguised attempt to permit discrimination against gays.


The Arkansas proposal now goes to Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who has said he will sign it.


Legal experts say such religious freedom laws have never been successfully used to defend discrimination against gays — and rarely have been used at all.


Pence defended the Indiana law as a vehicle to protect religious liberty but said he has been meeting with lawmakers "around the clock" to address concerns that it would allow businesses to deny services to gay customers.


The governor said he does not believe "for a minute" that lawmakers intended "to create a license to discriminate."


"It certainly wasn't my intent," said Pence, who signed the law last week.


But, he said, he "can appreciate that that's become the perception, not just here in Indiana but all across the country. We need to confront that."


However, past may not be prologue in these cases. Gays have only recently won widespread legalization of same-sex marriage, and religious conservatives are now scrambling for new legal strategies to blunt the trend.


"There's an inability to look to the past as a reliable predictor of the future on this," said Robert Tuttle, a church-state expert at George Washington University School of Law. "If what you're saying is that it can be certain it won't be used — you can't know that because this is now a different situation."


Indiana's law provides heightened protections to businesses and individuals who object on religious grounds to providing certain services. The law triggered a swift and intense backlash from gay rights supporters, businesses such as Apple, and some states, which barred government-funded travel to Indiana.


At a news conference Tuesday, Pence — a potential presidential candidate — strongly defended the Indiana statute, which grants individuals and businesses legal grounds to defend themselves against claims of discrimination. But he also said the state would "fix" the law to make clear that it does not give license to businesses to deny services to anyone.


After Pence signed the law Thursday, corporate executives nationwide — as well as the White House and likely Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Martin O'Malley — issued sharp condemnations.


Arkansas bill


If enacted, the Arkansas proposal would prohibit state and local governments from infringing on a person's religious beliefs without a "compelling" reason. The proposal was given final approval in a series of votes after the Republican-led House rejected efforts to send the bill back to committee to change it.


"The reality is what we're doing here is really not that remarkable," said Republican Bob Ballinger, the lawmaker behind Arkansas' measure. "I do understand it's kind of taken on a life of its own."


Similar proposals have been introduced this year in more than a dozen states.


Arkansas-based retail giant Walmart, which has said the bill sends the wrong message about its home state, and Little Rock business leaders called on Hutchinson to veto the bill.


Douglas Laycock, a constitutional scholar at the University of Virginia Law School who helped win passage of the 1993 federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, said no one has successfully used such laws to override nondiscrimination statutes.


But Eunice Rho, advocacy and policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the landscape shifted as gay marriage became legal in an increasing number of states in the past three years. Rho noted that when Indiana's bill was moving through the legislature, its supporters rejected amendments that would have limited its potential to allow discrimination.


"The language reflects the desire to use these laws in a certain way, to be able to discriminate and cause harm," Rho said.


Little federal impact


The federal law was enacted in 1993 with near-unanimous bipartisan support and was aimed mainly at protecting religious minorities from laws that inadvertently infringed on their practices. Among the few recent cases:


• An Apache leader who protested government seizure of eagle feathers that he used in a religious ceremony.


• A Sikh woman who sued after the IRS fired her for wearing a ceremonial 3-inch dagger to work.


States began passing their own Religious Freedom Restoration Acts after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that the federal law didn't apply to the states. Twenty states now have such laws.


"The bottom line is very few cases — and even fewer wins for the religious side," Laycock said.


Arizona passed such a law in 2014, but Republican Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed it amid intense criticism from major corporations and political leaders from both parties.


The Washington Post contributed to this report.









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Crash co-pilot told airline of his severe depression in '09 - Dallas Morning News






Martin Meissner/The Associated Press


Travelers stopped Tuesday at a memorial at the airport in Düsseldorf, Germany, for the 150 passengers and crew who died in the crash in the French Alps. Officials for Lufthansa defended the screening process for the airline’s flight school.





DÃœSSELDORF, Germany — The co-pilot at the controls of the German jetliner that crashed in the French Alps last week informed Lufthansa in 2009 that he had suffered from severe depression, the company said Tuesday.


Lufthansa said a search of its records found an email showing that the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, had informed the company of his condition as he sought to rejoin its training program after an absence of several months.


The airline said in a statement that Lubitz had sent its flight training school the email, which included medical documents describing a “previous episode of severe depression.” Lufthansa is the parent company of the budget Germanwings airline, which operated the jet that crashed March 24.


It was the first acknowledgment by Lufthansa that it knew of Lubitz’s mental-health problems before the crash and raised further questions about why the airline allowed Lubitz to complete his training and go on to fly passenger jets.


Lufthansa said it had turned the information over to the German prosecutor investigating the crash, in which Lubitz and the other 149 people aboard were killed.


Prosecutors in Germany said Monday that Lubitz had been treated for suicidal tendencies but did not say when, and Lufthansa’s statement did not address when his depression had occurred, what treatment he might have received or what if any follow-up the airline did with Lubitz.


‘100% flightworthy’


Lufthansa’s statement came five days after its chief executive, Carsten Spohr, a former pilot, said Lubitz had been deemed by the airline to be “100 percent flightworthy without any limitations.”


Spohr said last week that candidates for flight school were chosen not only on the basis of their technical ability but also their psychological fitness. He said Lufthansa’s screening process was considered state of the art “and we’re very proud of it.”


Police officers who searched Lubitz’s apartment in Düsseldorf on Thursday found doctors’ notes that said Lubitz was too sick to work, including on the day of the crash. One had been torn up and thrown into the trash, leading investigators to conclude that he was hiding his medical problems from the airline.


Lufthansa said it decided to readmit Lubitz to pilot training after he passed the company’s medical and psychological tests and was found to be healthy. Coming after a serious bout of depression, however, that decision is sure to receive significant scrutiny.


“Lufthansa will continue to provide the investigating authorities with its full and unlimited support,” the company said in its statement.


Even before the Lufthansa statement, questions about Lubitz’s mental health had provoked a debate about whether new measures would be needed to ensure that airlines are aware of pilots’ medical history. A representative of the union that represents German flight attendants cautioned that strict rules might backfire.


“I would warn against making the crew into completely transparent people,” said Christoph Drescher, a representative of the Independent Flight Attendants Organization. “That would just mean that someone would not go to a doctor.”


The families of some, if not all, of the victims are likely to sue the airline for compensation over the deaths of their loved ones. Under the 1999 Montreal Convention, airlines are liable for almost any crash, whether it is caused by pilot error, negligence or a deliberate act.


For an airline to escape liability, it must prove it was entirely free of blame. This standard is nearly impossible to meet and cases are usually settled out of court.


“It certainly makes it harder for the airline to prove they weren’t negligent,” said Daniel Rose, a partner at Kreindler & Kreindler, a New York-based law firm specializing in aviation litigation.


Criminal case?


The statement by the airline acknowledging that it had been informed of Lubitz’s depression raises the possibility of criminal proceedings in Germany or France against the airline or its executives.


Mike Danko, a plaintiffs lawyer in California, said the airline’s “admission may be relevant to the criminal case pending in Germany.”


“In the U.S., the criminal justice system is meant to punish, not compensate,” he said. “In Europe, it’s different. So the admission may lead to more compensation for the families beyond that which is available through the Montreal Convention.”


French prosecutors have said that voice recordings and other data show that Lubitz was at the controls of the plane, did not let the captain back into the cockpit after he stepped out to use the bathroom and set the plane on a course to crash into the mountains as the captain frantically tried to break through the door.


The German daily newspaper Bild and the French magazine Paris Match on Tuesday claimed to have viewed shaky video footage of the chaotic final seconds of the flight. An individual with knowledge of the investigation expressed doubts about the video’s veracity.


Lufthansa’s reputation as one of the world’s safest airlines could be tarnished at a time when the company is already under intense pressure from new long-haul competitors and budget airlines within Europe.


The acknowledgment that the airline knew about Lubitz’s depression could also spur outrage in Germany toward one of the country’s signature companies. Nearly half of the victims were Germans and the plane was bound for Düsseldorf.


The passengers included 16 high school students from Haltern am See, a town north of Düsseldorf. An official who has been briefed on the investigation said that only one set of remains from the crash site had been positively identified so far: those of Lubitz, 27.


President François Hollande of France, speaking to reporters in Berlin after a meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel, said he was optimistic that all of the victims could be identified by the weekend, but officials involved said they expected it to take significantly longer.


Nicholas Kulish


and Jack Ewing,


The New York Times









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Nigeria elects Buhari as president in historic vote - Daily Mail




Challenger Muhammadu Buhari won Nigeria's presidential election by 2.57 million votes, official results showed Wednesday, defeating incumbent Goodluck Jonathan in the first democratic change of power in Africa's most populous nation.


The victory writes a new chapter in the country's often turbulent history after six military coups since independence in 1960 and 16 years of unbroken civilian rule by Jonathan's party.


The gripping contest also capped a remarkable transformation for 72-year-old former army general Buhari, who led a tough military regime in the 1980s but now describes himself as a "converted democrat".


Nigerians celebrate in the flashpoint northern city of Kaduna on March 31, 2015 the victory of main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential c...

Nigerians celebrate in the flashpoint northern city of Kaduna on March 31, 2015 the victory of main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Mohammadu Buhari ©Nichole Sobecki (AFP)



Thousands spilled onto the streets of northern Nigeria's biggest city, Kano, in celebration, shouting campaign slogan "Sai Buhari" ("Only Buhari") as he took an unassailable lead with one state to declare.


Many brandished brooms, Buhari's party symbol, with which they have pledged to sweep away years of government waste and corruption.


In another northern city of Kaduna -- the scene of rioting after the 2011 presidential election -- supporters of his All Progressives Congress (APC) chanted: "Change! Change!"


The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said Buhari won 15,424,921 votes, or 53.95 percent, of the 28,587,564 total valid ballots cast.


Rival Jonathan, 57, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), won 12,853,162 votes (44.96 percent) in the election held Saturday and Sunday.


INEC chairman Attahiru Jega said: "Muhammadu Buhari, of the APC, having satisfied the requirement for the law and scored the highest number of votes, is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected."


The election was hit by glitches in new voter technology and claims of irregularities, after being delayed by six weeks due to concerns of attacks by Boko Haram insurgents.


- 'First democratic change' -


But with dissatisfaction rife over Nigeria's security, corruption and the economy faltering as oil revenues dived, voters turned out in force sensing an unprecedented opportunity for change.


In the financial hub of Lagos, in the southwest, Buhari supporters celebrated wildly, some of them on horseback, with fireworks exploding into the night.


"This is the first democratic change ever in Nigeria," Anas Galadima told AFP, as thousands thronged the APC headquarters in the capital Abuja, dancing and banging drums.


"It's not about Muslim or Christian or any party. It's about politicians knowing that if you don't do the job, we can kick you out.


"I haven't been this excited since the night of Barack Obama's election."


Political commentator Chris Ngwodo said the victory had "instigated the supremacy and primacy of the electorate" in a country where elections had generally been a foregone conclusion for the incumbent.


"The dynamics between the governed and government has changed for good," he said.


Buhari won because, backed by a strong and well-organised party machine, he had managed to secure national support in a nation split between a largely Muslim north and mainly Christian south, Ngwodo added.


Jonathan conceded in a telephone call to Buhari at 5:15 pm (1615 GMT) even before the final results were declared, earning him praise from politicians of all stripes.


"I promised the country free and fair elections. I have kept my word," he said later, urging disputes over the results to be settled in court rather than on the street.


"Nobody's ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian," he added.


- Key gains -


Buhari has accused Jonathan of a failure of leadership in tackling the Boko Haram insurgency, which over six years has left more than 13,000 people dead and some 1.5 million people homeless.


Military gains against the militants in recent weeks were welcomed but seen as too little, too late by voters after so much bloodshed.


Initial results indicated Buhari had won 94 percent of the vote in Borno state -- the region worst affected by the Islamists' rampage and from where more than 200 schoolgirls were abducted in April last year.


Hundreds of thousands of people defied threats of suicide attacks and bombings to vote, with polling stations set up in camps for people displaced by the conflict in state capital Maiduguri.


Buhari, a Muslim, won massively in the violence-hit north but also made crucial gains elsewhere, including Lagos, which had been targeted by both sides as a swing state.


Jonathan at one point clawed back the deficit to some 500,000 votes after winning near total support in his home state of Bayelsa and neighbouring Rivers.


But it was not enough to seize back the momentum and with eight states to declare, most of them in the north, APC spokesman Lai Mohammed called victory.


"This is the first time the opposition has voted a government out of power in Nigeria's history," he told AFP.


Buhari has acknowledged that he cannot perform miracles, with poverty widespread among Nigeria's 173 million people, the ongoing threat from Boko Haram and the oil-dependent economy stalling.


But with his military background, the former leader was seen as a better bet to fight the insurgents, while he has cast himself as an anti-corruption crusader -- despite excesses and abuses during his military rule.


He has vowed to lead by personal example, pledging: "Corruption will have no place and the corrupt will not be appointed to my administration."


But he has rejected PDP charges that he is unchanged from his days in the military, where he fell foul of rights groups in his pursuit of corrupt officials and general "indiscipline".


"Before you is a former military ruler and a converted democrat who is ready to operate under democratic rules," he said in February.


People celebrate on March 31, 2015 the victory of main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Mohammadu Buhari in Abuja, Nigeria

People celebrate on March 31, 2015 the victory of main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Mohammadu Buhari in Abuja, Nigeria



People react as partial results of the Nigerian presidential elections are released by the Independent National Electoral Commission indicating the main oppo...

People react as partial results of the Nigerian presidential elections are released by the Independent National Electoral Commission indicating the main opposition APC presidential candidate is ahead, in Lagos on March 31, 2015 ©Pius Utomi Ekpei (AFP)



A man walks past a billboard of the main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Mohammadu Buhari in Lagos, on March 31, 2015

A man walks past a billboard of the main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Mohammadu Buhari in Lagos, on March 31, 2015 ©Pius Utomi Ekpei (AFP)






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Crash co-pilot told airline of his severe depression in '09 - Dallas Morning News






Martin Meissner/The Associated Press


Travelers stopped Tuesday at a memorial at the airport in Düsseldorf, Germany, for the 150 passengers and crew who died in the crash in the French Alps. Officials for Lufthansa defended the screening process for the airline’s flight school.





DÃœSSELDORF, Germany — The co-pilot at the controls of the German jetliner that crashed in the French Alps last week informed Lufthansa in 2009 that he had suffered from severe depression, the company said Tuesday.


Lufthansa said a search of its records found an email showing that the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, had informed the company of his condition as he sought to rejoin its training program after an absence of several months.


The airline said in a statement that Lubitz had sent its flight training school the email, which included medical documents describing a “previous episode of severe depression.” Lufthansa is the parent company of the budget Germanwings airline, which operated the jet that crashed March 24.


It was the first acknowledgment by Lufthansa that it knew of Lubitz’s mental-health problems before the crash and raised further questions about why the airline allowed Lubitz to complete his training and go on to fly passenger jets.


Lufthansa said it had turned the information over to the German prosecutor investigating the crash, in which Lubitz and the other 149 people aboard were killed.


Prosecutors in Germany said Monday that Lubitz had been treated for suicidal tendencies but did not say when, and Lufthansa’s statement did not address when his depression had occurred, what treatment he might have received or what if any follow-up the airline did with Lubitz.


‘100% flightworthy’


Lufthansa’s statement came five days after its chief executive, Carsten Spohr, a former pilot, said Lubitz had been deemed by the airline to be “100 percent flightworthy without any limitations.”


Spohr said last week that candidates for flight school were chosen not only on the basis of their technical ability but also their psychological fitness. He said Lufthansa’s screening process was considered state of the art “and we’re very proud of it.”


Police officers who searched Lubitz’s apartment in Düsseldorf on Thursday found doctors’ notes that said Lubitz was too sick to work, including on the day of the crash. One had been torn up and thrown into the trash, leading investigators to conclude that he was hiding his medical problems from the airline.


Lufthansa said it decided to readmit Lubitz to pilot training after he passed the company’s medical and psychological tests and was found to be healthy. Coming after a serious bout of depression, however, that decision is sure to receive significant scrutiny.


“Lufthansa will continue to provide the investigating authorities with its full and unlimited support,” the company said in its statement.


Even before the Lufthansa statement, questions about Lubitz’s mental health had provoked a debate about whether new measures would be needed to ensure that airlines are aware of pilots’ medical history. A representative of the union that represents German flight attendants cautioned that strict rules might backfire.


“I would warn against making the crew into completely transparent people,” said Christoph Drescher, a representative of the Independent Flight Attendants Organization. “That would just mean that someone would not go to a doctor.”


The families of some, if not all, of the victims are likely to sue the airline for compensation over the deaths of their loved ones. Under the 1999 Montreal Convention, airlines are liable for almost any crash, whether it is caused by pilot error, negligence or a deliberate act.


For an airline to escape liability, it must prove it was entirely free of blame. This standard is nearly impossible to meet and cases are usually settled out of court.


“It certainly makes it harder for the airline to prove they weren’t negligent,” said Daniel Rose, a partner at Kreindler & Kreindler, a New York-based law firm specializing in aviation litigation.


Criminal case?


The statement by the airline acknowledging that it had been informed of Lubitz’s depression raises the possibility of criminal proceedings in Germany or France against the airline or its executives.


Mike Danko, a plaintiffs lawyer in California, said the airline’s “admission may be relevant to the criminal case pending in Germany.”


“In the U.S., the criminal justice system is meant to punish, not compensate,” he said. “In Europe, it’s different. So the admission may lead to more compensation for the families beyond that which is available through the Montreal Convention.”


French prosecutors have said that voice recordings and other data show that Lubitz was at the controls of the plane, did not let the captain back into the cockpit after he stepped out to use the bathroom and set the plane on a course to crash into the mountains as the captain frantically tried to break through the door.


The German daily newspaper Bild and the French magazine Paris Match on Tuesday claimed to have viewed shaky video footage of the chaotic final seconds of the flight. An individual with knowledge of the investigation expressed doubts about the video’s veracity.


Lufthansa’s reputation as one of the world’s safest airlines could be tarnished at a time when the company is already under intense pressure from new long-haul competitors and budget airlines within Europe.


The acknowledgment that the airline knew about Lubitz’s depression could also spur outrage in Germany toward one of the country’s signature companies. Nearly half of the victims were Germans and the plane was bound for Düsseldorf.


The passengers included 16 high school students from Haltern am See, a town north of Düsseldorf. An official who has been briefed on the investigation said that only one set of remains from the crash site had been positively identified so far: those of Lubitz, 27.


President François Hollande of France, speaking to reporters in Berlin after a meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel, said he was optimistic that all of the victims could be identified by the weekend, but officials involved said they expected it to take significantly longer.


Nicholas Kulish


and Jack Ewing,


The New York Times









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Nigeria's Buhari praises Jonathan for peaceful handover - Reuters



ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian election winner Muhammadu Buhari congratulated outgoing president Goodluck Jonathan for peacefully relinquishing power on Wednesday, a day after becoming the first Nigerian politician to unseat a sitting leader at the ballot box.



"President Jonathan was a worthy opponent and I extend the hand of fellowship to him," Buhari told journalists and supporters to loud applause.



"We have proven to the world that we are people who have embraced democracy. We have put one-party state behind us."



The margin of victory - Buhari got 15.4 million votes to Jonathan's 13.3 million - was enough to prevent any legal challenge.



In an unprecedented step, Jonathan called Buhari to concede defeat and issued a statement urging his supporters to accept the result, a signal of deepening democracy in Africa's most populous nation that few had expected.



The rules state he must officially hand over on May 29.



His rival All Progressives Congress Party (APC) wasted no time in crowning him a "hero" for his good sportsmanship.



Jonathan's People's Democratic Party (PDP) has been in charge since the end of army rule in 1999 but had been losing support due to several oil sector corruption scandals and killings by Islamist militants in the northeast.



"You voted for change and now change has come," Buhari said.



(Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)











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Video 'shows cabin chaos' in seconds before Alps crash: Reports - Times of India

PARIS: A video purportedly showing the final seconds inside the cabin of the ill-fated Germanwings airliner minutes before it crashed emerged Tuesday, two European media said, although French police denied the claims to CNN.

One sequence reportedly shows a chaotic scene with passengers screaming "My God".

French magazine Paris Match and German daily Bild said the authenticity of the video filmed on a mobile phone is "unquestionable" and that it had been retrieved from the wreckage of last Tuesday's crash.


However, French police official Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Marc Menichini denied that investigators had found mobile phone footage at the crash site, telling CNN that the reports were "completely wrong" and "unwarranted".


READ ALSO: Germanwings plane crash: 40-minute countdown to horror


DNA from 78 Germanwings crash victims found: Prosecutor


Jet crash tests Germany's faith in its precision


Alps crash captain shouted 'open the damn door'


Eyewitnesses saw aircraft skim mountain tops before it came down


The recording lasting just a few seconds showed that passengers knew what was happening to them before the plane crashed into the French Alps, instantly killing all 150 people on board, according to the reports.


"The scene was so chaotic that it was hard to identify people, but the sounds of the screaming passengers made it perfectly clear that they were aware of what was about to happen to them," said Paris Match, adding that people were heard crying "My God" in several languages.


It added that "metallic banging" could be heard more than three times -- possibly the attempts of the pilot to open the cockpit door with a heavy object.


Investigators evaluating voice recorder data say co-pilot Andreas Lubitz allegedly locked his captain out of the cockpit and crashed the plane.



http://ift.tt/1NH76RU police,Alps crash


Stay updated on the go with Times of India News App. Click here to download it for your device.








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UPDATE 7-Nigeria's Buhari wins historic election landslide - Reuters


* Jonathan calls Buhari to concede defeat



* Opposition win is Nigeria's first democratic transfer of power



* Buhari camp says political tensions should ease



* Gloom descends on oil-producing Niger Delta



* Big opposition turnout in mainly Muslim north (Updates with Jonathan statement, paragraphs 4-5)



By Tim Cocks and Alexis Akwagyiram



ABUJA, March 31 (Reuters) - Three decades after seizing power in a military coup, Muhammadu Buhari became the first Nigerian to oust a president through the ballot box, putting him in charge of Africa's biggest economy and one of its most turbulent democracies.



As the scale of this weekend's electoral landslide became clear, President Goodluck Jonathan called Buhari on Tuesday to concede defeat to the opposition leader, an unprecedented step that should help to defuse anger among Jonathan's supporters.



In the religiously mixed northern city of Kaduna, where 800 people were killed in violence after the last elections in 2011, Buhari supporters streamed onto the streets, waving flags and dancing and singing in celebration.



In a short concessional statement, Jonathan wished his opponent well and urged his supporters to keep their cool, saying nobody's political ambition was "worth the blood of any Nigerian".



"The unity, stability and progress of our dear country is more important than anything else," he said.



Yet his supporters in the volatile Niger Delta, his home region and the heart of Africa's biggest oil and gas industry, were despondent.



"Goodluck is a stupid man for conceding, a disappointment for Nigeria," one waitress in the oil city of Port Harcourt said, throwing a beer bottle top at a fridge.



Jonathan's People's Democratic Party (PDP) has been in charge since the end of army rule in 1999 but had been losing popularity due to a string of corruption scandals and the rise of Boko Haram's Islamist insurgency in the northeast.



"At about five minutes to 5, President Jonathan called General Muhammadu Buhari, the winner of the elections, to congratulate him," Lai Mohammed, a spokesman for Buhari's All Progressives Congress (APC), told reporters at the party's headquarters in the capital, Abuja.



"There had always been this fear that he might not want to concede but he will remain a hero for this move," he added. "The tension will go down dramatically."



Around him, women in brightly coloured dresses danced and sang, ululating in celebration.



A final tally of the results compiled by Reuters gave the sandal-wearing and ascetic Buhari 15.4 million votes against 13.3 million for Jonathan, a margin of victory that is likely to render any legal challenges irrelevant.



SMOOTH RUNNING



Despite some technical glitches and the killing of more than a dozen voters by Boko Haram gunmen, the election has been the smoothest and most orderly in Nigeria's history.



"There are probably lots of reasons why the PDP might have lost but I think the key one is that the elections just haven't been rigged," said Antony Goldman, a business consultant with high-level contacts in Nigeria.



As the results trickled in, Buhari, dressed in a white khaftan and prayer cap, sat calmly in a front a television at a house in the capital.



Buhari seized power in a 1983 coup only to be ousted 18 months later by another general. Since then he has declared himself a convert to democracy, running and losing several elections but always coming back for more on a ticket of cleaning up Nigeria's dirty politics.



Before Jonathan conceded defeat, Buhari received a tacit endorsement from Washington, with a U.S. official acknowledging his role in building a "new" Nigeria, a pillar of a rapidly modernising and growing continent.



"His leadership of the opposition over these years has demonstrated a commitment to democracy that would seem to suggest he is participating in Nigeria's new era that began in 1999," the U.S. official said.



"NEW DIRECTION"



Buhari's inner circle acknowledged the hard work ahead in building bridges in a country of 170 million people split along ethnic, religious and regional lines.



He must also deal with the fallout from a dive in global oil prices in the last eight months which has hammered the economy, squeezed state revenues and forced two de facto devaluations of the currency, the naira.



"We should all work together to redirect the country. A lot of sacrifices will have to be made," Kwara state senator and senior APC official Bukola Saraki said.



In a sign of the simmering PDP passions, Godsday Orubebe, a former Niger Delta minister, grabbed a microphone at the headquarters of the election commission to lambaste its chief in the reading of the final results.



"Mr. Chairman, we have lost confidence in what you are doing," he shouted, as nervous security guards stood around, wondering what to do. "You are being very, very selective. You are partial."



VIOLENCE LOWER



At least 15 people were shot dead during polling, most of them in the northeast where Boko Haram has declared war on democracy in its fight to revive a mediaeval caliphate in the southern Sahara.



However, the chaos was significantly less than in previous elections, a reality that pushed the stock market up more than 2 percent toward a three-month high. The naira also held steady at 218 against the dollar on the black market.



Although the economy has been growing at 7 percent or more, scandals over billions of dollars in missing oil funds and the rise of Boko Haram hit Jonathan hard in the polls.



His perceived slow reaction to the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls last April caused widespread anger, and fuelled a public appetite for decisive military action against Boko Haram from a strongman such as Buhari.



The war has turned in Jonathan's favour in the past six weeks with external intervention by troops from neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger, but the victories appear to have been too late for Jonathan at the ballot box. (Additional reporting by Julia Payne, Estelle Shirbon, Chijioke Ohuocha and Bate Felix; Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Angus MacSwan, David Stamp and Lisa Shumaker)









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Lufthansa: Co-pilot reported 'serious depressive episode' - USA TODAY



53 1 LINKEDIN MORE

The co-pilot of the Germanwings jet that crashed in the French Alps a week ago told his flight school in 2009 that he had suffered a "serious episode of severe depression," airlines officials said Tuesday.


Lufthansa, the parent of Germanwings, says the Lubitz note was found in emails Andreas Lubitz sent to Lufthansa's flight school when he returned to training.


"Thereafter the co-pilot received the medical certificate confirming his fitness to fly," Lufthansa said in a statement.


"This is the single most outrageous situation I've encountered in 33 years as a law professor," says David Gregory, Dorothy Day Professor of Law & Executive Director of the Center for Labor and Employment Law at St. John's University. "There is every indication of criminal gross negligence, and some person or persons may be criminally prosecuted as a result of this admission, posing the possibility of damages in numbers that could threaten the very future of the airline.


"This was not an accident or a situation where a tire blew out. This was a deliberate decision to take the very last person qualified to fly this plane and allow him to be alone in the cockpit."


Lufthansa's statement said that "after further internal investigations" it submitted additional documents to the German prosecutors.







The documents include the email and other medical information Lubitz provided the Flight Training Pilot School in 2009 in connection with resuming his flight training, Lufthansa said.


The voice recorder from Flight 9525 indicates that Lubitz waited until he was alone in the cockpit, then locked the pilot out and began an unscheduled 10-minute descent. Ignorning the screams of the pilot -- and panic of passengers -- Lubitz allowed or directed the plane to slam into a steep ravine, killing himself and the other 149 people on the plane.


On Monday, prosecutors in Duesseldor revealed that Lubitz had been treated for suicidal tendencies years ago and more recently was deemed "unable to fly."


Christoph Kumpa, spokesman for Düesseldorf prosecutors, said Lubitz, 27, had received psychotherapy several years before obtaining his pilot's license. Officials for Germanwings and parent Lufthansa had not directly addressed the issue of whether they were aware of Lubitz's therapy, citing confidentiality of medical records.


Kumpa also said physicians had found Lubitz unfit to fly in recent months, though it was not clear why. He said Lubitz had displayed no suicidal tendencies nor aggressive behavior and had no apparent physical illness.


Contributing: Bart Jansen.


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Defying Criticism, Arkansas Legislature Passes Bill on Religious Freedom - New York Times


LITTLE ROCK, Ark., — Despite intensifying criticism from business leaders both within and outside of Arkansas, the state legislature on Tuesday passed its version of a measure billed as a religious freedom law, joining Indiana in a swirl of controversy that shows little sign of calming.


The bill, passed when the General Assembly concurred on three amendments from the State Senate, now goes to the state’s Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson, who expressed reservations about an earlier bill but more recently said he would sign the measure if it “reaches my desk in similar form as to what has been passed in 20 other states.” The Arkansas Senate passed the measure last week.


While there were several attempts up until the last minute to add a clause to the bill that would explicitly bar discrimination of gays and lesbians, a measure that Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana pledged to push through his Legislature, the sponsors of the bill in the Arkansas General Assembly rejected such moves.



”If you start shaving out exemptions in laws, next thing you know, you’ll gut the law because everyone will want an exemption,” said State Senator Bart Hester, a Republican and one if the bill’s lead supporters.


Business resistance to the bills in both states continued to ratchet up, with Gap and Levi Strauss joining Walmart, Apple, Yelp and other major corporations in expressing disapproval. On Monday, the chief executive of Acxiom, a marketing technology company based in Little Rock that employs nearly 1,600 statewide, urged the governor to veto a bill that was “a deliberate vehicle for enabling discrimination.”


The attention turns to Governor Hutchinson, a moderate Republican who ran on a jobs platform and managed to extend a tailored form of Medicaid expansion in this Republican-controlled state.


”I think Indiana has no question had the front position in this spotlight,” said Chad Griffin, a native Arkansan and the president of the Human Rights Coalition, a gay rights group. “That spotlight I think will very quickly be front and center on Gov Hutchinson as he weighs this decision.”


Video

Play Video|0:53

Indiana Governor on ‘Confusion’ Over Law



Indiana Governor on ‘Confusion’ Over Law



Gov. Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana, says that the religious freedom law passed in the state was never intended to give a “license to discriminate” against gay and lesbian couples.


Video By Reuters on Publish Date March 31, 2015. Photo by Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images.



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Obama lifts hold on US military aid to Egypt - Reuters



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Monday told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi that he would lift a hold on U.S. military aid to Cairo, but also said the United States would stop allowing Egypt to buy equipment on credit starting in fiscal year 2018.



Obama has been reviewing military aid to Egypt since 2013 when the Egyptian army ousted former president Mohamed Mursi. The decision will allow for the delivery of 12 F-16 aircraft, 20 Harpoon missiles, and up to 125 M1A1 Abrams tank kits that had been frozen, the White House said.



Obama said he would continue to ask the U.S. Congress for $1.3 billion in military aid for Egypt per year, but has decided to "modernize" the aid by discontinuing the use of cash flow financing for military equipment starting in fiscal 2018, the White House said.



The United States also will target its aid toward equipment used for counterterrorism, border security, maritime security and Sinai security, and for sustaining weapons systems already used by Egypt, the White House said.



"In this way, we will ensure that U.S. funding is being used to promote shared objectives in the region, including a secure and stable Egypt and the defeat of terrorist organizations," said Bernadette Meehan, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, in a statement.



(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed and Julia Edwards; Editing by Sandra Maler)











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Defying Criticism, Arkansas Legislature Passes Bill on Religious Freedom - New York Times


LITTLE ROCK, Ark., — Despite intensifying criticism from business leaders both within and outside of Arkansas, the state legislature on Tuesday passed its version of a measure billed as a religious freedom law, joining Indiana in a swirl of controversy that shows little sign of calming.


The Arkansas bill, passed when the General Assembly concurred on three amendments from the State Senate, now goes to the state’s Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson, who expressed reservations about an earlier bill but more recently said he would sign the measure if it “reaches my desk in similar form as to what has been passed in 20 other states.” The Arkansas Senate passed the measure last week.



While there were several attempts up until the last minute to add a clause to the bill that would explicitly bar discrimination of gays and lesbians, a measure that Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana pledged to add in a news conferenceon on Tuesday, the sponsors of the bill in the General Assembly rejected such moves.


Continue reading the main story Video

Play Video|0:53

Indiana Governor on ‘Confusion’ Over Law



Indiana Governor on ‘Confusion’ Over Law



Gov. Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana, says that the religious freedom law passed in the state was never intended to give a “license to discriminate” against gay and lesbian couples.


Video By Reuters on Publish Date March 31, 2015. Photo by Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images.

”If you start shaving out exemptions in laws, next thing you know, you’ll gut the law because everyone will want an exemption,” said State Senator Bart Hester, a Republican and one if the bill’s lead supporters.


Business resistance to the bills in both states continued to ratchet up, with Gap and Levi Strauss joining Walmart, Apple, Yelp and other major corporations in expressing disapproval. On Monday, the chief executive of Acxiom, a marketing technology company based in Little Rock that employs nearly 1,600 statewide, urged the governor to veto a bill that was “a deliberate vehicle for enabling discrimination.”


The attention turns to Governor Hutchinson, a moderate Republican who ran on a jobs platform and managed to extend a tailored form of Medicaid expansion in this Republican-controlled state.


”I think Indiana has no question had the front position in this spotlight,” said Chad Griffin, a native Arkansan and the president of the Human Rights Coalition, a gay rights group. “That spotlight I think will very quickly be front and center on Gov Hutchinson as he weighs this decision.”




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Iran Nuclear Deadline Will Pass, But Worth Continuing to Negotiate, US Says - ABC News




Copy

Negotiators trying to produce a nuclear accord with Iran will fail to meet their self-imposed March 31 deadline to come up with a broad political understanding about eliminating Iran’s pathway to a bomb, the State Department said today.


"We've made enough progress in the last days to merit staying until Wednesday,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement to reporters in Lausanne, Switzerland, where the talks are being held. “There are several difficult issues still remaining."


Less than 24 hours ago, Harf said there was a “50/50” chance that they could come to a deal. Officials inside the negotiations are not commenting on why more time is needed, but the sticking points during these talks have been clear.





They’ve included disagreements on how many centrifuges -- which are used to enrich nuclear fuel -- might remain online at Iran’s deep-buried Fordo nuclear reactor, whether or not Iran will be allowed to continue nuclear research and development for scientific purposes, and what to do with the stockpile of enriched uranium already owns.


Negotiators on all sides have been working towards this deadline since November 2013. That’s when Iran and the so-called P5 +1 (U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China plus Germany) agreed on a Joint Plan of Action (JPA), an interim agreement that paved the way for talks by temporarily halting Iran’s nuclear enrichment program and subjecting it to daily inspections in exchange for the loosening of some economic sanctions.


Though there is still hope in Lausanne that an agreement can be reached, Congress is likely to see this most recent delay as a failure of diplomacy.


Two weeks ago, 367 members of Congress, many of them Democrats, signed a letter expressing “grave and urgent” concern over the Iran nuclear negotiations. Many of them have threatened to derail any potential deal by voting to enact tougher economic sanctions on Iran. President Obama has threatened to veto that legislation, but it’s possible Congress could get the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto.


Congress, however, is on a two week recess, which is one of the reasons the Obama administration believes it still has more time. Another reason has to do with the tentative agreements already in place.


A four-month extension was granted within the JPA last November that said the six world powers and Iran had until March 31 to reach a consensus on how to go forward. Essentially, that political understanding (due tonight) would outline what actions Iran has to take to dismantle its nuclear program and, in exchange, which economic sanctions on Iran would be lifted and when. That November agreement also stated that by June 30 there would be a formal, signed agreement, followed by implementation of the plan.


The State Department said Monday that technically the JPA extends through June 30 and therefore the parties are within their rights to negotiate up until that point. It’s unclear, however, if those involved would be willing to drag the talks out for another three months without first reaching this broader agreement.









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Lupica: Indiana's bill is a disguise for bigotry - New York Daily News



NEW YORK DAILY NEWS


Sunday, March 29, 2015, 9:40 PM


The people of Indiana don't need to be protected from gays. They need to be protected from religious bullies like their governor, Mike Pence.Michael Conroy/AP

The people of Indiana don't need to be protected from gays. They need to be protected from religious bullies like their governor, Mike Pence.



It happens in Indiana this time with a governor named Mike Pence, who tries to make bigotry toward gays sound like God’s will, and uses his own cockeyed version of religion to justify discrimination, the way politicians like him always have in this country.


It is called Senate Bill 101 in Pence’s state, or the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. He signed that bill into law last week and in the process dishonored his state, which this week welcomes one of the biggest sports events we have when the Final Four returns to Indianapolis. At a time when Indianapolis and Indiana want to be at their best, the governor of the state shows the ham-handed sensibilities of a bully.


His new law now prohibits any other state laws that “substantially burden” the ability of any person to follow his or her religious beliefs. What that really means, whether Pence will admit it or not, is that he doesn’t want anybody in Indiana to be prevented from following beliefs that could eventually discriminate against gays, or gay marriage.


APPLE CEO TIM COOK SAYS INDIANA'S RELIGIOUS FREEDOM BILL IS BAD FOR BUSINESS


Pence says this is all about tolerance being a two-way street. But he is the one being ignorant and intolerant here, while he waits along with the rest of the country for the Supreme Court to rule on same-sex marriage once and for all. So Pence becomes the latest politician in this country to use his own cockeyed religious beliefs like a club — and would probably be insulted if you compared him with extremists from other countries who do the exact same thing.


On Sunday, the governor of Indiana went running to “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” and told that show’s audience that if he thought his state’s new law would discriminate against gays or anybody else, he never would have signed his name to it. In that moment he sounded like more of a phony and a fool than ever. The rest of us understood Pence perfectly once that bill became law. He only digs a deeper hole for himself every time he offers a new explanation.


“This is about protecting the religious liberty of people of faith and families of faith,” Pence said.


Demonstrators told Gov. Mike Pence how they felt about his religious freedom bill at a rally on Saturday.NATE CHUTE/REUTERS

Demonstrators told Gov. Mike Pence how they felt about his religious freedom bill at a rally on Saturday.



No, it is not. Pence knows that, unless he is even a slower thinker than he appeared to be in not just becoming another American governor signing off on vulgar legislation like this, but continuing to defend it.


No rights for people of faith, no rights for families of faith, are under attack in Indiana or anywhere else when gays are allowed to marry in this country. The idea that they are is a lie.


Maybe the money quote from Pence, who’s been under attack for days from business leaders all across the country, some of them real big ones like Tim Cook of Apple, was this:


“We have suffered under this avalanche for the last several days of condemnation, and it’s completely baseless. This isn’t about disputes between individuals. It’s about government overreach.”


But even Pence ought to be smart enough to know that historically, the government has to overreach in this country to protect the rights of its citizens against political and religious bullies exactly like him.


Our government, at the state and national level, overreaches right now on sexual orientation the way it has in the past on race and women’s rights and protecting its citizens against the kind of bigotry Pence is endorsing here, the way it did with the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s, and Roe vs. Wade, and the 13th Amendment and Brown vs. Board of Education. Of course that is just the short list in America.


Gay people want the same rights as everyone else, but politicians and religious zealots are getting in the way.Charles Rex Arbogast/AP

Gay people want the same rights as everyone else, but politicians and religious zealots are getting in the way.



Once it was the rights of black Americans that were a threat to small-minded men and women like Pence of Indiana. Now it is gay men and women who simply want the same rights as the rest of us without having politicians and religious zealots treating literal interpretation of the Bible like a buffet table, going through Scripture and picking out the passages they like.


You know what the Bible really teaches? It teaches kindness and fairness, in Indiana and everywhere else.


Believe me, Charles Barkley won’t be the last to suggest sports boycotts in Indiana, which has hosted a Super Bowl and previous Final Fours and is now home to the NCAA.


You know why Arizona didn’t lose the Super Bowl that was held there this past February? Because its own governor, Jan Brewer, didn’t want to lose another Super Bowl, this one over her boneheaded position on immigration enforcement, the way her state had lost one in the ’90s because of its refusal to recognize Martin Luther King Day.


That decision wasn’t about tolerance or religious liberty. It was about business. Arizona’s governor finally stopped acting like a political slob. So, too, will Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, whose constituents don’t need protections from gays. Just from him.


“God doesn’t speak to politicians,” Charles Barkley told me Sunday. “But cash does.”



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Iran Nuclear Deadline Will Pass, But Worth Continuing to Negotiate, US Says - ABC News




Copy

Negotiators trying to produce a nuclear accord with Iran will fail to meet their self-imposed March 31 deadline to come up with a broad political understanding about eliminating Iran’s pathway to a bomb, the State Department said today.


"We've made enough progress in the last days to merit staying until Wednesday,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement to reporters in Lausanne, Switzerland, where the talks are being held. “There are several difficult issues still remaining."


Less than 24 hours ago, Harf said there was a “50/50” chance that they could come to a deal. Officials inside the negotiations are not commenting on why more time is needed, but the sticking points during these talks have been clear.





They’ve included disagreements on how many centrifuges -- which are used to enrich nuclear fuel -- might remain online at Iran’s deep-buried Fordo nuclear reactor, whether or not Iran will be allowed to continue nuclear research and development for scientific purposes, and what to do with the stockpile of enriched uranium already owns.


Negotiators on all sides have been working towards this deadline since November 2013. That’s when Iran and the so-called P5 +1 (U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China plus Germany) agreed on a Joint Plan of Action (JPA), an interim agreement that paved the way for talks by temporarily halting Iran’s nuclear enrichment program and subjecting it to daily inspections in exchange for the loosening of some economic sanctions.


Though there is still hope in Lausanne that an agreement can be reached, Congress is likely to see this most recent delay as a failure of diplomacy.


Two weeks ago, 367 members of Congress, many of them Democrats, signed a letter expressing “grave and urgent” concern over the Iran nuclear negotiations. Many of them have threatened to derail any potential deal by voting to enact tougher economic sanctions on Iran. President Obama has threatened to veto that legislation, but it’s possible Congress could get the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto.


Congress, however, is on a two week recess, which is one of the reasons the Obama administration believes it still has more time. Another reason has to do with the tentative agreements already in place.


A four-month extension was granted within the JPA last November that said the six world powers and Iran had until March 31 to reach a consensus on how to go forward. Essentially, that political understanding (due tonight) would outline what actions Iran has to take to dismantle its nuclear program and, in exchange, which economic sanctions on Iran would be lifted and when. That November agreement also stated that by June 30 there would be a formal, signed agreement, followed by implementation of the plan.


The State Department said Monday that technically the JPA extends through June 30 and therefore the parties are within their rights to negotiate up until that point. It’s unclear, however, if those involved would be willing to drag the talks out for another three months without first reaching this broader agreement.









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Report: Video shows final seconds before Germanwings crash - CBS News

Rescue workers are seen near debris at the crash site of the Germanwings Airbus A320 near Seyne-les-Alpes, French Alps, March 30, 2015. REUTERS



A video allegedly found at the crash site of Germanwings Flight 9525 captures the terrifying moments inside the passenger jet before it slammed into a mountain in the French Alps, two media outlets reported Tuesday.


French magazine Paris Match and German newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported that they viewed the short cell phone video that was provided to them by a source close to the investigation. Paris Match reports it is difficult to identify people in the video but that the sounds of screaming passengers can be clearly heard as well as cries of "Oh my God" in different languages.


The magazine reports that loud metallic banging can also be heard and the video, which lasts only seconds, ends with a heavy shake and more screaming.



Paris Match says the video corroborates some of the contents of the plane's cockpit recording. On Sunday, French officials refused to confirm or deny a partial transcript that Bild am Sonntag said it had obtained of the cockpit recording. The paper reported that the pilot left for the toilet shortly before 10:30 a.m. and was heard trying unsuccessfully to get into the cockpit again a few minutes later, then shouting "for God's sake open the door."


As passengers began screaming and the pilot continued pounding on the door, an automatic warning went off: "Terrain. Pull up."


The captain screamed "open the damn door," as co-pilot Andreas Lubitz could be heard breathing normally.


Within minutes, Germanwings Flight 9525 crashed into the mountainside.



Meanwhile, Lufthansa said Tuesday that it knew six years ago that Lubitz week had suffered from a "serious depressive episode."


The airline said that as part of its internal research it found emails that Lubitz sent to the Lufthansa flight school in Bremen when he resumed his training there after an interruption of several months.


In them, he informed the school that he had suffered a "serious depressive episode," which had since subsided.


The airline said Lubitz subsequently passed all medical checks and that it has provided the documents to prosecutors. It declined to make any further comment.


The revelation that officials Lufthansa had been informed of Lubitz's psychological problems raises further questions about why he was allowed to become a pilot for its subsidiary, Germanwings, in September 2013.


Authorities say the 27-year-old Lubitz, who in the past had been treated for suicidal tendencies, locked his captain out of the cockpit before deliberately crashing the Airbus 320 into a mountain in the French Alps on March 24. All 150 people aboard Flight 9525 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf were killed.


Earlier Tuesday, Lufthansa said it had set aside $300 million to deal with possible costs from the crash as French aviation investigators said they were examining "systemic weaknesses" like cockpit entry rules and psychological screening procedures that could have led to the Germanwings plane crash - issues that could eventually change worldwide aviation practices.



© 2015 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.








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Lupica: Indiana's bill is a disguise for bigotry - New York Daily News



NEW YORK DAILY NEWS


Sunday, March 29, 2015, 9:40 PM


The people of Indiana don't need to be protected from gays. They need to be protected from religious bullies like their governor, Mike Pence.Michael Conroy/AP

The people of Indiana don't need to be protected from gays. They need to be protected from religious bullies like their governor, Mike Pence.



It happens in Indiana this time with a governor named Mike Pence, who tries to make bigotry toward gays sound like God’s will, and uses his own cockeyed version of religion to justify discrimination, the way politicians like him always have in this country.


It is called Senate Bill 101 in Pence’s state, or the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. He signed that bill into law last week and in the process dishonored his state, which this week welcomes one of the biggest sports events we have when the Final Four returns to Indianapolis. At a time when Indianapolis and Indiana want to be at their best, the governor of the state shows the ham-handed sensibilities of a bully.


His new law now prohibits any other state laws that “substantially burden” the ability of any person to follow his or her religious beliefs. What that really means, whether Pence will admit it or not, is that he doesn’t want anybody in Indiana to be prevented from following beliefs that could eventually discriminate against gays, or gay marriage.


APPLE CEO TIM COOK SAYS INDIANA'S RELIGIOUS FREEDOM BILL IS BAD FOR BUSINESS


Pence says this is all about tolerance being a two-way street. But he is the one being ignorant and intolerant here, while he waits along with the rest of the country for the Supreme Court to rule on same-sex marriage once and for all. So Pence becomes the latest politician in this country to use his own cockeyed religious beliefs like a club — and would probably be insulted if you compared him with extremists from other countries who do the exact same thing.


On Sunday, the governor of Indiana went running to “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” and told that show’s audience that if he thought his state’s new law would discriminate against gays or anybody else, he never would have signed his name to it. In that moment he sounded like more of a phony and a fool than ever. The rest of us understood Pence perfectly once that bill became law. He only digs a deeper hole for himself every time he offers a new explanation.


“This is about protecting the religious liberty of people of faith and families of faith,” Pence said.


Demonstrators told Gov. Mike Pence how they felt about his religious freedom bill at a rally on Saturday.NATE CHUTE/REUTERS

Demonstrators told Gov. Mike Pence how they felt about his religious freedom bill at a rally on Saturday.



No, it is not. Pence knows that, unless he is even a slower thinker than he appeared to be in not just becoming another American governor signing off on vulgar legislation like this, but continuing to defend it.


No rights for people of faith, no rights for families of faith, are under attack in Indiana or anywhere else when gays are allowed to marry in this country. The idea that they are is a lie.


Maybe the money quote from Pence, who’s been under attack for days from business leaders all across the country, some of them real big ones like Tim Cook of Apple, was this:


“We have suffered under this avalanche for the last several days of condemnation, and it’s completely baseless. This isn’t about disputes between individuals. It’s about government overreach.”


But even Pence ought to be smart enough to know that historically, the government has to overreach in this country to protect the rights of its citizens against political and religious bullies exactly like him.


Our government, at the state and national level, overreaches right now on sexual orientation the way it has in the past on race and women’s rights and protecting its citizens against the kind of bigotry Pence is endorsing here, the way it did with the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s, and Roe vs. Wade, and the 13th Amendment and Brown vs. Board of Education. Of course that is just the short list in America.


Gay people want the same rights as everyone else, but politicians and religious zealots are getting in the way.Charles Rex Arbogast/AP

Gay people want the same rights as everyone else, but politicians and religious zealots are getting in the way.



Once it was the rights of black Americans that were a threat to small-minded men and women like Pence of Indiana. Now it is gay men and women who simply want the same rights as the rest of us without having politicians and religious zealots treating literal interpretation of the Bible like a buffet table, going through Scripture and picking out the passages they like.


You know what the Bible really teaches? It teaches kindness and fairness, in Indiana and everywhere else.


Believe me, Charles Barkley won’t be the last to suggest sports boycotts in Indiana, which has hosted a Super Bowl and previous Final Fours and is now home to the NCAA.


You know why Arizona didn’t lose the Super Bowl that was held there this past February? Because its own governor, Jan Brewer, didn’t want to lose another Super Bowl, this one over her boneheaded position on immigration enforcement, the way her state had lost one in the ’90s because of its refusal to recognize Martin Luther King Day.


That decision wasn’t about tolerance or religious liberty. It was about business. Arizona’s governor finally stopped acting like a political slob. So, too, will Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, whose constituents don’t need protections from gays. Just from him.


“God doesn’t speak to politicians,” Charles Barkley told me Sunday. “But cash does.”



Tags:

mike pence









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