Late on Libya

The deadly Sept. 11 attack that killed four U.S. officers at a U.S. consulate in Libya was “deliberate and organized,” the Director of National Intelligence announced on Sept. 29. It was the most detailed assessment of what caused the death of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and others in Benghazi—and came nearly three weeks after the Obama administration insisted the attack was the result of an anti-Islam video made in the United States.

On Sept. 16 U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said, “What happened initially was that it was a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired in Cairo as a consequence of the video.”

DNI spokesman Shawn Turner said in the Sept. 29 briefing that intelligence officials provided public officials with “evolving” information about the attacks. But Libyan officials say they had evidence it was “a pre-calculated, pre-planned attack” (Sept. 15), according to Libyan President Mohammed el-Megarif. Turner said the DNI still does not know who led or planned the attack, but “some of those involved were linked to groups affiliated with, or sympathetic to al Qaeda.”

Other questions for U.S. officials include why an FBI team sent to investigate the deaths and burning of the U.S. consulate took one week to arrive on the scene. During that time reporters and others toured the burned buildings, with a CNN reporter even retrieving Stevens’ diary. Questions also remain pending an autopsy report on Stevens, whose cause of death has not been confirmed, and who may have been raped, according to some reports.

Eight Republicans who chair committees in the U.S. House wrote Obama Sept. 25 to demand further answers on the Benghazi assault. Two Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have asked the State Department for all communication surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks in Benghazi, including cables from Stevens. —Mindy Belz

Christian activists arrested at White House

Police arrested dozens of pro-life activists in front of the White House for protesting the Health and Human Services mandate that forces people of faith to cover abortion services in health insurance plans. Patrick Mahoney, an organizer and Christian Defense Coalition director, said the new rule has taken Christians by surprise, so “the church is playing catch-up” to let its voices be heard.

The arrests were part of a project called Acts Five 29, named for the Bible verse reading, “We must obey God rather than men.” The four-day series of events kicked off at 5 p.m. on Sept. 29 to coincide with the reference—and by Oct. 1 police had arrested 66 protesters for “failure to obey lawful commands.”

Kristina Garza, one of the group’s leaders, said the HHS requirement is forcing them “to pay for things that violate our religious convictions. We believe that is absolutely wrong.”

China shuffle

China’s Communist Party announced Sept. 29 it was expelling popular party leader Bo Xilai. The party chief of Chongqing, along with his wife, has been embroiled in a scandal many observers say presents the biggest threat to the party’s power since the Tiananmen Square uprising of 1989. Party leaders took unusual steps to upend Bo and present him for prosecution ahead of a November party congress scheduled to hand power over to new leadership.

Court date

A Christian teenager in Pakistan faces an Oct. 17 hearing to determine whether an Islamabad court will drop blasphemy charges against her that carry a sentence of life in prison.

Pakistani police arrested Rimsha Masih in August after a neighbor accused her of burning pages of the Quran for cooking fuel. The 14-year-old girl denied the accusations, but officials jailed her on blasphemy charges.

The case shifted after four witnesses said a local Muslim cleric planted the Quran pages to frame Masih. A local police investigation determined the cleric set up the young girl to appear guilty.

The case turned again when three of the witnesses recanted their statements on Oct. 1. A fourth witness upheld his original testimony. An Islamabad judge said he would hear a petition by Masih’s attorney on Oct. 17 to drop the blasphemy charges. Already the judge has transferred her case to a juvenile court—a move human-rights groups called encouraging because it cannot hand down a death penalty.

Masih, released on bail in September, remains in hiding with her parents at a secret location.

Sign of life

Convincing evidence that a fast-moving stream once flowed near the landing site of NASA’s Mars rover, Curiosity, emerged only weeks after the space robot began exploring. NASA dispatched Curiosity to learn if the solar system’s most Earth-like planet was suitable for microbial life. Rounded gravel cemented in a \slab of rock near the rover’s landing base indicate the area once was awash in water, a key ingredient for life, scientists announced Sept. 27. The roving laser laboratory, about the size of a small car, touched down on Mars Aug. 6.

‘Fatally flawed’

California Governor Jerry Brown on Sept. 30 vetoed an immigration measure that would have protected illegal immigrants from the federal status checks that often lead to deportation proceedings. California lawmakers approved the bill’s lenient stance toward illegal immigrants, touting it as a left-leaning response to the conservative Arizona bill that cracked down on illegal immigration.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the major elements of that Arizona bill, allowing that state to join Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina, and Utah in adopting stringent laws aimed at curtailing illegal immigration. But Gov. Brown rejected the California legislature’s efforts to slow deportation checks in the state that has the nation’s largest population of illegal immigrants. He said the bill was “fatally flawed” because the illegal immigrants it sought to shield include those who commit crimes such as child abuse, drug trafficking, and selling weapons: “I believe it’s unwise to interfere with a sheriff’s discretion to comply with a detainer issued for people with those kinds of troubling criminal records.”

Megachurch charges

Victory Christian Center, a 17,000-member church in Tulsa, Okla., has been rocked by allegations of sexual abuse, with a fourth victim of alleged abuse coming forward to police in late September. Two former employees of the church face charges, and police say they also have a third suspect.

Former employee Chris Denman, 20, is charged with raping a 13-year-old in a stairwell at the church and molesting a 15-year-old. He now faces two new charges of sexual abuse involving minors. Another former employee, Israel Castillo, 23, is charged with making a lewd proposal to a 15-year-old and committing a sex crime using a computer. Five employees of the church, including the son and daughter-in-law of head pastor Sharon Daugherty, are facing charges of failing to report the 13-year-old’s alleged rape until two weeks later.

The church said it suspended the five employees pending disciplinary review. “Every youth pastor knows now, ‘If I suspect abuse, I need to report it,’ because if you don’t report this, you could end up being charged,” Tim Peterson, a 28-year member of the church, told the Associated Press.

Crime report

Bryan College, an 800-student Christian school in Dayton, Tenn., became the center of a debate about press freedom in September after student journalist Alex Green distributed a story school President Stephen Livesay said should not be published. The story detailed former professor David Morgan’s arrest for attempted aggravated child molestation and child sexual exploitation. In announcing Morgan’s resignation in July, school administrators said only that the assistant professor of Bible studies planned to pursue other opportunities.

In a sidebar that accompanied the story, Green said he didn’t want his school caught in the same kind of cover-up scandal that rocked Penn State last year. A few days after the fliers appeared, media blogger Jim Romenesko posted a copy of the censored story. National news sites soon picked it up. Confronted by reporters a few days later, Livesay acknowledged he might have made a mistake in suppressing the story and that he only wanted to protect Morgan’s privacy. The professor resigned on his own and had not been convicted by a court of law, he said: “Our intent was to look at the situation as Christians and do what was right. As humans, we are fallible. What we can do is learn from our mistakes.”