Midday Roundup: ISIS razes Iraq's oldest Christian monastery

Sacrilege. Satellite images show Islamic State (ISIS) has leveled Iraq’s oldest monastery. St. Elijah’s Monastery of Mosul, also known as Dair Mar Elia, was 1,400 years old and predated the schism between Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christians. St. Elijah’s joins a growing list of more than 100 religious and historic sites demolished by ISIS in Syria and Iraq. The extremists have defaced or ruined ancient monuments in Nineveh, Palmyra, and Hatra. “I can't describe my sadness,” said the Rev. Paul Thabit Habib, who fled from Mosul to Erbil, Iraq. “Our Christian history in Mosul is being barbarically leveled. We see it as an attempt to expel us from Iraq, eliminating and finishing our existence in this land.”

Taliban terror. Islamic terrorists attacked a university in northern Pakistan today, killing at least 20 people before security guards stopped them. A regional Taliban faction called Omar Mansoor took credit for the attack. “This is a message to the Pakistani army and civilian leadership, who have executed 130 mujahideen, our people. We will carry out more attacks to take revenge on them,” the group said in a statement. The attack on Bacha Khan University in Charsadda took place about 30 miles from the town of Peshawar, where the Taliban attacked a school in December 2014 and killed about 130 people, most of them children.

Unwelcome. The anti-federal government protesters who took over a wildlife refuge in Oregon a few weeks ago are finding few friends among the locals. At a community meeting in Burns, Ore., on Tuesday night, residents and officials told Ammon Bundy it was time for his group to go home. Bundy is part of a family that has had dust-ups with the feds before over the private use of public land. Frustration over the issue runs deep in the West, where the federal government owns more than 50 percent of the land. The Bundys and their fellow activists occupied a wildlife refuge outside Burns on Jan. 2, saying they want to hand over control of the land to locals for use in logging, hunting, ranching, and other income-producing activities. But the residents of Burns are tired of the standoff and the security concerns it’s created in their isolated town. “Mr. Bundy, I agree with you 100 percent, we have way too much government,” local resident Ed Brown said, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting. “But the same hand, get the hell out of my yard. Look what you did to this county.”

Full disclosure. A federal judge has ruled that the Obama administration must turn over to Congress records related to Fast and Furious, the failed gun running sting operation that allegedly put thousands of firearms in the hands of Mexican drug lords. “Today’s ruling is a step toward accountability for this administration and is a judicial rebuke of the president’s unwillingness to be forthcoming to the American people,” Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said. The administration is expected to appeal the ruling.

Snowed in. A cold white blanket is expected this weekend in the northeastern United States as the first big snowstorm of the season blows in. Bostonians are busy buying shovels and salt ahead of what could be as much as a foot of snow by Saturday. Officials worry about damage to infrastructure; Boston is running empty trains during the night to warm rail lines so they won’t snap.

WORLD Radio’s Jim Henry and Mary Reichard and The Associated Press contributed to this report.