Newark mayor: NYPD Muslim files 'deeply offensive' (AP)

Imam Abdul A. Muhammad of the Masjid Imam K. Ali Muslim mosque in Newark, N.J., speaks in his clothing and accessories store, regarding surveillance of the Muslim community by the New York Police Department, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012. Americans in New Jersey’s largest city were subjected to surveillance as part of the New York Police Department’s effort to build databases of where Muslims work, shop and pray. The operation in Newark was so secretive, even the city’s mayor says he was kept in the dark. For months in mid-2007, plainclothes NYPD officers snapped pictures of mosques and eavesdropped in Muslim neighborhoods. The result was a 60-page report, obtained by The Associated Press. It cited no evidence of crimes. It was just a guide to Newark’s Muslims. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)AP - The mayor and police director of New Jersey's largest city said Wednesday the New York Police Department misled their city and never told them it was conducting a widespread spying operation on Newark's Muslim neighborhoods. Had they known, they said, they never would have allowed it.
Ohio church offers drive-thru for Ash Wednesday (AP)
AP - An Ohio church is offering a drive-thru Ash Wednesday blessing for parishioners pressed for time or reluctant to come inside the church for the Lenten observance.
Schools work to balance gay, religious rights (AP)
AP - Dozens of colleges have scrutinized how on-campus Christian groups operate after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowed a law school to deny funding to a Christian group that would not admit gays.
Pope marks Ash Wednesday (AP)
AP - Pope Benedict XVI rode on a motorized cart in an Ash Wednesday procession, forsaking the traditional short walk between two Rome churches as the 84-year-old pontiff tries to conserve his energy.
NJ gov: Report of spying on Muslims 'disturbing' (AP)
AP - New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is calling a report of a police surveillance operation targeting Muslims in Newark "disturbing." He also says he doesn't recall ever being briefed about the spying in 2007 while he was the state's top federal prosecutor.
Newark mayor: NYPD misled city on Muslim spying (AP)
AP - Newark Mayor Cory Booker and his top police official say the city was misled by the New York Police Department and never would have authorized such wholesale spying on Muslims if they had known about it.
Ex-director: Local NJ police didn't spy on Muslims (AP)
AP - A former police director of New Jersey's largest city says no local officers were used in a spying operation that monitored and catalogued his city's Muslim neighborhoods.
Tibetans mark new year under shadow of immolations (Reuters)
Reuters - Tibetans in northwest China marked a tense traditional new year with prayer, the sounding of a gong and subdued defiance on Wednesday, in the wake of a string of self-immolations and protests against Chinese control.
Israel top court scraps pious Jews' draft exemption (Reuters)
Reuters - Israel's top court struck down on Tuesday a law designed to encourage ultra-Orthodox Jews to join the military and the workforce, saying it had backfired by "entrenching" their blanket draft exemptions and protracted seminary studies.
NYC mayor, Yale pres on police checking on Muslims (AP)
AP - Yale President Richard Levin condemned the New York Police Department's monitoring of Muslim student associations in a letter on Monday:
NYPD monitoring of Muslim students sparks outrage (AP)

This combo made from file photos shows Yale President Richard Levin in New Haven Conn. on Sept. 13, 2009, left, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in Cambridge, Mass. on Nov. 29, 2011. Bloomberg is facing off with Yale University over efforts by the NYPD to monitor Muslim student groups. Levin on Monday, Feb. 20, 2012 said in a statement that monitoring of students based on religion was 'antithetical' to the schools' values. Bloomberg defended the practice, saying there is nothing wrong with officers keeping an eye on websites that are available to the general public. (AP File Photos)AP - The mayor faced off with the president of Yale University on Tuesday over an effort by the city's police department to monitor Muslim student groups for any signs that their members harbored terrorist sympathies.
Southern Baptists vote to keep name but add alternative (Reuters)
Reuters - Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, the country's largest Protestant denomination, on Tuesday opted against changing a name that has proved problematic for some churches because of its connection to the South and slavery.
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