Local officials in other Mexican cities have drawn fire recently for publicly "dedicating" their cities to Jesus Christ and God at religious events, despite the country's long history of religious conflicts, including the 1920s Cristero war in which tens of thousands died.

But the Cancun donation especially angered some residents because the government-owned land was designated for public use, and some wanted to turn it into badly-needed park for a low-income neighborhood located several miles from the glitzy coastal hotels.

"People are angry, because they wanted a park," said Tulio Arroyo, an environmental and civic activist whose Ombligo Verde group has fought in the past to defend public spaces in real-estate hungry Cancun.

Arroyo said the land was listed as an "urban services" area, which meant it should be used for parks, schools, a fire station, or other public services.

But last week, residents got a surprise when a wire fence went up around the land, saying "Private Property, Cancun-Chetumal Prelature, Legitimate Owner."

Bertha Grajales, the spokeswoman for the housing authority in the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo, where Cancun is located, confirmed Friday that the land had been donated to the church, but she could not say when or why.

Mexican law says the government should be non-religious and not show any preference for any one faith.

Cristobal Pech, the spokesman for the prelature — a Roman Catholic regional body resembling a diocese — acknowledged it was government land that was donated to the church by the state government after local residents asked for a chapel.

"The plans are to build a chapel. The local Catholic community there asked for a chapel to be built," Pech said.

Arroyo said his group has filed a complaint with municipal authorities seeking to have the land donation cancelled.

Real estate development has gobbled up much of the once-open land in Cancun, leaving the city's 670,000 inhabitants with few parks and very limited access to the city's famous beaches.

But religion is an even more sensitive theme: Mexico was dominated economically, spiritually and intellectually for centuries by the Catholic church. After the 1910-1917 revolution, strict anti-clerical laws were passed that sparked a 1926-1929 uprising by militant Catholics known as the Cristero War.

While the restrictions were eased in the 1990s, many Mexicans — even those who are nominally Catholic themselves — are wary of any church involvement in politics or public affairs.

In early June, the mayor of Monterrey, Mexico's third-largest city, angered many when, at an outdoor religious gathering of Roman Catholics, she essentially handed over the keys of the city to Jesus Christ.

"I deliver the city of Monterrey ... to our lord Jesus Christ, so that his kingdom of peace and blessing may be established," said Mayor Margarita Arellanes. "I open the doors of this city to God, as the highest authority."

Arellanes later said she was speaking as an individual, not as mayor, and said her words weren't meant to offend people of other religions. Still, her statement upset some legislators, who called for her to be censured. Other mayors in northern Mexico made similar comments previously.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Before Edward Snowden began leaking national security secrets, he twice cleared the hurdle of the federal government's background check system — first at the CIA, then as a systems analyst at the National Security Agency.

Snowden's path into secretive national security jobs has raised concerns about the system that outsources many of the government's most sensitive background checks to an army of private investigators and pays hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts to companies that employ them.

"You can't outsource national security," said Robert Baer, a former CIA veteran who worked in a succession of agency stations in the Mideast. "As long as we depend on the intel-industrial complex for vetting, we're going to get more Snowdens."

The company with the biggest share of contracts is under a federal investigation into possible criminal violations involving its oversight of background checks, officials familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.

Even with fresh congressional scrutiny, the federal government appears wedded to the incumbent screening system. Nearly three-quarters of the government's background checks are done by private companies, and of those, more than 45 percent are handled by the U.S. Investigations Services, or USIS, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the agency overseeing most of the government's background checks.

USIS, which started out with 700 former government employees in 1996 and is now run by a private equity fund, dominates the background check industry, taking in $195 million in government payments last year and more than $215 million already this year.

The OPM turned to private security screeners in the late 1990s because of growing backlogs that were snarling the government's hiring process. A force of 2,500 OPM investigators and more than 6,700 private contract screeners has sliced into those backlogs, reducing the time it takes on average for background screening by 9 percent in 2010.

As of 2012, more than 4.9 million government workers held security clearances. Senior federal appointments are still carefully investigated by FBI agents, and the FBI and the CIA still maintain strong in-house screening staffs to vet their own sensitive positions.

But privatization efforts started during the Clinton administration keep farming out work to contractors. The Defense Department turned over its screening work to OPM in 2004 and even intelligence agencies that conduct their own investigations relegate some checks to private companies.

The OPM's success has come with mounting government expenditures. The average cost of a background investigation rose from $581 in 2005 to $882 in 2011, according to the Government Accountability Office. At the same time, a $1 billion "revolving fund" paid by federal agencies for most background checks has remained off-limits to outside audits. The White House pledged only recently to provide money for an inspector general's office audit of the fund in the 2014 budget.

The inspector general appointed to watch over the OPM, Patrick McFarland, said at a Senate hearing last month that there were problems with Snowden's most recent screening before he was hired to work for defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. as an NSA computer systems analyst. McFarland did not specify the problems, but he said Snowden was screened and approved last year by USIS.

McFarland's office, aided by the Justice Department, is investigating whether USIS exaggerated the extent of its internal reviews of background checks, said two government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the two-year inquiry.

Ray Howell, a spokesman for USIS, declined to confirm or discuss the investigation. The company recently said in a statement that it was "not aware of any open criminal case against USIS." Howell did say the company "is cooperating and will work closely with the government to resolve the matter."

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., cited the "criminal investigation" of USIS during a June 21 hearing by a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee. Drew Pusateri, a staff spokesman, said McCaskill "stands by her characterization to the subcommittee that we were informed the company is the target of criminal investigation." McCaskill and other senators are pressing for more answers on Snowden's screenings and USIS' performance.

The Washington Post reported that the investigation is focused on whether USIS skipped mandatory internal reviews for at least half its cases between 2008 and 2012 and did not notify the OPM. USIS said it performed nearly 2 million background checks for the government in 2011 alone. The Post also reported, citing anonymous sources, that McFarland's office is considering advising the OPM to sever its massive government contract with USIS.

USIS is one of three top security companies — the others are KeyPoint Government Solutions Inc. and CACI Premier Technology Inc. — working under a five-year contract with the OPM worth a total of $2.4 billion.

The inquiry into USIS' conduct is unusual in its focus on an entire company, but law enforcement authorities repeatedly have zeroed in on individual background check investigators in recent years for falsifying reports. At least seven private contract and 11 government investigators have been convicted since 2005, authorities said. Currently, authorities are probing nearly 50 separate cases of alleged falsification by screeners.

The prosecutions have included a young CIA background investigator sentenced to two months in jail in 2010 for fabrications in 80 different reports, and two USIS screeners convicted separately in January and in April for making false statements in background check reports. One convicted USIS screener, Bryan Marchand, had not conducted the interview or obtained the record in more than four dozen reports he submitted to federal agencies, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Washington.

But even as Congress raises alarms about background check problems, it still pushes for speedier screenings. The OPM said the only realistic response is using more workers from private companies.

"Our contractor workforce permits us to expand and contract operations as the workload and locations dictate," said Merton Miller, OPM's associate director of investigations, during a congressional hearing last month.

A series of spot checks on the OPM's screening system in 2009 and 2010 by McFarland's office hinted at lapses by USIS and other private companies. The inspector general warned the OPM that USIS did not flag misconduct issues to OPM within the required time frame.

When OPM was warned that contractors weren't double-checking that documents were valid, the agency responded by modifying its requirement to eliminate the record-check requirement.

A spokeswoman for OPM, Lindsey S. O'Keefe, said the agency adopted 12 of 14 recommendations for improvements.

Baer, who underwent numerous screenings as a CIA operative and whose wife once worked as a background investigator, said that private contract screeners are often paid low wages and pressured by their bosses to meet crushing deadlines — working conditions that could lead to sloppy investigations and cover-ups. Several former background investigators have sued government contractors in recent years for lost overtime and other wages.

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Online:

GAO report: http://www.gao.gov/assets/590/588947.pdf

Senate hearing: http://tinyurl.com/k7mydq7

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A Free Syrian Army fighter displays homemade bombs made from ornamental balls in the old city of Aleppo July 6, 2013. REUTERS/Muzaffar Salman

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Erika Solomon

ISTANBUL/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's fractious opposition elected a new leader on Saturday but rebel groups were reported to be fighting among themselves in a sign of growing divisions on the ground between factions trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad.

The Syrian National Coalition chose Ahmad Jarba as its president after a close runoff vote that reinforced the influence of Saudi Arabia over a perpetually divided opposition movement that has struggled to convince its Western and Arab allies that its fighters are ready to be given sophisticated foreign weaponry.

Jarba is a tribal figure from the eastern Syrian province of Hasaka who has Saudi connections. He defeated businessman Mustafa Sabbagh, a point man for Qatar, which has seen its influence over the opposition overshadowed by the Saudis.

"A change was needed," Adib Shishakly, a senior official in the coalition, told Reuters after the vote held at an opposition meeting in Istanbul.

"The old leadership of the coalition had failed to offer the Syrian people anything substantial and was preoccupied with internal politics. Ahmad Jarba is willing to work with everybody."

The Muslim Brotherhood, the only organized faction in the Syrian political opposition, has seen its mother organization in Egypt thrown out of power in Cairo this week along with President Mohamed Mursi.

But the Brotherhood representative, Farouq Tayfour, was elected one of two vice-presidents of the Syrian National Coalition in a sign the group still retains influence in Syrian opposition politics.

REBEL INFIGHTING

In northern Syria, rebels clashed with an opposition unit linked to al Qaeda, activists said, in a battle that signals rising tensions between local people and more radical Islamist factions.

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A Free Syrian Army fighter prepares anti-aircraft bullets in the old city of Aleppo July 6, 2013. RE …

Fighting between rebel groups and government forces was reported in Homs and around Damascus in a war whose casualty toll has now topped 100,000.

The rebel infighting comes as forces loyal to Assad have made gains on the battlefield and drawn comfort from the downfall the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a new al Qaeda franchise, has been working to cement power in rebel-held parts of northern Syria in recent months.

ISIS units have begun imposing stricter interpretations of Islamic law and have filmed themselves executing members of rival rebel groups whom they accuse of corruption, and beheading those they say are loyal to Assad.

As hostilities drag on and resources grow scarce, infighting has increased, both among opposition groups and the militias loyal to Assad, leaving civilians trapped in the middle.

The latest internecine clashes were in the town of al-Dana, near the Turkish border, on Friday, local activists said. An opposition group known as the Free Youths of Idlib said dozens of fighters were killed, wounded or imprisoned.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring group, said that the bodies of a commander and his brother, from the local Islam Battalion, were found beheaded. Local activists working for the British-based group said the men's heads were found next to a trash bin in a main square.

The exact reasons for the clashes have been hard to pin down, but many rebel groups have been chafing at ISIS's rise in power. It has taken over the once dominant Nusra Front, a more localized group of al Qaeda-linked fighters that had resisted calls by foreign radicals to expand its scope beyond the Syrian revolt to a more regional Islamist mission.

ISLAMIC LAW

Residents of rebel-held territories in the north once welcomed hardline Islamist groups as better organized and less corrupt. But locals are now growing more wary of them as they impose their austere version of Islamic law.

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Free Syrian Army fighters sit on a sofa placed outdoor in the old city of Aleppo July 6, 2013. REUTE …

Protests against radical Islamist groups are becoming more common. The Observatory said the al-Dana clashes were set off at an anti-ISIS protest when some Islamist militants fired at the demonstration.

But other activists said the clashes were more about local power struggles. ISIS units are believed to be buying up land and property, and they also have tried to control supplies of wheat and oil in rebel areas.

Islamist groups that support al Qaeda posted statements on social media saying that they had not started the clashes and had not tried to impose their will on locals.

In Homs, further south, fierce clashes raged as Assad's forces tried to advance in the city, the epicenter of the armed insurgency.

Activists in Homs described air strikes and artillery attacks as a "blitz" and said it was some of the fiercest fighting they had witnessed.

The United Nations estimates between 2,500 and 4,000 civilians are trapped inside Homs.

Some activists decried the National Coalition meetings as a petty power struggle while the battle in Homs raged and appeared to be swinging in favor of Assad's forces.

"How dare the NC have elections and go about its normal business as Homs gets pummeled? History won't be kind to you," said one activist on Twitter, called Nader.

Fighting also took place in two southern districts of the capital, where activists reported rocket and artillery attacks.

The Observatory said that two rockets hit the military's Airforce Intelligence offices in central Damascus. The Airforce Intelligence has long been one of the most feared branches of Assad's secret services.

Heavy air strikes hammered rebel strongholds in eastern suburbs of Damascus, where rebels say the army is imposing a blockade that is choking off their supply of weapons.

(Writing by Giles Elgood; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Explosive Train Crash in Quebec Evacuated a Whole Town

Fires raged well into Saturday afternoon in Quebec after a train carrying petroleum products derailed and decimated a small town, causing damage to over 30 buildings and forcing residents out of their homes. The Globe and Mail reports over 1,000 people were evacuated after the crash. NBC News reports police have set up a half-mile perimeter around the site where several tankers went off the tracks and crashed in Lac Mégantic, Quebec, around 1 a.m. Saturday morning. The Montreal, Maine & Atlantic freight train travelling to Maine crashed in the small border town, and the ensuing explosions destroyed huge portions of downtown. There are no reported injuries, but some people are still missing as the town goes searching for answers.

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The pictures and videos that surfaced showing the intensity of the blaze are terrifying. The photo above, showing a Jesus statue watching over the town as as the sun was rising over raging flames, circulated widelySaturday morning. The videos showing multiple explosions happening are straight out of a Hollywood effects nightmare (via The New York Times):

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