Rockets hit Israel as Obama to meet Palestinians

President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks during a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Wednesday, March 20, 2013, at the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

JERUSALEM (AP) — On the second day of a Mideast tour, U.S. President Barack Obama is set to emphasize the importance of reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, a message underscored Thursday when Palestinian militants in Gaza launched rockets intosouthern Israel.

After a visit to Israel's national museum — where he was inspecting the Dead Sea Scrolls, which highlight the Jewish people's ancient connection to the land that is now Israel — Obama will head to the West Bank to tell the Palestinians that the creation of a Palestinian state remains a priority.

He is not bringing a new plan to relaunch peace talks, but in meetings with the Palestinians and a speech to Israeli students later in the day, he will appeal to both sides to halt unilateral actions that make negotiations more difficult.

Those troublesome actions include continued construction of Jewish housing settlements on land claimed by the Palestinians and repeated Palestinian efforts to achieve recognition at the United Nations in the absence of a peace agreement.

On Wednesday, Obama reaffirmed the unwavering U.S. commitment to Israel's security and noted there had been no fatal attacks on Israelis from the West Bank, which is controlled by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

That calm has not extended to Gaza, which is run by the militant Islamic Hamas movement. As Obama began his program Thursday, Israeli police said militants in Gaza had fired two rockets at the southern town of Sderot.

One of the rockets exploded in the courtyard of a house in Sderot early in the morning, causing damage but no injuries, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. The other landed in an open field. Sirens wailed in Sderot shortly after the 7 a.m. rocket attack, forcing residents on their way to work or school to run to bomb shelters.

As a presidential candidate in 2008, Obama visited the border town, which is frequently targeted by rocket attacks from the nearby Gaza Strip. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Over the past decade, Gaza militants have fired thousands of rockets and mortar shells at Israel, prompting Israel, with considerable U.S. assistance, to develop its Iron Dome missile defense system, which it credits with intercepting hundreds of rockets.

Immediately after his arrival in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured an Iron Dome battery at Ben Gurion International Airport in a vivid display of U.S. security assistance to Israel.

Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007 after ousting the rival Palestinian Fatah group in bloody street fighting. Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, led by Abbas, now govern only part of the West Bank.

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Ian Deitch contributed to this report.

Changed minds & demographics in gay marriage shift

FILE - In this Aug. 29, 2012, file photo, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, waves to the delegates during the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. Portman said Thursday, March 14, 2013 that he now supports gay marriage and says his reversal on the issue began when he learned one of his sons is gay. Knowing someone who is gay or just getting older and thinking about the issue are two big reasons the country is viewing same-sex marriage more favorably, according to a national survey. The Pew Research Center poll helps explain why Americans seem to be changing their minds on the issue and follows the recent public embrace of gay marriage by Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Portman. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's views on gay marriage are more favorable in large part because of a shift in attitudes among those who know someone who is gay or became more accepting as they got older of gays and lesbians, according to a national survey.

The Pew Research Center poll also finds that a large group of younger adults who tend to be more open to gay rights is driving the numbers upward. The issue has grabbed the national spotlight recently with the public embrace of same-sex marriage by Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Sen. Rob Portmanof Ohio.

"We've certainly seen the trend over the last ten years," Michael Dimock, director of the center, said Wednesday. "But we're now really in a position to talk about the combination of generational change and personal change that have sort of brought the country to where it is today."

Overall, the poll finds 49 percent of Americans favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally, and 44 percent opposed to the idea. That's more people now favoring gay marriage than opposing it. A decade ago 58 percent opposed it and a third supported it.

The 49 percent who now support same-sex marriage includes 14 percent who said they have changed their minds.

When asked why, almost one-third say it's because they know someone who is gay — a family member, friend or acquaintance. A quarter said their personal views have changed as they thought more about the issue or just because they've grown older and more accepting.

One of those polled said: "My best friend from high school is a gay man, and he deserves the same rights," adding that his friend and a partner "are in a committed relationship."

Another person attributed the shift in attitude to "old fashioned ignorance," and said "I grew up a little bit."

Just 2 percent overall said their views have shifted against gay marriage.

Another major factor in the long-term shift in the public's view: the so-called millennial generation of young adults born since 1980_today's 18- to 32-year-olds who entered adulthood in the new millennium. The survey finds 70 percent of millennials favor same-sex marriage.

Gay marriage has long been an issue of partisan political debate, but it resurfaced recently with Clinton and Portman declaring their support, and as the Supreme Court prepares to take up the issue.

On Monday, Clinton announced her support for gay marriage — lining up with other potential Democratic presidential candidates who favor it.

In an online video released by the gay rights advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, Clinton says that gays and lesbians are "full and equal citizens and deserve the rights of citizenship."

And last week, Portman reversed course and said he now supports gay marriage. He said he had a change of heart after he learned one of his sons is gay. "I have come to believe that if two people are prepared to make a lifetime commitment to love and care for each other in good times and in bad, the government shouldn't deny them the opportunity to get married," he wrote in an op-ed in The Columbus Dispatch. His reversal makes him the only Republican in the Senate to back gay marriage.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments next week in a challenge to a provision of the Defense of Marriage Act — the federal law that defines marriage as between one man and one woman. It's also reviewing California's Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage.

The Pew Research findings are based on a survey of 1,501 adults nationwide conducted Mar. 13-Mar. 17. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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The report can be found at: http://www.pewresearch.org .

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Associated Press Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta and News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

Westboro Baptist Church Gets a Taste of Its Own Medicine

The most hateful church in America has some colorful new neighbors. This week, members of the Florida-based nonprofit Planting Peace unveiled a project months in the making: Equality House, an activism center located directly across from the Westboro Baptist Church outside Topeka, Kansas.

From now on, the group known for picketing the funerals of everyone from military members killed in action to Mr. Rogers, in protest of America’s tolerance of homosexuality, will wake up every morning and stare at an LGBT rainbow—after Equality House members painted the building to match the gay pride flag.

Project Peace director of operations Davis Hammet spoke to TakePart from inside Equality House. He tells us the idea for the project originated months ago, after Planting Peace members heard about the protest of Josef Miles—a 10-year-old who took it upon himself to hold a sign in front of Westboro that read “God Hates No One.”

If 10-year-old Miles had the courage to hold a counter-protest—why couldn’t Planting Peace?

“We walked around Westboro’s neighborhood on Google street view and thought: ‘It would be awesome to get a house right there and paint it rainbow,’ ” says Hammet.

As it turned out, the house directly across the street from the church was for sale. After months of negotiations, Project Peace purchased the property for just over $80,000.

“Shortly after I moved in, someone from Westboro almost backed over me in her car. It was an accident, and she apologized. But it was bizarre—this hate-filled person smiling and waving at me.”

Hammet says he has been living in the house for several weeks preparing for its grand unveiling. The group was scheduled to start painting the building last month, but was forced to delay after a brutal Kansas snowstorm.

Project Peace used the extra time to make friends in the local LGBT community.

Hammet says during that time, he only had a few run-ins with Westboro members.

“Before we launched, we tried to keep quiet. Shortly after I moved in, someone from Wetsboro almost backed over me in her car. It was an accident, and she apologized. But it was bizarre—this hate-filled person smiling and waving at me.”

Since the unveiling, Hammet says Westboro has been similarly cordial.

“[Westboro spokesperson] Shirley Phelps-Roper walked by and was taking some pictures yesterday,” he says. “She mentioned she really like the colors. Then she laughed and went back in the church. It seemed like she had a sense of humor about the whole thing. I’m sure in her eyes she just thinks we’re all going to hell.”

Hammet says his group hopes to use the publicity from Equality House to help launch an anti-bullying campaign among other initiatives.

“This is hopefully just the start,” he says. “We want this to be used to spark conversation about equality in every home. We believe the fastest way toward equality is by speaking out.”

For now, Equality House will likely be used as an activist training center. Despite its new exterior decorations, the facility remains rather modest. After weeks of sleeping on the floor, Hammet says he finally has a bed and a desk to work from:

“It’s pretty basic. But it could be barren and still be warm, because this place is full of love.”

To help Equality House’s efforts, click here.

Should the U.S. Constitution’s free speech protections apply to even the Westboro Baptist Church? Freely argue why or why not in COMMENTS.

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South Korea: Chinese address source of attack

Seoul: Initial investigation leads to Chinese address as source of South Korea cyberattack

Associated Press -

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Investigators have traced a coordinated cyberattack that paralyzed tens of thousands of computers at six South Korean banks and media companies to a Chinese Internet Protocol address, authorities in Seoul said Thursday.

IP addresses, which are unique to each computer connected to the Internet, can easily be manipulated by hackers operating anywhere in the world, and the investigation into who was actually behind Wednesday's attack and whether they were in China could take weeks. Suspicion for the simultaneous shutdown is still focused on North Korea, which has threatened Seoul and Washington in recent days over U.N. sanctions imposed for its Feb. 12 nuclear test and is accused of waging similar cyberattacks over the past four years.

The cyberattack did not affect the government or military, and there were no immediate reports that customers' bank records were compromised. But it disabled scores of cash machines across the country, disrupting commerce in this tech-savvy, Internet-dependent country, and renewed questions about South Korea's Internet security and vulnerability to hackers.

If the attack was in fact carried out by North Korea, the purpose would seem to be to send a tacit message — and a warning — to South Korea that Pyongyang is capable of breaching its computer networks.

On Thursday, only one of the six targets, Shinhan Bank, was back online and operating regularly.

South Korean investigators say there is no proof yet that North Korea was behind the attack. However, the outage took place as Pyongyang warned Seoul against holding joint military drills with the U.S. that it considers rehearsals for an invasion.

North Korea also has threatened retaliation for sanctions imposed for the nuclear test, as well as its launch of long-range rocket in December. Pyongyang blames Seoul and Washington for leading the push to punish the North.

The Korean Peninsula has remained in a technical state of war, divided by a heavily militarized border, since the foes signed a truce in 1953. Over the past decade, the two Koreas have engaged in deadly naval skirmishes in waters that both countries claim. And increasingly, their warfare has extended into cyberspace.

Seoul's National Intelligence Services believes Pyongyang was behind six cyberattacks between 2009 and 2012.

Pyongyang, meanwhile, blamed Seoul and Washington for an Internet shutdown that disrupted its network last week.

"If it plays out that this was a state-sponsored attack, that's pretty bald-faced and definitely an escalation in the tensions between the two countries," said James Barnett, former chief of public safety and homeland security for the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

An ominous question is which other businesses, in South Korea or elsewhere, may also be in the sights of the attacker, said Barnett, who heads the cybersecurity practice at Washington law firm Venable.

"This needs to be a wake-up call," he said. "This can happen anywhere."

Wednesday's attack in South Korea, which disabled some 32,000 computers at broadcasters YTN, MBC and KBS, as well as three banks, appeared to come from "a single organization," regulators said. The initial findings were based on results from an investigation into one target, Nonghyup Bank, and the investigation is continuing into the shutdown at the five other firms.

A malicious code that spread through the Nonghyup server was traced to an IP address in China, said Cho Kyeong-sik, a spokesman for the state-run Korea Communications Commission.

The attack may also have extended to the United States. The website of the U.S.-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea also was hacked, with reports on satellite imagery of North Korean prison camps and policy recommendations to the U.S. government deleted from the site, according to executive director Greg Scarlatoiu.

However, experts say signs do not point to Chinese hackers since Chinese hacking, either from Beijing's cyber-warfare command or freelance hackers, tends to be aimed at collecting intelligence and intellectual property — not simply at disrupting commerce.

China also is home to a sizable North Korean community, both North Koreans working in the neighboring nation and Chinese citizens of ethnic ancestry who consider North Korea their motherland.

In 2011, computer security software maker McAfee Inc. said North Korea or its sympathizers likely were responsible for a cyberattack against South Korean government and banking websites that year. The analysis also said North Korea appeared to be linked to a massive computer-based attack in 2009 that brought down U.S. government Internet sites. Pyongyang denied involvement.

Previous hacking attacks on commercial ventures have compromised the personal data of millions of customers. Past malware attacks also disabled access to government websites and destroyed files on personal computers.

Last year, North Korea threatened to attack several South Korean news outlets, including KBC and MBC, for reports critical of Pyongyang's activities.

In recent days, North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea — a government agency that often targets South Koreans in its push to draw attention to reunification — warned Seoul's "reptile media" that the North was prepared to conduct a "sophisticated strike" if its negative coverage continued.

"North Korea has almost certainly done similar attacks before," said Timothy Junio, a cybersecurity fellow at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation. "Part of why this wasn't more consequential is probably because South Korea took the first major incident seriously and deployed a bunch of organizational and technical innovations to reduce response time during future North Korea attacks."

South Korea also created a National Cybersecurity Center and Cyber Command modeled after the U.S. Cyber Command. Junio said South Korea's anti-virus firms also play a large role in stopping hacking attacks.

Immediately after Wednesday's attack, South Korean regulators distributed anti-virus software to government offices, banks, hospitals and other institutions. It could be days before the targeted companies are back online, and weeks before the investigation is complete.

"Hackers attack media companies usually because of a political desire to cause confusion in society," said Lim Jong-in, dean of Korea University's Graduate School of Information Security. "Political attacks on South Korea come from North Koreans."

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Syria regime, rebels want probe of chemical attack

Map locates Khan al-Assal, Syria, where the government and rebels accused each other of attacking with chemical weapons

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria's government and rebels on Wednesday both demanded an international investigation into an alleged chemical weapons attack, as the country's feared arsenal became the latest propaganda tool in the 2-year-old civil war.

President Barack Obama said the United States is investigating whether chemical weapons have been deployed in Syria, but noted that he is "deeply skeptical" of claims by President Bashar Assad's regime that rebel forces were behind such an attack.

"Once we establish the facts, I have made clear that the use of chemical weapons is a game changer," Obama said in a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

The use of chemical weapons by either side is a nightmare scenario. Along with its warnings about Assad, the West is just as concerned that rebel forces, including some linked to al-Qaida, could get their hands on Syria's chemical weapons supplies.

Despite the importance, any clear confirmation of the nature of the attack that took place Tuesday in the northern village of Khan al-Assal, killing at least 31 people, is unlikely. Syria's government seals off areas it controls to journalists and outside observers.

The two sides blamed each other for a chemical attack without offering clear proof or documentation, as has frequently been the case in the Syrian civil war.

If confirmed, it would be the first time a chemical weapon has been used in Syria's war that has already killed an estimated 70,000 people.

Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Jaafari told reporters at the United Nations Wednesday that he had asked U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to form "a specialized, independent and neutral technical mission to investigate the use by the terrorist groups operating in Syria of chemical weapons" in Khan al-Assal.

Jaafari called the attack "very serious and alarming and unacceptable and unethical."

U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said he would have something to say "once we receive any formal request, which we have so far not received." He said the secretary-general remains convinced that the use of chemical weapons by any party under any circumstances would constitute "an outrageous crime."

Syria's main opposition group also demanded an international investigation.

"All evidence now indicates that the Assad regime is using these weapons against its own people," the main Western-backed opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, said.

"The Coalition demands a full international investigation, and asks for a delegation to be sent to inquire and visit the site," the group said in a statement.

Obama has declared the use, deployment or transfer of the weapons to be his "red line" for possible military intervention in the Arab country.

"When you start seeing weapons that can cause potential devastation and mass casualties and you let that genie out of the bottle, then you are looking at potentially even more horrific scenes than we've already seen in Syria," Obama said in Jerusalem, "and the international community has to act on that information."

Russia and Iran, Assad's main allies, backed his regime's charges.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast blamed "armed opposition groups," calling use of chemical weapons "an inhuman act."

"Undoubtedly, the responsibilities of a repetition of such crimes would fall on those committing it and the countries that support them," he was quoted by state TV as saying, apparently referring to Gulf states such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia

"There's definitely a propaganda war between the regime and opposition," said Ayham Kamel, a Middle East analyst at the Eurasia Group in London.

"Because we cannot verify either claims, we are going to be stuck in the same cycle of accusations, unless some international mission is actually sent there to verify what happened," he said.

Jordan's king warned Wednesday that an extremist Islamic state could form on his border.

King Abdullah II told The Associated Press in an interview that in his view, Assad was beyond rehabilitation, and it was only a matter of time before his authoritarian regime collapses.

"The most worrying factors in the Syrian conflict are the issues of chemical weapons, the steady flow or sudden surge in refugees and a jihadist state emerging out of the conflict," the king said.

The opposition's disunity was on display again Wednesday.

About a dozen members of the Syrian National Coalition suspended their membership a day after it elected the first rebel prime minister.

Among them were senior members including Suheir Atassi, Kamal Labwani, and spokesman Waleed al-Bunni.

Atassi said explained why she suspended her membership. "I refuse to be a follower and I refuse to be simply a woman who decorates their gatherings and conferences while they make all the decisions," she wrote on her Facebook page.

Coalition members have complained of the dominance of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood in the SNC, and Hitto was one of the top Brotherhood candidates.

In fighting Wednesday, activists reported intense clashes in the Quneitra region on the cease-fire line between Syria and Israel in the Golan Heights.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels seized control of parts of villages a few kilometers (miles) from the cease-fire line after fierce fighting with regime forces.

It said seven people, including three children, were killed by government shelling villages.

Activists on Facebook pages affiliated with rebels in Quneitra announced the start of the operation to "break the siege on Quneitra and Damascus' western suburbs."

The fall of Quneitra in rebel hands would be significant because it is close to the Israeli frontier.

Israel has said its policy is not to get involved in the Syrian civil war, but it has retaliated to sporadic Syrian fire that has spilled over into Israeli communities in the Golan Heights.

Also Wednesday, Assad made a rare public appearance, visiting a fine arts school in Damascus and meeting the parents of students who were killed in the civil war, state TV reported.

Photos run by the Syrian state media showed Assad shaking hands and listening closely to people who were said to be parents of war victims. It was his first appearance outside his palace since January, when he delivered a speech.

"All of Syria is wounded, and there is no one who hasn't lost a relative, a brother, a father or a mother," Assad said, according to the official news agency SANA.

"However, all that is happening cannot make us weak, and the battle is a battle of will and steadfastness," he added.

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Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue and Ben Hubbard in Beirut, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Donna Cassata in Washington and Jamal Halaby in Amman contributed.