Homeless children in Manila are being rounded up by Philippines' police in an attempt to clean the city up for the Pope's visit, Daily Mail reports.

Children as young as 5 are being arrested and detained in subhuman living conditions. They are often held for months before being let go onto the streets. Unfortunately, the government has not provided any support for these children, and they often end up back in the temporary prisons.

Children are locked up alongside convicted criminals, and guards often are apathetic or look the other way while children are physically and sexually abused by inmates. The captured children sleep on and eat off of concrete floors, often using buckets as toilets. In some instances, children were chained to poles in these cellars.

Father Shay Cullen, who was nominated for a Nobel Prize, runs a missionary about 100 miles from Manila and recently traveled through these temporary prisons to help children and adopt some to the missionary. One boy, Mak-Mak, had scabies and had been abused by adult inmates during his times in the prison. He was apparently abandoned by his parents and was picked up on the street by Manila police while cleaning up for the Pope. Cullen brought Mak-Mak to his missionary to rehabilitate him.

An inmate in a temporary cell said: "Lots of children have been brought here lately. We're told they're being picked up from under the road bridges where the Pope will travel."

The day after a New Mexico prosecutor charged two police officers in the shooting death of a mentally ill homeless man last year, Albuquerque officials refused to allow representatives from the District Attorney's office to participate in the investigation of a new officer-involved shooting that occurred on Tuesday.

According to KRQE, Chief Deputy District Attorney Sylvia Martinez was barred from a briefing about a shooting that occurred Tuesday evening because, she was told, the District Attorney's office "has a conflict of interest because we charged the officers" who shot the homeless man last year.

The District Attorney's office typically plays a vital role in investigating police-involved shootings - issuing warrants, providing legal counsel for the officers involved, and determining whether a shooting was justified - but when DA Martinez attempted to enter the briefing about Tuesday's shooting, City Attorney Kathryn Levy told her that the officers "wouldn't be needing any legal advice or help" and that she "could go home."

"I have never seen anything like this ever," District Attorney Kari Brandenburg told KRQE. "Clearly, this could compromise the integrity of the investigation of this shooting."

In 2004, the District Attorney's office signed an agreement with the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) that allowed it to oversee the APD's investigation of officer-involved shootings. Last year, Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry signed a settlement with the United State Department of Justice (DOJ) that implemented measures to combat the widespread use of excessive force by APD officers.

According to DA Brandenburg, the APD's decision to exclude the District Attorney's office from investigating Tuesday's shooting violates both those agreements.

"It is my opinion that they violated [the agreement with the DA's office]," she said, adding "that means they also violated their agreement with the DOJ."

The FBI today arrested an Ohio man for allegedly plotting an ISIS-inspired attack on the U.S. Capitol, where he hoped to set off a series of bombs aimed at lawmakers, whom he allegedly considered enemies.

Christopher Lee Cornell, 20, of Green Township, was arrested on charges of attempting to kill a U.S. government official, authorities said.

According to government documents, he allegedly planned to detonate pipe bombs at the national landmark and open fire on any employees and officials fleeing after the explosions.

Tanzania has banned witchdoctors in an attempt to combat a rise in the killing of people with albinism for their body parts, officials said on Wednesday.

At least 74 people with albinism have reportedly been murdered in the east African country since 2000. After a surge in 2009, the government placed children with albinism in special homes to protect them.

Witchdoctors believe their body parts bring good fortune and wealth. Isaac Nantanga, an interior ministry spokesman, told Agence France-Presse: "These so-called witches bear responsibility for the attacks against albinos."

The government and the Tanzania Albinism Society have agreed to form a taskforce to conduct special operations against the kidnaps, abductions and murders. But the society warned that a ban on witchcraft alone does not go far enough. Ziziyada Nsembo, its secretary-general, said on Wednesday: "It's just a starting point. The government should understand it is an endless story from 2006 until this time. No action has been taken to stop the killings."

Witchdoctors may not be the ultimate source of the problem, she added. "We haven't seen where these hands, legs and skin are taken. This is the big question. If the witchdoctors will tell us that they are taken to somebody, and what purpose they are used for, we will be in a better position. Through the witchdoctors we can reach the real culprits. That is our one demand: for the government to find these people."

A hereditary genetic condition that causes an absence of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes, albinism affects one Tanzanian in 1,400, according to experts. It affects just one person in 20,000 in the west.

Body parts sell for around $600 in Tanzania, with an entire corpse fetching $75,000. A US survey in 2010 found that while most people in Tanzania are Christian or Muslim, 93% said they believed in witchcraft. Despite the scourge, only 10 people have been convicted of murder.

Last month over 50 alumni of the Israel Arts and Science Academy called on students at the prestige school to refuse to serve in the Israeli armed forces. The story has gotten wide coverage but very little in the U.S. till now. Here are some developments.

First, Moriel Rothman-Zecker was published on the New York Times op-ed page - "Why I Won't Serve Israel" - where he points out that the ethos of service in Israel is being undermined on many sides, not just by the IASA letter. A tiny fraction of the 1.7 million Palestinians inside Israel serve in the army; hundreds of thousands of religious Jews don't serve; and thousands of Jews are in a "gray area" of getting out of service. He sees this community as contending with Israel's power structure:

In a recent interview, the Israeli author Amos Oz urged politicians to act as "traitors," and make peace. But the type of traitors Mr. Oz wishes for - visionary ministers, peace-minded military men - are nonexistent. The most left-wing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's potential challengers in Israel's coming election is the same Mr. Herzog who attacked the 8200 refusers.

Peace won't come from the next Knesset, or the one after that. But some hope for a less violent, more decent future lies with the real traitors, the disregarded millions of Israeli citizens who have refused to serve in the army.

Of course, Rothman-Zecker also describes the monolithic social pressure to serve: "Refusal to serve is portrayed by politicians and pundits - many of whom began their careers through service in elite units - as treacherous and marginal."

On that note, here is Ronnie Barkan, one of the signers of the IASA alumni letter, going on Israel television and speaking of massacres in Gaza and keeping his cool during an onslaught of hostile questions. Barkan shows real bravery as the hosts blow up at him for saying that Israel is not a democracy. Those hosts are Orly and Guy on Channel 10, who I am told are on the left side of the Israeli mainstream spectrum.

"Your call for refusal is illegal. Your call harms the state... I will not accept harming the state," Miriam Peretz, who lost two sons in Israeli actions, catechizes Barkan.

Albuquerque Police Department's five months without a shooting has come to an end as an Albuquerque police officer remains in critical condition after being shot by a fellow officer on Friday.

The unnamed officer was shot while undercover during a drug operation to bust two men for $60 worth of meth. Another officer sustained minor injuries, but information on how has not been released.

A father and son say they were turned away from a "Muslim-free" Arkansas shooting range because they are brown-skinned.

The duo, who are not Muslim but are South Asian, said they were questioned about their religion and background while filling out paperwork at the Gun Cave in Hot Springs, reported the Arkansas Times.

The men told a woman at the counter they were from Hot Springs, and she informed them the business was "a Muslim-free shooting range," and if they didn't like that rule they should leave.

The younger man told the newspaper that they were not Muslim, but his father asked about the ban and they discussed the rule.

"Then, all of a sudden, I don't know what went wrong, but she stopped us from filling out the paperwork and said, 'I don't think you guys should be here,'" the younger man said. "She told us to leave or she'd call the cops on us."

More than 50 anti-Muslim incidents have happened across France - including shootings - in less than a week since the deadly attack on satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, according to the nation's Muslim community, which is calling for heightened security.

Among the 54 anti-Muslim incidents, there have been 21 reports of shootings and grenade throwing at Islamic buildings, as well as 33 cases of threats and insults, said Abdallah Zekri, president of the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF). CCIF is a monitoring body within the Central Council of Muslims.

The figures were provided by the Interior Ministry, Zekri said, and do not include Paris, its suburbs, or the Poitiers mosque fire on Sunday.

A mother has revealed the shocking and depraved abuse she was subjected to by her husband when she was fast asleep.

Sarah Tetley said she only discovered the extent of what her husband Charlie was doing when he was arrested and she watched the sick videos police discovered on his computer.

It wasn't until November 2013, two years after the abuse began, when Sarah, 26, started to suspect something was horribly wrong and raised the alarm.

"I woke up in the morning in that sort of drowsy just waking up stage and realised that he was molesting me in my sleep," she told ITV's This Morning.

A man who responded to an online ad for a 30-minute massage forced a woman to have sex with him after he lied and told her he was a police officer, NYPD said.

It happened Oct. 26, 2014, at the Linden Motor Inn at 714 South Conduit Blvd. Police released surveillance video in the case Wednesday as they asked for help finding the attacker.

The man was at the motel responding to a Craigslist ad for a half-hour massage, police said. When his massage was finished, the man identified himself as a police officer to the 25-year-old victim and ordered her to have sex with him against her will.

He displayed a gold and blue "FDA" badge, police said.

After sexually assaulting her, the man stole the woman's cellphone and an undetermined amount of money before fleeing the scene in a black C-class Mercedez Benz.

The perpetrator is described as a black male last seen wearing a black t-shirt with yellow lettering, light blue ripped jeans and black sneakers.

Anyone who recognizes him is urged to call NYPD's anonymous Crime Stoppers tipline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).