The Syrian government is reportedly preparing to use chemical weapons on its own citizens, as President Bashar Assad considers doing whatever is necessary to put an end to the civil war raging in the Middle East country.

U.S. officials shared with NBC News on Wednesday that soldiers have been loading up precursor chemicals for sarin, a deadly nerve gas, into aerial bombs that could be dropped by fighter bombers. Sarin is one of the most lethal weapons used in warfare – back in 1988, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein killed over 5,000 Kurds in a single attack in Halabja.

"Ultimately, what we should be thinking about is a political transition in Syria and one that should start as soon as possible," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Wednesday at a NATO meeting in Brussels. "We believe their fall is inevitable. It is just a question of how many people have to die before that occurs." more >>

WASHINGTON – A panel of experts who were part of a day-long event focused on the Kurdish region of Iraq say that Christians are treated well in the northern part of the Middle Eastern nation.

Sponsored in part by the Interdisciplinary Program in Law & Religion at Catholic University of America, speakers noted how especially compared to other parts of the region, Christians in Iraqi Kurdistan had a high level of religious tolerance.

Robert A. Destro, director of the Interdisciplinary Program at CUA's Columbus School of Law, told The Christian Post on Wednesday that the toleration was relative compared to the rest of the area. more >>

A bishop from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has sent a letter to Congress warning against cutting aid to the Palestinian Territories.

Bishop Richard E. Pates, chairman of the USCCB's Committee on International Justice and Peace, sent the letter on Monday in response to consideration from Congress to cut aid after the U.N. vote.

"The Palestinian Authority and President Abbas' Fatah party have renounced violence and committed themselves, as has Israel, to a two-state solution," wrote Pates. "We ask you to resist efforts to cut off needed humanitarian and development assistance to Palestinians as they build capacity for a future state." more >>

Many Jewish-American groups have expressed concern and disappointment over the United Nation's vote to overwhelmingly approve a statehood bid for the Palestinian Territories.

In response to the United Nations General Assembly's vote on Thursday to grant Palestine an elevated status in the global body, various organizations believed this would hinder peace for the Holy Land. The Washington DC-based Jewish Council for Public Affairs released a statement, calling it the "wrong way to Palestinian statehood."

"We would like to be congratulating and warmly welcoming UN recognition of a Palestinian state; not just as a non-member observer state, but as a full member of the world body," said JCPA President Rabbi Steve Gutow. more >>

"There are no unanswered questions" about the White House response to the Sept. 11 Benghazi attack, spokesperson Jay Carney said Tuesday. To the contrary, there are many questions the White House has not answered. Here are a few:

1. The words "al-Qaeda" and "terrorism" were deleted from the talking points that were used by U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice when she appeared on five separate talk shows the Sunday after the attack. Thus far, five different explanations for those changes have been provided by administration officials. Why were those words deleted?

2. Why did CIA officials first say the FBI changed the talking points then later say they changed the talking points? more >>

The remains of Yasser Arafat, the former Palestinian leader who died in 2004, were exhumed from his grave in the city of Ramallah on Tuesday after rumors spread suggesting that he might have been poisoned.

"The process and the work of the experts began early in the morning, and as far as I know everything went well, and they were able to collect what was needed," said Nour Odeh, a spokeswoman for the Palestinian Authority.

Arafat served as Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization and President of the Palestinian National Authority from 1996 to 2004, when he fell into a coma and died in a French military hospital at the age of 75. His health had deteriorated in Ramallah two weeks earlier, where he remained confined to a compound for more than two years during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. more >>