The exercise, named after Operation Cartwheel - a major military operation for the Allies in the Pacific during World War II - aimed at building "expeditionary readiness and interoperability", according to a press release from the US Embassy in Suva.

Around 270 troops from five nations took part in drills conducted in both jungle and urban environments.

The New Zealand Defence Force's land component commander, Brigadier Hugh McAslan, told NZ media that Exercise Cartwheel provided a platform for participating forces to work together, building readiness for military action and other crises.

"We have an obligation to work alongside these folks… We are part of the Pacific," McAslan was quoted as saying. Read more

Khalid Jabara's killing has caused concern about attitudes in the U.S.

"Here, in the United States, Mr. Jabara and his family became targets of violence and hatred not because of their faith, but because of their Middle Eastern identity and culture," In Defense of Christians executive director Kirsten Evans said Aug. 17.

"Sadly, Middle Eastern Christians caught in the crossfire of the sectarian conflict plaguing the Middle East have also become vulnerable scapegoats for hatred and violence born of political and cultural tensions here in the United States."

On Aug. 12, Jabara called police to report that his neighbor, Stanley Vernon Majors, had a gun in his hand and that he was scared about what might happen, his sister Victoria Jabara Williams said in a statement.

The police said there was nothing they could do because the man had returned to his home.

Soon after police left, Jabara stepped out of his house. Police say his 61-year-old neighbor was waiting for him, according to a CNN and Washington Post report.

Majors fatally shot Jabara, 37. The assailant was arrested and will be charged with first-degree murder.

Jabara's sister said the man's history was well-known.

"This suspect had a history of bigotry against our family. He repeatedly attacked our ethnicity and perceived religion, making racist comments.

"He often called us ‘dirty Arabs,' ‘filthy Lebanese,' ‘Aye-rabs,' and ‘Mooslems'," said Williams.

The man also commented against Mexicans and blacks, she said.

"Our brother's death could have been prevented," she added. "This man was a known danger."

Source

• Crux
• Image: blogbalardi.com

If you want to find traditional American family values—a man and a woman officially married to one of their "own kind," no plans for divorce, an older dad who is the breadwinner, a stay-at-home mom—the best place to look is … in immigrant families.

That's one of several themes running through a new report, "Divergent Paths of American Families," compiled by Zhenchao Qian, a sociologist at The Ohio State University. Qian began work on the US2010 research project looking to see if a "quieting" of change in family dynamics, first noticed in 1990s, had continued into the new century and through the turmoil of the Great Recession.

Depending on where you looked, family life in the U.S. had stabilized. And depending on where you looked, change was accelerating. The typical family had become, well, atypical.

"The state of American families has become increasingly polarized," a release on the study quoted Qian. "Race and ethnicity, education, economics, and immigration status are increasingly linked to how well families fare."

One of the most salient divergences lay between immigrants and the native-born, and what quieting could be found could often be attributed to immigrants. By 2010, the end point of Qian's decade-long study period, immigrants made up 13 percent of the U.S. population. Those immigrants brought the customs of their various homelands with them, weird practices like getting married regardless of their income and staying married through thick and thin. (It's true in Britain, too.)

Here are some other ways in which immigrants differ:

• At every age, they married at a higher level than U.S. natives, regardless of ethnic similarity. Asian immigrants, for example, were twice as like to ever marry as U.S.-born Asians.

• Immigrant women marry at a much younger age than do immigrant men. Hence, among those in the mid to late 20s, 62 percent of women were married but only 43 percent of men.

• Immigrant man and wife were more likely to be ethnically or racially the same compared to the U.S. average. Continue reading

Sources

• Pacific Standard
• Image: Hispanic Ministries

The objective of the survey was to determine as accurately as possible the views of U.S. Catholic priests about the new translation of the English Missal which was introduced on the First Sunday of Advent (November 26-27), 2011.

All 178 Roman Catholic Latin rite dioceses in the U.S. were invited to take part in this study.

The 32 participating dioceses are from all parts of the country and 12 of 14 Latin rite ecclesiastical regions of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In the period February 21 - May 6, 2013, priests in participating dioceses were invited to participate in the online survey via an email to all priests on the diocesan distribution list.

A total of 1,536 priests responded, with a response rate of 42.5%. Continue reading

Sources

• St John's School of Theology
• Image: CathNews NZ Pacific