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to ignore "enemy... propaganda" and assuring that the defense forces were continuing to "neutralize" the terrorist threat.
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• WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Washington Navy Yard shooter lied about a previous arrest and failed to disclose thousands of dollars in debts when he applied for a security clearance in the Navy.
• Then federal investigators dismissed the omissions, and made one of their own -- deleting any reference to Aaron Alexis' use of a gun in that arrest.
• The gaps in his record eventually allowed him to work in the secure Navy building where he gunned down 12 workers last week, underscoring weaknesses with the clearance process that Navy officials are targeting for change.
• Navy Secretary Ray Mabus recommended Monday that all police reports -- not just arrests or convictions -- involving an individual must be included when a background check is done. He also recommended that the Navy enhance its management of sailor evaluations and fitness reports by assigning more senior officers to oversee them.
• The Navy, in a report released Monday, revealed new details about Alexis' Navy service, including his failure to reveal the 2004 arrest over a parking disagreement in Seattle. And officials said the background report given to the Navy omitted the fact that he had shot out the tires of another person's car during that dispute.
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• BEIRUT (AP) -- As Syria's civil war rages into its third year, millions of children in the country are at risk of malnutrition and face severe food shortages, an international aid organization has warned.
• Save the Children said four million Syrians -- more than half of them children -- are unable to produce or buy enough food.
• Thousands are trapped in battle zones in and around Syria's major cities, such as Aleppo in the north and in the central city of Homs, cut off from access to all but the bare minimum foodstuffs needed to survive, the U.S.-based group said in a dramatic report released Monday.

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