Sunday,  Dec. 29, 2013 • Vol. 16--No. 166 • 17 of 30

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The most vulnerable retirees struggle to survive even with government help

• It isn't the retirement George Warren dreamed of.
• Confined to a wheelchair and living on disability payments after losing his job, Warren, 63, figures he would be homeless in old age if not for a senior housing program offered by Catholic Charities of Maryland.
• "I had plans, but life had other plans for me," he says.
• Warren worked for decades, starting with a "sophisticated lemonade stand" he opened with friends at age 9. He paid into Social Security as he meandered through a half-dozen jobs in telecommunications and networking. But he lost his last job in what he calls an age-related layoff. And his income on disability isn't enough to cover his expenses.
• So Catholic Charities gave him a place to live at Village Crossroads near Baltimore, which receives funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
• ___

Israeli military returns fire after rocket attack from Lebanon, no injuries reported

• JERUSALEM (AP) -- Rockets from Lebanon struck northern Israel Sunday, causing no injuries but sparking an Israeli reprisal shelling in a rare flare-up between the two countries.
• Residents of the northern Israel town of Kiryat Shmona awoke to a pair of large explosions. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said no injuries or damage were caused from the rocket fire. Shortly after, the Israeli military said it responded with artillery fired toward the source of the launch.
• Lebanon's state news agency said the border area was shelled after the rockets hit Israel. The agency said over 20 shells hit the mountainous region around the southern Lebanese border area of Rachaya.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commended the military for responding "quickly and forcefully" to the rocket attack. He accused the government of Lebanon of "not lifting a finger" to stop the "war crimes" committed in its territory by Hezbollah guerrillas.
• Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said Israel "would not tolerate" such attacks and

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