While former IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, has agreed to testify before Congress next week, the senior manager who oversaw the division that targeted tea party groups has yet to commit to do so.

Lois G. Lerner, who managed the IRS exempt organizations unit that approved applications for nonprofit status, is in Montreal, according to her attorney, a congressional source said, and has not yet said if she will come to Washington for testimony next week. Lerner has hired William W. Taylor III, the lawyer who represented Dominique Strauss Kahn, the former International Monetary Fund head accused of sexual assault by a New York hotel housekeeper, the source said.

Shulman, who told a congressional committee in March 2012 that the IRS had conducted “absolutely no targeting” of conservative tea party groups, will appear before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee next Wednesday. Lerner’s presence has been requested. Others who have agreed to appear include J. Russell George, the treasury inspector general for tax administration, and Neal S. Wolin, deputy treasury secretary. . .

The U.S. military has updated plans to “capture or kill” alleged perpetrators of the deadly terror attack on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, CNN has learned.

The development comes amid growing pressure on the White House to show progress in the effort to catch those who killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans last September 11.

Officials emphasize that military planning has been underway since the immediate aftermath of the armed assault.

One part of the plan calls for potentially putting U.S. military personnel on the ground inside Libya, if ordered by President Barack Obama.

Two U.S. officials confirmed the details to CNN, but declined to be named because of the sensitive nature of the information.

The plan was updated and discussed at the highest levels of the military as recently as last week. . .

[GP] It’s raining during the presser with Prime Minister Erdoğan of Turkey. Rather than move the presser inside, they called in the U.S. Marines — literally:

Shortly after midnight Tuesday, seven people were caught trespassing at the Quabbin Reservoir.

State Police say the five men and two women are from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore, and “cited their education and career interests” for being in the area. The men told police they were chemical engineers and recent college graduates.

The Quabbin, in Belchertown, is one of the country’s largest man-made public water supplies. Boston’s drinking water comes from the Quabbin and the Wachusett Reservoirs.

State Police say there were no warrants or advisories on any of the individuals and “there was no evidence that the seven were committing any crime beyond the trespassing.”. . .

Gruesome video footage purportedly showing a Syrian rebel commander mutilating the corpse of a dead soldier while shouting sectarian insults has drawn condemnation from Human Rights Watch and focused renewed attention on battlefield atrocities in Syria.

A statement by the New York-based rights group cites a video circulating widely on the Internet that appears to show the insurgent leader using a knife to cut the heart and liver from the corpse and then putting the heart in his mouth.

Two Democratic U.S. senators condemned the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups for stricter review as “un-American” and “absolutely unacceptable.”

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill added that high-ranking IRS officials should be fired if they knew what was happening.

Late last week, the Internal Revenue Service acknowledged tougher scrutiny of conservative groups applying for nonprofit status. IRS official Lois Lerner told reporters last Friday that dozens upon dozens of groups were singled out because they had “tea party” or “patriot” in their names. Further reports indicate the practice went back to 2011.

After a ceremony honoring federal law enforcement officials at the Eagleton Federal Court House, both McCaskill, D-Mo., and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, issued strong condemnations of the agency’s actions. Durbin told reporters, “It is absolutely unacceptable to single out any political group — right, left or center — and say we’re going to target them.

“That is unthinkable,” Durbin said. . .

President Obama delivered a defiant defense Monday of his administration’s response to the Benghazi terror attack, calling the revived controversy over the matter a “sideshow.” 

The president addressed the issue during a press conference alongside British Prime Minister David Cameron, who is visiting Washington. Obama denied any suggestion that there was a cover-up, questioning recent reports that showed a State Department official trying to water down the administration’s initial story-line on what happened the night of Sept. 11. 

“There’s no there there,” Obama said. The president, further, reiterated prior arguments that he called the attack terrorism from the start, dismissing claims that the administration intentionally downplayed that element. . .

A local paramedic who responded to the massive fertilizer plant fire last month in West, Texas, has been arrested for allegedly possessing a destructive device.

[GP]: Anyone else getting these emails? It looks like @BarackObama — not the president, but the shadowy 501(c)(4) — is allowing its email list to be used by his “grassroots” supporters to fundraise for their own pet projects. In this case, I’m being asked to donate for “children sick of canser” [sic].

However, fundraising isn’t going so well. . .

And this is at least the second email I’ve gotten from this Obamaton. 

Personally, I hope team @BarackObama continues doing this because the more OFA dilutes the president’s brand, the better it is for conservatives.

Exit question: Why are Obama supporters — who make up the vast number in the OFA database — refusing to help children with “canser?” I guess they’re waiting for Obamacare to pick up the slack.

As Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell awaits the jury verdict in his capital murder trial, Gallup finds 26% of Americans saying abortion should be legal under any circumstances and 20% saying it should be illegal in all circumstances. The majority, 52%, opt for something in between, as has been the case in nearly every Gallup measure of this question since 1975. . .

A Tunisian the FBI says “radicalized” VIA Rail terror suspect Chiheb Esseghaier has been charged with terrorism-related offences in New York following an undercover investigation.

Ahmed Abassi, a former resident of Canada, was arrested in New York on April 22 at the same time the RCMP picked up Mr. Esseghaier and his co-accused Raed Jaser but the case had remained sealed until Thursday.

He was to appear in court at 3 p.m. to face two counts alleging he had fraudulently applied for a U.S. work visa to facilitate an act of international terrorism. The RCMP was involved in the probe, the U.S. Justice Department said. . .

Sorry, folks. Your ride back to Jurassic Park won’t be leaving for a little while.

Universal Pictures announced Wednesday that plans for Jurassic Park 4 have been put on hold for the moment and there will be a delay before fans witness rampaging dinosaurs on a big screen again. The latest chapter, to be directed by Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed), had been scheduled for release June 13, 2014.

The studio said in a statement that giving filmmakers more time for development will “bring audiences the best possible version.” . . .

A 28-year-old woman miraculously survived after her husband accidentally shot her in the mouth with a harpoon, Brazilian officials said Wednesday.

The Rio de Janeiro State Health Department said in a statement that the woman’s husband was cleaning his spear gun when it went off, firing a harpoon that hit her cervical spine.

Elisangela Borborema Rosa was rushed to the hospital and underwent emergency surgery after Monday’s incident in the coastal city of Arraial do Cabo.

The statement quotes neurosurgeon Allan da Costa as saying that the harpoon came within 1 centimeter (less than half an inch) of killing the woman. He said he expects a full recovery. . .

[GP]: Here’s an excerpt from the video below, via “Raw Story”:

On Tuesday, CNN host Anderson Cooper asked Ramsey what it felt like to find out that he had been living next to kidnapping victims.

“See, that’s why now I’m having trouble sleeping,” he explained. “See, up until yesterday, the only thing that kept me from losing sleep was the lack of money. See what I’m saying? So now that that’s going on, and I could have done this last year, not this hero stuff, just do the right thing.”

“Because there’s a lot of people, they’re saying you’re a hero,” the CNN host noted.

“No, no, no. Bro, I’m a Christian, an American, and just like you,” Ramsey insisted. “We bleed same blood, put our pants on the same way. It’s just that you got to put that – being a coward, and I don’t want to get in nobody’s business. You got to put that away for a minute. You have to have cajones, bro.”

Cooper noted that the FBI had offered a reward for at least two of the victims.

“I tell you what you do, give it to them,” Ramsey said. “Because if folks been following this case since last night, you been following me since last night, you know I got a job anyway.”

“Just went picked it up, paycheck,” he added, producing an envelope from his pocket. “What that address say?”

“Where are them girls living? Right next door to this paycheck. So yes, take that reward and give it to — that little girl came out the house and she was crying.”

Video:

Fire crews are reacting after three drowning calls already this year; they are sharing PSAs and calling on adults to keep their eyes on the kids at all times when around swimming pools.    

So far crews have responded to three potential drowning calls, two in city limits and one on the northwest side that turned deadly.

Tucson Fire and Northwest Fire are dusting off the PSAs, both in English and Spanish.  The focus of the videos is adult attention, and how quickly a child can go under, without making a splash or letting out a cry.

They say an adult should be watching at all times, not just present outside or distracted, but actively watching. . .

If you needed another sign that Psy’s “Gangnam Style” had jumped the shark, President Obama delivered it Tuesday.

That’s when he told reporters, “My daughters have taught me a pretty good Gangnam style.”

Sure, he mentioned it after his meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye, in what can only assume was intended to be a compliment to a nation that has spawned a pop culture sensation whose video has attracted more than a billion viewers.

In addition to dancing, the two leaders also discussed perilously high tensions between North and South Korea are perilously high, and the fact that last week North Korean authorities sentenced Kenneth Bae, a Korean American who traveled there in November, to 15 years of hard labor for what they said were crimes against the state. . .

Via MassLive.com: Bury Tamerlan Tsarnaev at sea.

Plus below is a great video where Gomez talks jobs, his willingness to cut Defense spending and Benghazi:

The FBI believes authorities disrupted a terrorism attack that was being planned in a small western Minnesota city when they arrested a man after converging on a mobile home that contained Molotov cocktails, suspected pipe bombs and firearms, the agency said Monday.

Buford Rogers, 24, of Montevideo, was arrested Friday and charged with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He remained in federal custody Monday and it was not clear if he had an attorney.

“The FBI believed there was a terror attack in its planning stages, and we believe there would have been a localized terror attack, and that’s why law enforcement moved quickly to execute the search warrant on Friday to arrest Mr. Rogers,” FBI spokesman Kyle Loven said Monday. . .

It’s not hard to reduce the crippling backlog in the Bronx court system — just dole out generous plea deals or outright dismiss charges against violent-crime defendants.

Prosecutors have offered deals that allow some suspects accused of even attempted murder to plead guilty to misdemeanor assault or weapons possession, according to court documents obtained by The Post.

Some defendants even had attempted-murder raps dropped, including one man accused in a shootout that wounded eight people, three of them kids.

The Post analyzed the 254 cases handled by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Patricia DiMango since January. She’s the most high-profile of the “SWAT team” of 10 state judges temporarily assigned to Bronx Supreme Court at the beginning of the year to cut down on the felony backlog.

Prosecutors have moved to dismiss 26 cases in DiMango’s court, including three attempted-murder raps last month alone.

“[Bronx DA Robert] Johnson felt pressure that something had to be done to reduce this backlog, so he started making offers that led to these plea deals,” a court source said. “To get a misdemeanor offer when you were charged with attempted murder is unheard of.”. . .

Israeli forces have carried out an airstrike against a shipment of sophisticated missiles bound for the Lebanese political and military organization Hezbollah, officials in Washington and Israel told reporters Saturday.

The strike took place about 4 a.m. Friday at an air defense facility on the periphery of Damascus International Airport, according to a Lebanese security official who was in the Syrian capital at the time. The airport is known to be the destination for weapons flown in from Iran both for the Syrian government and for its ally Hezbollah.

There had previously been reports of a huge blaze at Damascus airport, with a videoshowing two locations on fire after what was described as rebel shelling. But the Lebanese official said the blasts were bigger than those caused by mortar or shellfire. . .

Obama sings Mexico’s praises, but some Mexicans hear flat notes

MEXICO CITY — After President Obama’s upbeat speech in Mexico on Friday, many in attendance said they were flattered by the description of their country, but others said they hardly recognized the place he had just described.

Five U.S. service members were killed on Saturday by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, the latest deadly attack against international troops since the Taliban announced the start of their spring offensive this week.

Israeli Airstrike in Syria Was Directed at Missiles From Iran, U.S. Officials Say

WASHINGTON — The airstrike that Israeli warplanes carried out in Syria was directed at a shipment of advanced surface-to-surface missiles from Iran that Israel believed was intended for Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese organization, American officials said Saturday.

It was the second time in four months that Israel had carried out an attack in foreign territory aimed at disrupting the pipeline of weapons from Iran to Hezbollah. The missiles, known as Fateh-110s, had been sent to Syria by Iran and were being stored at an airport in Damascus when they were struck in the attack, according to an American official.

Syrians with knowledge of security and military matters confirmed the strike, which took place overnight Thursday, saying that Iran had sent arms and rockets to Damascus International Airport intending to resend them to Hezbollah. . .

Even for China’s scandal-numbed diners, inured to endless outrages about food hazards, news that the lamb simmering in the pot may actually be rat tested new depths of disgust.

In an announcement intended to show that the government is serious about improving food safety, the Ministry of Public Security said on Thursday that the police had caught a gang of traders in eastern China who bought rat, fox and mink flesh and sold it as mutton. But that and other cases of meat smuggling, faking and adulteration featured in Chinese newspapers and Web sites on Friday were unlikely to instill confidence in consumers already queasy over many reports about meat, fruit and vegetables laden with disease, toxins, banned dyes and preservatives.

Sixty-three people were arrested and are accused of “buying fox, mink and rat and other meat products that had not undergone inspection,” which they doused in gelatin, red pigment, and nitrates, and sold as mutton in Shanghai and adjacent Jiangsu Province for about $1.6 million, according to the ministry’s statement. The account, posted on the Internet, did not explain how exactly the traders acquired the rats and other creatures.

“How many rats does it take to put together a sheep?” said one typically baffled and angry user of Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblog service that often acts as a forum for public venting. “Is it cheaper to raise rats than sheep?”. . .

 Planned furloughs at National Weather Service offices across the nation and in St. Louis could compromise someforecasting functions.

That from the President of the National Weather Service Employees Organization Dan Sobien.

“It’s like playing chicken with the American public. They’re putting everyone’s lives at risk.” said Sobien.

He doesn’t think severe storm forecasting will be effected but services to farmers, truckers, first responders, even the courts could be effected.

He gives an example: In West Texas when a fertilizer plant exploded they needed continuous information on wind direction, humidity and the like to keep firefighters, rescuers and the public safe. . .

. . .The FBI has a laptop computer belonging to Boston Marathon attack suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, two federal law enforcement officials told CNN. It’s not clear how or when the FBI got the laptop. One official said that investigators didn’t find it during last week’s search of a landfill near the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, which Tsarnaev attended. . .

. . .Once again, for the seventh year in a row, breast augmentation was the most popular form of cosmetic surgery, with 286,000 operations performed.  Botox treatments reached an all-time high of 6.1 million injections. People between the ages of 40 and 54 accounted for the largest portion of the cosmetic procedures: 6.8 million, or 48%. Ninety-one percent of cosmetic procedures were in women. 

But the society chose to highlight one procedure that is less familiar: the upper arm-lift.  In 2012, 15,457 patients, 98% of them women, spent a total of $61 million to have liposuction on their arms, or what’s known as a brachioplasty (a surgery that involves making an incision from the armpit to the elbow, usually along the back of the arm, to remove excess skin).  The number of procedures was up 4,378% since 2000, when only about 300 women opted for it, the group reported. . .