Steps to eradicate Polio from one of the only three countries that still has it are met with murder;  A nation-wide strike is called in Turkey on Monday against Prime Minister Erdogan;  Putin says he didn’t steal that ring!  It was totally a gift! 

Militants in Pakistan shot and killed two anti-polio health workers, making it 20 deaths among the heroes trying to rid Pakistan of the endemic disease.  No one has claimed credit, but several radical Islamist groups oppose vaccinations, seeing them as some sort of western plot. The World Health Organization said in March that some 240,000 children have missed polio vaccinations because of security concerns in Pakistan's tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.

Car bombs and shootings killed 51 people across Iraq, and Shia-majority areas taking the brunt of the attacks.  The surge in violence accompanies fears of a return to the sectarian strife that threatened to split the country in 2008.

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has only angered the opposition after sending in the cops with tear gas and water cannons for the umpteenth time to clear Gezi Park and Taksim Square.  Sunday saw clashes up and down Instanbul and Ankara, and Monday will see a nationwide strike called by the five largest unions.  The situation is getting worse because Erdogan’s supporters, at his urging, are getting onto the streets as well.  Earlier, Turkey provided free buses and cash to people who showed up at a pro-Erdogan rally a few kilometers from Taksim Square.

Cops clashed with protesters at Rio De Janaiero’s Maracana Stadium.  The demonstrators object to the high cost of Confederation Cup tournament tickets, bus fares, and the 2014 World Cup, in a country still lacking in basic public services for huge swaths of the Favelas.  Cops used tear gas and rubber bullets on similar protests yesterday.

Police in Ogden, Utah are learn why a man walked into a Roman Catholic Church during Sunday services and shot his father in law in the back of the head.  35-year old Charles Richard Jennings, Jr. was captured walking along the Interstate highway after his stolen car ran out of gas. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin is denying accusations he stole a Super Bowl ring from the owner of the New England Patriots American football team.  The stunning allegation came last week from Robert Kraft, who in 2005 put out a press release saying it was a present.  And now Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov says, “I was standing 20 centimeters away from him and Mr. Putin and saw and heard how Mr. Kraft gave this ring as a gift.”