The brothers who carried out suicide bombings in Brussels last week had long, violent criminal records and had been regarded internationally as potential terrorists. But in San Bernardino, Calif., last year, one of the attackers was a county health inspector who lived a life of apparent suburban normality. And then there are the dozens of other young American men and women who have been arrested over the past year for trying to help the Islamic State. Their backgrounds are so diverse that they defy a single profile. What turns people toward violence — and whether they can be steered away from it — are questions that have bedeviled governments around the world for generations. Those questions have taken on fresh urgency with the rise of the Islamic State and the string of attacks in Europe and the United States. Despite millions of dollars of government-sponsored research, and a much-publicized White House pledge to find answers, there is still nothing close to a consensus on why someone becomes a terrorist. “After all this funding and this flurry of publications, with each new terrorist incident we realize that we are no closer to answering our original question about what leads people to turn to political violence,” Marc Sageman, a psychologist and a longtime government consultant, wrote in the journal Terrorism and Political Violence in 2014. “The same worn-out questions are raised over and over again, and we still have no compelling answers.”

The Indian Catholic priest kidnapped by ISIS-linked terrorists in Yemen earlier this month was crucified on Good Friday, it has been claimed. Father Thomas Uzhunnalil, 56, was taken by Islamist gunmen, reportedly linked to ISIS, who attacked an old people’s home in Aden, southern Yemen, killing at least 15 people, on March 4. The terrorists reportedly carried out the heinous murder on Good Friday, after threatening to do so earlier in the week, according to the Archbishop of Vienna.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal announced Monday he will veto a “religious freedom” bill that would legalize discrimination against gays. “HB 757 doesn’t reflect the character of our state or the character of our people,” Deal said at a press conference. Several Hollywood production companies threatened to leave the state if the bill became law. “We will plan to take our business elsewhere should any legislation allowing discriminatory practices be signed into state law,” Disney said. AMC Networks, which films The Walking Dead in Georgia, also threatened to leave. The National Football League even warned it would not give Atlanta the Super Bowl if the bill became law.

The ancient city of Palmyra, retaken by Syrian government forces from ISIS fighters on Sunday, is reported to be better preserved than had been widely feared. Although several important monuments, like the iconic Temple of Bel, were destroyed by militants with the Islamic State terror group, an AFP correspondent who has reached the UNESCO World Heritage Site said that much it is still intact. Maamun Abdulkarim, Syria’s antiquities chief, told AFP from Damascus, “We were expecting the worst. But the landscape, in general, is in good shape. We could have completely lost Palmyra… The joy I feel is indescribable.” The Assad regime has pledged to build on the win, one of its most important against ISIS in two years, with an advance against other jihadi strongholds.

A man who is alleged to be the chief money launderer for drug cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán has been arrested in Mexico. Police said Juan Manuel Alvarez, dubbed King Midas for his purported ability to wash up more than $4 billion in drug money over a decade, was arrested Sunday on a provisional extradition warrant from the U.S., where he is wanted on money-laundering charges. Alvarez’s arrest was reportedly the result of a joint operation among police, the army, and Mexico’s interior department. Officials said he was in Oaxaca on vacation when he was detained. Guzmán made headlines in July last year when he made an audacious escape from Mexico’s maximum-security Altiplano prison. He was recaptured in January this year.

*LBN-RIP: Jim Harrison, arguably America’s greatest living author—and certainly our earthiest—lives half the year in Livingston, Montana. He died on Sunday at age 78. He had been a long time reader of LBN and will be missed.

*LBN-BOOK NEWS:   ***Kim Kardashian and her momagerKris Jenner deliberately leaked her now-infamous sex tape to make her famous, a new book allegedly confirms. Kim signed a contract with Vivid Entertainment in 2007 to leak the sex tape she made with Ray J in 2003, a new book, “Kardashian Dynasty” by Ian Halperin, claims.

*LBN-NOTICED:   ***Former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss having drinks last night at Shutter’s Hotel in Santa Monica.   ***Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani mistaking a regular at Midtown’s Alfredo 100 in NYC for Donald Trump. As he approached the orange-haired doppelgänger to say hello, Giuliani realized it was not the real Donald, and the entire restaurant broke out in laughter and applause.   ***Patrick Ewing, John Starks and Herb Williams at Jue Lan Club in NYC.   ***Design duo Tony Ingrao and Randy Kemper at Harry Cipriani in NYC. ***Actor Sean Penn and media expert and author Michael Levine chatting the lobby of Shutter’s Hotel at the beach in Santa Monica last night.   ***Lady Gagacelebrated her 30th birthday at the No Name Club in Hollywood with fiancé Taylor Kinney and a host of stars. Gaga wore a glam gold dress and celebrated with Taylor Swift, Kate Hudson, Lorde, Lana Del Rey, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend. The guest list also included Lisa Rinna, Pharrell Williams, Mark Ronson, Ashlee Simpson and Evan Ross.

*LBN-COMMENTARY by Paul Krugman: There are a lot of things about the 2016 election that nobody saw coming, and one of them is that international trade policy is likely to be a major issue in the presidential campaign. What’s more, the positions of the parties will be the reverse of what you might have expected: Republicans, who claim to stand for free markets, are likely to nominate a crude protectionist, leaving Democrats, with their skepticism about untrammeled markets, as the de facto defenders of relatively open trade. But this isn’t as peculiar a development as it seems. Rhetorical claims aside, Republicans have long tended in practice to be more protectionist than Democrats. And there’s a reason for that difference. It’s true that globalization puts downward pressure on the wages of many workers — but progressives can offer a variety of responses to that pressure, whereas on the right, protectionism is all they’ve got.

*LBN-COMMENTARY by M Zuhdi Jasser (Author):  So Donald Trump’s latest foreign-policy doctrine is “American First let them pay for it”.  Never mind that the “them” are the Islamist mafia and thugs of the planet in the OIC who treat their humanity, their people, as expendable slaves and will stop at nothing to destroy our real allies the movements for freedom and liberty.  Oh “they” will certainly “pay” for it; but the ‘it’ they will pay for is the use of chemical weapons against their own people and the advancement globally of their versions of the OIC caliphate. And when or if they fund insurgencies it will only be for islamist supremacists like the Turks, Qataris, and Saudis paid for with ISIS.

*LBN-OVERHEARD:   ***Welcome to fatherhood, Seth Meyers. Reps for the “Late Night” host confirmed to People that he and wife Alexi Ashe Meyers welcomed their first child, a boy, on Sunday.   ***Janice Dickinson is fighting for her life. “It’s hard for me to say this, but I have been diagnosed with breast cancer,” the 61-year-old supermodel revealed to the Daily Mail. Dickinson visited her doctor on March 8 regarding a stomach issue. After she received a full medical examination, her doctor noticed a “pea size” lump on her right breast. “The doctor noticed it immediately. She said, ‘this doesn’t feel right.’ And she said, ‘We have to be real comprehensive with this and have it checked out,’” Dickinson shared. Three days after her initial visit, Dickinson went to the hospital for a mammogram. Her doctor phoned her with the results 24 hours later.

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Syrian government forces recaptured the desert oasis city of Palmyra on Sunday, state media and a monitoring group reported, after driving out Islamic State fighters who had imposed a brutal occupation for the better part of a year, summarily executing residents and dynamiting the city’s ancient ruins. Syrian state media, which has closely covered a three-week push by President Bashar al-Assad to regain the city, aired celebratory footage on Sunday showing government soldiers around the archaeological sites. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said that there was ongoing fighting in a few districts of the city, as well as at a military prison.

Donald Trump wants US allies to ante up if they want to continue under the “cloak of American protection,” according to his first detailed comments on his foreign-policy platform. “We’re not being reimbursed for the kind of tremendous service that we’re performing by protecting various countries,” the Republican front-runner was quoted as saying.

One day after defending the screening of Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe at the Tribeca Film Festival, Robert De Niroannounced that the controversial anti-vaccine movie, directed by Andrew Wakefield, has been removed from the schedule. “My intent in screening this film was to provide an opportunity for conversation around an issue that is deeply personal to me and my family,” De Niro said in a statement. “But after reviewing it over the past few days with the Tribeca Film Festival team and others from the scientific community, we do not believe it contributes to or furthers the discussion I had hoped for.”

*LBN-MY REVIEW: “I love the cool photos in LBN!”—–Reggie P., an LBN reader in Orlando, Florida

*Prominent LA Divorce Attorney Konrad Trope Challenges Charlie Sheens Support Payment Reduction

Konrad Trope, noted Los Angeles attorney, has made clear his doubts about notorious television and film star, Charlie Sheen’s claims that he needs to reduce his spousal support payments. “Sheen’s request to lower spousal support presents some interesting issues [since] he recently sold his profit participation rights to ‘Two and a Half Men’ for $26.75 million. So he appears to have the assets,” Trope explained.
Sheen has seen ups and downs in his employment and income since cutting ties and selling participation rights with popular CBS television series “Two and a Half Men” and taking on a new starring role in the FX series “Anger Management” for a subsequent two years after. He has been faced with legal bills from multiple lawsuits and medical bills since confirming last year on the Today Show that he tested HIV positive.

*LBN-INVESTIGATES: Residents in the city of Hidalgo, TX say illegal immigrants are crossing the border and have been keeping them up during the night. News cameras were rolling as several people who were reported to be illegal immigrants made their way through a neighborhood. Residents say the illegal immigrants used to be mostly women and children, but now are becoming more and more men. Some residents claim as many as 50 people cross the border at night and cut through the Hidalgo Veijo neighborhood.

*LBN-READER NOTE: Do you friends, family and associates have the GUTS to sign up to receive LBN? Do they? Do they? It simple: Go to LBNElert.com and sign up (if you’ve got the guts).

*LBN-TODAY’S BIRTHDAY: 

Sarah Vaughan (1924)
“The Divine One,” Sarah Vaughan was an American jazz contralto with a vast range who worked as a soloist for much of her career. As a child, Vaughan studied piano and organ and began singing in her church choir. As a teenager, she won the famous amateur contest at Harlem’s Apollo Theater and was featured with bandleader Earl Hines

*LBN-SPOTLIGHT: So you got a traffic ticket. You’ve come to the right place. We’ve helped THOUSANDS of people fight their traffic tickets. — www.TicketBust.com

*LBN-COMMENTARY by Maureen Dowd: Barack Obama is tangoing into history, and there’s something perfect about that. The tango has been described as vertical solitude. And this president is all about vertical solitude. Republicans are frothing and comics are tweaking about the baseball diplomacy in Cuba and the tango diplomacy in Argentina, juxtaposed with the terrorist attack and manhunt in Brussels. Comedy Central’s Larry Wilmore mocked Obama’s “spring break world tour.” He chided the president for doing the wave with Raúl Castro and remarked on Obama’s sinuous, take-charge tango partner. “O.K., Republicans, now he’s leading from behind,” Wilmore said. Rush Limbaugh accused the president of flamenco dancing and “doing the tango with women not even his wife.”

*LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW

*LBN-OVERHEARD:   ***Garry Shandling isn’t resting in peace quite yet: It’s been days since the 66-year-old comedian died suddenly in Los Angeles, but his death certificate has yet to be signed. Shandling’s primary physician refuses to sign the death certificate because he has not yet determined a cause of death, according to TMZ. The physician admits he hadn’t seen Shandling in more than a year, but that the actor was healthy as far as he knew. The LA County coroner will now launch an official investigation to determine the cause of death. Bloodwork from the ER where Shandling was pronounced dead has already been taken into custody, while investigators have subpoenaed Shandling’s physician for his medical records.   ***John F. Kennedy’s rocking chair from Air Force One is up for auction. After the president’s assassination in 1963, the rocker — one of many he used to ease his back pain from a war injury — was given to JFK’s brother-in-law and “Rat Pack” member Peter Lawford.   ***“Hello” singer Adele lashed out at people like Jamie Oliver putting “pressure” on new mums to breastfeed. The 27-year-old used her gig at London’s O2 Arena to vent on the subject when asked by someone in the audience about “breastfeeding mummies”. Adele, who has a three-year-old son Angelo with partner Simon Konecki, said: “Do you know what? The pressure on us is f——g ridiculous and all those people who put pressure on us can go f–k yourselves. Right.”