LOS ANGELES – Internal documents from the Boy Scouts of America reveal more than 125 cases in which men suspected of molestation allegedly continued to abuse Scouts, despite a blacklist meant to protect boys from sexual predators.

A Los Angeles Times review of more than 1,200 files from 1970 to 1991 found predators moved from troop to troop because of clerical errors, computer glitches or the Scouts’ failure to check the blacklist, known as the “perversion files.”

In response to the Times’ findings, the Scouts issued a statement that said in part: “The Boy Scouts of America believes even a single instance of abuse is unacceptable, and we regret there have been times when the BSA’s best efforts to protect children were insufficient. For that we are very sorry and extend our deepest sympathies to victims.”

Nation

Iran contractor paid Obama adviser

David Plouffe, a senior White House adviser who was President Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, accepted a $100,000 speaking fee in 2010 from an affiliate of a company doing business with Iran’s government.

A subsidiary of MTN Group, a South African telecommunications company, paid Plouffe for two speeches he made in Nigeria in December 2010, about a month before he joined the White House staff.

Since Plouffe’s speeches, MTN Group has come under intensified scrutiny from U.S. authorities because of its activities in Iran and Syria, which are under international sanctions intended to limit the countries’ access to sensitive technology. At the time of Plouffe’s speeches, MTN had been in a widely reported partnership for five years with a state-owned Iranian telecommunications firm.

There were no legal or ethical restrictions on Plouffe being paid to speak to the MTN subsidiary as a private citizen.

Illinois senator healing from stroke

Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., who suffered a stroke in January, released a second video message Sunday showing improved mobility and speech.

The three-minute video features footage of Kirk, 52, walking on a treadmill and up stairs under the close supervision of a rehabilitation specialist but without a cane he had previously used.

World

16 Egyptian troops die in border attack

Masked gunmen killed 16 Egyptian soldiers Sunday at a checkpoint along the border with Gaza and Israel, the first such attack on troops – and then the attackers drove off, crashing into Israel, officials said.

Egypt blamed Islamist militants from Gaza and Egypt’s troubled Sinai Peninsula. President Mohammed Morsi said the attackers “will pay dearly.”

The Israeli military said the attack was part of a plot to abduct an Israeli soldier, and two vehicles commandeered by the attackers crashed into Israel, where one blew up.

Rebels say ‘pilgrims’ were aiding Assad

Rebel fighters said Sunday that 48 Iranians captured in the Syrian capital were not the pilgrims their government asserts but instead were affiliated with Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps, on a mission in Damascus to help the Syrian government crush the rebellion.

The allegation underlined the regional dimensions of the conflict, as rebels backed by pro-Western powers in the Mideast, including Turkey and Saudi Arabia, battle the regime of President Bashar Assad, backed by Russia and Iran.

If confirmed, the capture would seem to support long-standing rebel claims that Iranians have been helping Syrian security forces with their crackdown on the nearly 17-month-old uprising.

Al-Qaida bombing claims 45 in Yemen

The death toll from a suspected al-Qaida suicide bombing in southern Yemen rose to 45 Sunday, officials said, in the latest attack against militias allied with the army. The bomber struck a funeral late Saturday, attended by civilian militia fighters who aided the government’s push to recapture the town of Jaar from al-Qaida in June.

Turkey offensive kills 115 Kurds

Turkey’s security forces have killed as many as 115 Kurdish rebels during a major security offensive over the past two weeks, the country’s interior minister said Sunday.

Idris Naim Sahin said the rebels were killed in an airpower-backed offensive near the town of Semdinli, in Hakkari province.

Sahin said the security forces were trying to block the rebels’ escape routes into northern Iraq.