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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says the U.S. and its allies will have to talk to Syrian President Bashar Assad to bring about a diplomatic solution to the Syrian civil war.

"We have to negotiate in the end," Kerry told CBS' Face the Nation. "And what we're pushing for is to get him to come and do that, and it may require that there be increased pressure on him of various kinds in order to do that.

"We've made it very clear to people that we are looking at increased steps that can help bring about that pressure."

The U.S. has previously maintained that Assad is "part of the problem and needs to go." But nearly four years after the Syrian civil war began, there are few signs of that happening.

The fighting has claimed more than 220,000 lives, according to U.N. estimates, and created a massive refugee crisis. There are nearly 4 million Syrian refugees spread out across the region.

The civil war pits Assad's forces against a coalition of opposition groups who range in affiliation from pro-Western to left wing and Islamist. The fighting has also bolstered the self-described Islamic State, which has captured large portions of territory across Syria and Iraq.

Talks in Moscow in January brought together Assad's representatives and opposition figures, though the main pro-Western group did not attend. Kerry told CBS that the U.S. was "working very hard with other interested parties to see if we can reignite a diplomatic outcome.

"Why? Because everybody agrees that there can be no military solution."

He added: "We're going to have to make it clear to him that there is a determination by everybody to seek that political outcome and change his calculation about negotiating. That's underway right now."

Kerry's remarks to CBS were made in Egypt before he traveled to Switzerland to resume talks with Iran on its nuclear program.

President Bashar Assad

Syria

At least 14 people are dead and 70 wounded after blasts targeted two churches in Lahore, Pakistan, during Sunday services.

The churches, one Catholic and the other Protestant, are located near each other in the predominantly Christian Youhanabad area of Lahore.

Geo TV, a privately owned Pakistani television station, reported that a police guard outside one of the churches prevented a suspect from entering. The suspect detonated the device, killing the guard. The other blast took place inside the second church, Geo TV reported. Haider Ashraf, deputy inspector general of police for Lahore, told The Associated Press that both devices were set off by suicide bombers, adding a second policeman was also killed in the blasts.

Multiple news sources also reported that irate protesters attacked people whom they suspected of being behind the explosions. Reuters said two suspects were burned to death. The AP gave that number as one. Protesters also set fire to cars, attacked buses and shops, and chased away police and politicians.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attacks. The AP quoted the faction's spokesman, Ahsanullah Ahsan, as saying: "There will be more of such attacks."

The attack is the latest in a series targeting Pakistan's Christian minority.

Reuters provides some background: "Islamist militants in Pakistan have attacked Christians and other religious minorities often over the last decade or more. Many Christians, who make up less than two percent of Pakistan's population of more than 180 million, accuse the government of doing little to protect them, saying politicians are quick to offer condolences after an attack but slow to act to improve security."

The AP adds: Christians "are also discriminated against in the wider society where they can often only get menial jobs like garbage collection, and are frequently targets of blasphemy accusations."

At the Vatican, Pope Francis condemned the attacks, telling a crowd at St. Peter's that he felt "great pain."

"These are Christian churches," he said. "Christians are persecuted, our brothers spill their blood simply because they are Christians."

Zahid Pervaiz, the regional director of general health, said the toll was at least 14 dead and 70 wounded. A rescue services spokesman said the number could increase.

Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, is widely regarded as Pakistan's cultural capital. It is the political stronghold of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and has been relatively peaceful amid the recent surge of violence in Pakistan.

Pakistan

It happened again.

Spanish-language, Miami-area-based Univision — the nation's fifth-largest television network — has another racial insensitivity mess to clean up.

On Wednesday, Univision talk show host and fashion commentator Rodner Figueroa said first lady Michelle Obama — America's first African-American first lady — looks like an apocalyptic ape.

During a segment of El Gordo y la Flaca, the network's long-running gossip show, Figueroa was discussing a make-up artist who painted himself to look like Obama. Figueroa told hosts Lili Estefan and Raul de Molina, "Well, watch out, you know that Michelle Obama looks like she's from the cast of 'Planet of the Apes,' the movie." He made the comment while photos of the first lady were shown.

Univision released a statement Thursday saying the Venezuelan-born Figueroa had been fired immediately, and that his "reprehensible" comments "in no way reflect Univision's values or views."

Good, Univision. But you're not in the clear yet.

This is only the latest incident of racism on the network's airwaves. During last year's soccer World Cup, Univision's sports commentators were condemned for referring to Afro-Latino soccer players as simply morenos — equivalent to saying "the black guy" — instead of using the players' last names.

During 2010's World Cup, hosted in South Africa, a skit on the network's morning show "Despierta America" had hosts wearing afro wigs and dancing around the set with spears.

Unfortunately, the problem isn't just Univision or whatever careless production team let that skit get past a pitch session. Univision is a U.S. conduit of Latin American culture; and painfully ignorant transgressions like these betray an ugly truth about Latin American culture: It's still really racist.

Univision is a U.S. conduit of Latin American culture; and painfully ignorant transgressions like these betray an ugly truth about Latin American culture: It's still really racist.

Google it, if you don't believe me. In a matter of minutes you'll fall into an Internet rabbit hole of blackface in comedy shows, a comic strip of a black boy resembling a monkey, and what to me is the most egregious offense: Peru's Negro Mama, a grotesque character I'm ashamed to say is popular in my birth country where I lived for 11 years.

Afro-Peruvian activist Jorge Ramirez said Peru is "where the United States was in the 1950s" in terms of racial equality.

I'm inclined to say he's right. The U.S. civil rights movement did not sweep through Latin America. Efforts to bolster racial minorities have often focused on people of indigenous descent, leaving Afro-Latinos at the edge of the discourse.

But in the U.S., we live in a society where it's unacceptable for a host on a major TV network to compare the first lady's features to a simian. And Univision, again, was reminded of that this week.

Still, Figueroa says he was fired only after Univision received a complaint from the White House. (Univision has not yet responded to that charge.) For his part, Figueroa wrote an open letter that he meant as an apology to Michelle Obama — but the mea culpa sounded less than genuine after he diluted it with claims that his termination was unjust and that he doesn't deserve to be labeled a racist.

Figueroa also insists he's not a racist because he's biracial: His father is Afro-Latino.

But that only makes his "ape" slur all the more inexcusable — and all the more indicative of how clueless and outdated Latin America, and Latin Americans like Figueroa, remain about race.

And Latinos in the U.S., especially those of my younger generation, are tired of it. Tired of the way it all too often negatively defines us while we're trying to build a positive image of what it means to be Latin in this country.

That's why we need more than just a legal statement from Univision. We need corporate action, starting with more racial integration inside its Doral studios and on its network programs.

It's time Univision started rejecting — and stopped reflecting — Latin America's racial culture.

This essay originally appeared on the website of member station WLRN in Miami, where Maria Murriel is digital editor. She tweets immigration news, community engagement and street photography at @mariamurriel.

Latin America

racism

Univision

Michelle Obama

We sent out the alert to travelers headed for the Netherlands last month that an eagle owl was targeting runners and other unsuspecting pedestrians in the town of Purmerend.

The bird would take aim at human heads, inflicting wounds that required stitches, and prompting people to wear helmets and other protective gear.

Now, the Guardian reports the skies are safe and the terror alert is cancelled:

"'The animal was trapped by a falconer today,' the Purmerend city council said on Friday evening.

"'It's in good health and is currently being kept in a temporary facility awaiting a transfer once a proper permanent home has been found,' it added."

The Two-Way

An Owl Is Attacking And Injuring Residents Of A Netherlands Town

It's not that the Dutch town didn't like the owl. AP quotes Alderman Mario Hegger as saying said the municipality would have preferred to leave the "magnificent bird of prey" alone but "it became too risky."

The Dutch owl isn't the only one peeved with humans: Another one was keeping folks in Salem, Oregon, watching the skies and designing warning road signs, Oregon Public Broadcasting reports.

wildlife