Month: August 2018

Pope Francis said Monday every effort must be made to ensure the culture of the Catholic Church prevents future clerical sexual abuse of children and to make sure that if such abuses do take place, they cannot be covered up.

The pope’s comments came in a letter to the world’s Catholics in response to the latest revelations of abuses by clergy members.

Last week, a U.S. grand jury report said more than 300 predator priests had abused more than 1,000 children in six Pennsylvania dioceses over the span of 70 years.

“Even though it can be said that most of these cases belong to the past, nonetheless as time goes on we have come to know the pain of many of the victims,” Francis said in his letter.

He said with “shame and repentance” the Catholic Church acknowledges it did not act in a timely manner and realize the amount of damage the abusers have done to so many people.

Francis said “no effort to beg pardon and to seek to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient.”

The church has long faced cases of sexual abuse by the clergy in many countries. In the past month alone, the pope accepted the resignation of an Australian archbishop convicted in May for covering up child abuse, as well as the resignation of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who has also been accused of sexual abuse.

Francis noted in his letter ongoing efforts to address the problem and ensure the safety of children and vulnerable adults while holding responsible those who commit abuses.

“We have delayed in applying these actions and sanctions that are so necessary, yet I am confident that they will help to guarantee a greater culture of care in the present and future,” he wrote.

He said without the participation of all Catholics, the efforts to “uproot the culture of abuse” will fail.

“It is essential that we, as a Church, be able to acknowledge and condemn, with sorrow and shame, the atrocities perpetuated by consecrated persons, clerics, and all those entrusted with the mission of watching over and caring for the most vulnerable,” Pope Francis said.
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Shots were fired at a security booth outside the U.S. Embassy in Turkey’s capital early Monday, but U.S. officials said no one was hurt.

Private Ihlas news agency said four to five rounds were fired from a moving white car and targeted the booth outside Gate 6 at the embassy in Ankara. Police were searching for the car.

U.S. Embassy spokesman David Gainer thanked police for their “rapid response”‘ and said no injuries had been reported.

The U.S. mission is closed this week as Turkey celebrates the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

Ties between Ankara and Washington have been strained over the case of an imprisoned American pastor, leading the U.S. to impose sanctions, and increased tariffs sent the Turkish lira tumbling last week.

Evangelical pastor Andrew Craig Brunson — currently under house arrest after more than 1 1/2 years in prison — is facing up to 35 years in prison if convicted of espionage and terror-related charges.

U.S. President Donald Trump has called for his immediate release and threatened more sanctions. The continued detention of a Turkish-American NASA scientist and three local consular staff members adds to the tensions.

Last week, the U.S. president signed a defense spending bill that includes delaying the delivery of F-35 fighter jets pending a Pentagon report. U.S. senators have been working to block their delivery in response to Brunson’s arrest and Turkey’s pledge to buy Russian S-400 missile systems.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for a boycott on U.S.-made electronic products, with some citizens heeding his call and filming themselves breaking their iPhones. Turkey has also increased imports tariffs on some products.

 
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Italy’s firebrand interior minister is threatening to return to Libya 177 migrants who have been aboard an Italian coast guard ship for days following another standoff with Malta.

Interior Minister Matteo Salvini demanded Sunday that other European countries take in the migrants after his Maltese counterpart, Michael Farrugia, insisted that the “only solution” is for the Diciotti ship to dock at the Sicilian island of Lampedusa.

The Diciotti has been off Lampedusa after rescuing the migrants Aug. 16. Italy asked Malta to take them in, but Malta refused, saying the migrant boat wasn’t in distress and that the migrants declined Maltese assistance, preferring to continue toward Italy.

In a tweet Sunday, Farrugia accused Italy of rescuing the migrants in Maltese waters “purely to prevent them from entering Italian waters.”
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The death toll of Genoa’s bridge collapse has risen to 43 as rescuers confirm they found remains believed to be of a missing family.

Firefighters discovered the three bodies, reported to be those of a couple and their nine-year-old daughter, early Sunday inside a car extracted from the rubble of the viaduct.

All those reported missing after Tuesday’s collapse have now been accounted for, although rescuers say they will continue combing the wreckage.

The announcement followed the discovery Saturday of the body of a man in his 30s in the rubble and the death of another man in hospital.

Italy observed a national day of mourning Saturday for the victims of the tragedy.

Applause broke out at state funerals in Genoa as rescuers and members of the civil defense department arrived to take part in the service.

Authorities used an exhibition center in the area of the Genoa fairgrounds as a church.

Large screens were set up outside as Italians from all over the country and tourists turned out to follow the service. Many said they came out of solidarity with relatives of the victims because what happened could have happened to anyone.

The archbishop of Genoa, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, presided over the solemn service. Italy’s top officials and politicians, including head of state Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, attended.

But not all the families of the victims agreed to take part. Some decided to bury their dead relatives in their towns of origin, while others declined to participate in anger at having lost their loved ones in an accident that may have been caused by poor design or improper maintenance.

President Sergio Mattarella, who visited the site of the disaster and the injured in the hospital before attending the service, has defined the bridge collapse as “absurd and frightening,” saying the tragedy “struck not only Genoa but the whole nation.”

The government has set up a commission to investigate the causes of the bridge collapse. The disaster sparked a huge debate in Italy about the state of the country’s infrastructure.

Autostrade per l’Italia, the company that manages Italy’s highway system, held a news conference Saturday in Genoa, maintaining it has always acted responsibly as the operator of the toll road. CEO Giovanni Castellucci said it was premature to respond to the government’s plans to revoke the company’s concession, but said his company could build a new bridge in eight months.

The Morandi viaduct dates from the 1960s and has been riddled with structural problems for decades, leading to expensive maintenance and criticism from engineering experts.
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Senior U.N. Human Rights officials condemn the decision by the Republika Srpska National Assembly in Bosnia and Herzegovina to take back its endorsement of a report acknowledging the massacre of thousands of Muslims in Srebrenica.

U.N. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, warns the decision by the Republika Srpska National Assembly to revoke its endorsement of the 2004 Srebrenica Commission Report is a step backwards for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He says it undermines the rule of law and efforts to achieve justice for victims of crimes committed against people of all ethnicities during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war. The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra-ad al-Hussein agrees.

He says this action will worsen the divisive, nationalistic rhetoric ahead of the general elections in October. His spokeswoman, Ravina Shamdasani, says this decision will disrupt reconciliation efforts among the splintered communities.

“The 2004 Srebrenica Commission Report established that from the 10th to the 19th July 1995, between 7,000 and 8,000 Bosniaks went missing in the area of Srebrenica,” she said. “It also found that more than 1,000 Bosniaks were killed during this period. Two international courts have determined that this massacre of Bosnian Muslims constituted genocide.”

The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina broke out after the breakup of Yugoslavia, pitting Bosnian Serbs, Croats and Muslims against each other. When it ended in 1995, around 100,000 people had been killed and more than two million displaced, making this the most devastating conflict in Europe since the end of World War II.

High Commissioner Zeid accuses the Srpska Parliament of withdrawing from the agreement for political gain ahead of the October elections. He says he fears it will increase existing tensions, divisions and mistrust in the country.

 
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A driver whose car collided with several people before crashing outside Britain’s Parliament has been charged with attempted murder.

Police say 29-year-old Salih Khater was charged Saturday with trying to kill police officers and members of the public.

Three people were injured when Khater — a British citizen originally from Sudan — hit a group of cyclists before colliding with a security barrier guarded by police outside Parliament on Tuesday.

The incident sparked a huge police response. Last year London was hit by several attacks in which vehicles were used as weapons.

Police say that because of the methodology and iconic location, the case is being treated as terrorism, although Khater has not been charged with a terrorist offense.

Khater is due to appear in a London court on Monday. 
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday called on Europe to financially contribute to the reconstruction of Syria to allow millions of refugees to return home.

“We need to strengthen the humanitarian effort in the Syrian conflict,” he said ahead of a meeting with his German counterpart Angela Merkel at the government retreat of Meseberg castle 70kms (45 miles) north of Berlin.

“By that, I mean above all humanitarian aid to the Syrian people, and help the regions where refugees living abroad can return to.”

There are currently one million refugees in Jordan, the same number in Lebanon, and three million in Turkey, Putin said.

Germany has accepted hundreds of thousands of migrants since 2015 — the height of the migration crisis — which has weakened Angela Merkel politically and split the European Union.

“This is potentially a huge burden for Europe,” Putin said.

“That’s why we have to do everything to get these people back home,” he added, emphasizing the need to properly restore basic services such as water supplies and healthcare.

Merkel said the priority in Syria was “to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe”, but did not give any further details.

Ukraine stalemate

Also on the agenda for the two leaders is the Ukraine crisis, which “unfortunately does not advance at all,” Putin said.

The Minsk agreements, a peace process sponsored by Germany and France aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Ukraine, is at a standstill, Merkel said, pointing at the absence of a “stable ceasefire.”

A United Nations mission on the ground, which will be discussed during the talks, “could perhaps play a pacifying role” in the region, she said.

Earlier, Germany’s foreign minister Heiko Maas said he was “relatively optimistic about the chances of a United Nations mission,” telling the Die Welt newspaper: “We want to give a new dynamic to the Minsk process.”

Russia is accused by Kiev and Westerners of militarily supporting the separatists in eastern Ukraine, which it denies.

Economic cooperation, particularly over energy, was also billed as a central theme in the discussions.

Russia and Germany are partners in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, a project criticized by US President Donald Trump due to Berlin’s reliance on Moscow.

Ukraine worries that the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline from Russia to Germany will transport gas now flowing through its territory and deprive it of crucial transit fees.

Russia has shut off gas supplies to Ukraine in the past, having knock-on effects in the European Union.

“Ukraine must, in my opinion, play a role in the transit of gas to Europe,” even after the start of Nord Stream 2 in 2019, the German Chancellor said.

Putin once again defended the project “which addresses the growing demand of the European economy for energy resources”.

“I want to stress here that Nord Stream 2 is only an economic project and it does not close the door to the continuation of gas transit through the territory of Ukraine,” he said.

In July, Putin assured that Russia was willing to keep Russian flowing through Ukraine after the pipeline was commissioned, but without going into details on volumes or tariffs. 
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It’s Italy’s national day of mourning Saturday after the collapse of the Morandi highway bridge Tuesday in the port city of Genoa killed 42 people.

Three more bodies were recovered by rescuers overnight and Italian state radio reported another was body found Saturday morning. Authorities said all those missing have now been accounted for.

But not all the families of the victims agreed to take part.

Applause broke out at the funerals as rescuers and members of the civil defense department arrived to take part in the service. Authorities used an exhibition center in the area of the Genoa fair grounds as a church.

The building was adorned with flowers and photographs for the occasion. In front of the altar and below a large crucifix, 18 coffins were covered with white roses, including those of two Albanian Moslems who died, and a small white casket for the youngest victim, an eight-year-old who died alongside his parents.

Large screens were set up outside the exhibition center for many others – Italians from all over the country and tourists – who turned out to follow the service. Many said they came out of solidarity with relatives of the victims because what happened could have happened to anyone.

The archbishop of Genoa, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, celebrated the solemn service. Italy’s top officials and politicians, including head of state Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, attended the ceremony.

Family members of other victims decided to bury the dead in their towns of origin, some declining to participate in the state funerals in anger at having lost their loved ones in an accident that may have been caused by poor design or improper maintenance.

The president, who visited the site of the disaster and the injured in the hospital before attending the service, has defined the bridge collapse as “absurd and frightening,” saying the tragedy “struck not only Genoa but the whole nation.”

Cardinal Bagnasco, who presided at the service, said, “The collapse of the Morandi bridge over the Poncedera River caused a rift in the heart of Genoa. The wound is a deep one and consists above all of the endless pain for those who have lost their lives and the missing, for their relatives, for the inured, for the many displaced. Many have been the signs of shock and closeness that have come from not only from Italy but from all over the world.”

In his homily, the cardinal added that Genoa will not surrender and will continue to fight despite the huge loss of its most important artery. Applause broke out when the cardinal thanked firefighters for their tireless work. He spoke of the strength of the injured and expressed hope that the displaced may soon find another home.

The government has set up a commission to investigate the causes of the bridge collapse. The disaster sparked a huge debate in Italy about the state of the country’s infrastructures.

Autostrade per l’Italia, the company that manages Italy’s highway system, held a news conference Saturday in Genoa, promising it would provide details about measures it will be taking to support victims’ families and the hundreds of people that had to evacuate their homes following the deadly collapse.

 
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Turkey’s currency this month has suffered heavy falls triggered by U.S.-Turkish tensions over the ongoing detention of an American pastor. Washington’s threat to impose new economic sanctions sparked another steep currency drop Friday. Dorian Jones reports on the economic fall out for people in Istanbul.
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A decade-long dispute between Kosovo and Serbia is compelling both countries to consider a territorial swap along ethnic lines — a move that has long been opposed by both Brussels and Washington. But the leaders of both Balkan countries say redrawing the borders could help them resolve their differences and advance in their quest for European integration.  

Experts have mixed opinions over whether such a deal is workable or even desirable. 

Ten years after Kosovo declared independence, there has been little to no progress between the two countries in settling their disputes. Kosovo considers itself a sovereign nation, though Serbia refuses to recognize it as such. Both countries want to join the European Union, but Brussels will not allow it until disagreements over Kosovo’s sovereignty are settled. 

WATCH: Trade of territory by Kosovo, Serbia brings concerns

Now, Kosovo’s President Hashi Thaci and Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic have suggested a deal to trade territory or change borders that could spark a breakthrough. Some experts caution, however, such a move could create myriad problems. 

“It would create instability, it would be dangerous. It could spark violence in Kosovo as well as in Serbia,” said David L. Phillips, director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights. 

The proposed exchange would involve Serbia getting part of northern Kosovo, an area with a mostly Serb population, and Kosovo getting Serbia’s Presevo Valley, inhabited by a majority of ethnic Albanians. It also would mean the change would be along ethnic lines — anathema in Western thinking. 

“The principle of pluralism and democracy is something that is a cornerstone of U.S. policy. It’s also a cornerstone of Europe’s approach to countries that aspire to membership,” Phillips said. 

But David Kanin, adjunct professor of international relations at Johns Hopkins University and a former CIA senior analyst, notes that Europe has a history of changing borders and population movements. 

“That has not stopped. Every change in Yugoslavia since the old Yugoslavia collapsed has been about changing borders, moving people around, some supported by the West, some opposed,” he said.

Diplomatic gap?

In the past, both Brussels and Washington have shot down the idea of redrawing borders along ethnic lines, but this time it appears they are not in agreement. 

The European Union has not openly commented on this issue. The office of the EU’s top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, has not responded to VOA questions about this issue. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has rejected any changes to the borders, saying, “The territorial integrity of the states of the Western Balkans has been established and is inviolable.”

The U.S. position has been more ambiguous. In a statement to VOA’s Albanian Service, the State Department said the solution should come from the parties themselves. It also said the parties should show flexibility, but stopped short of rejecting the idea of a border change. 

“If Kosovo and Serbia were able to agree on a settlement that would allow for permanent peace that would allow for mutual recognition, I think that would help settle politics in Serbia in some ways. It would give Kosovo a way forward,” said Kurt Volker, U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO. 

Phillips, a former State Department senior adviser, suggested a lack of clarity does not signal a new policy.

“The U.S. government does not have a coherent policy toward Kosovo. It doesn’t pay any attention to the Western Balkans. I don’t think we should read too much into these vague and ambiguous statements. Right now U.S. policy remains as it always has been. It recognizes Kosovo within its current frontiers. That hasn’t changed.”

Benefits, ramifications

Even if the idea is officially included in the EU-mediated Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, many questions remain, including whether Serbia should recognize Kosovo first and what that would portend.

“The discussion right now around partition, as noisy as it is, is dealing with the secondary issue of who gets what territory,” said Kanin. “The question of Kosovo’s sovereignty is the central issue and that will remain open as long as it is not recognized by Serbia and by the five outstanding EU members. And I see no sign that this is going to change.”   

EU members Spain, Slovakia, Cyprus, Romania and Greece still have not recognized Kosovo’s independence.

“Here it is a disservice to everybody in the Balkans, first of all the Kosovars, that their state is not recognized by Serbia, that they are not recognized by all members of the European Union and therefore they’re blocked in some of their relationships with the EU,” said Volker.

Experts and former diplomats warned that rethinking borders in the Balkans would pose a risk to stability in the region. 

“If the EU isn’t prepared to mediate a deal that allows Serbia to recognize Kosovo within its current frontiers, then Albanians will start thinking of unification of Albanian territories and creating an Albanian state that encompasses lands where all Albanians live,” Phillips predicted.

That concern is amplified, given the sizable Albanian minority in Macedonia, a country dealing with its own agreement about a name change with Greece. And Serbs in Bosnia already have said if Kosovo gets a U.N. seat, they will request the same.

The latest debate suggests there are no clear-cut prescriptions for a region attempting to shed the vexing legacy of the 1990s conflicts.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday for talks about the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, as well as the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project that has drawn U.S. ire.

Putin arrives in Germany after a stop at an Austrian vineyard to attend Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl’s wedding to entrepreneur Wolfgang Meilinger.

Merkel warned on Friday against expecting too much from her discussions with Putin at the government’s Meseberg palace, but said the two countries needed to remain in “permanent dialogue” on the long list of problems they face.

“It’s a working meeting from which no specific results are expected,” she told reporters. The two leaders last met in Sochi in May and struggled to overcome differences.

But both Juergen Hardt, foreign policy spokesman for Merkel’s conservative bloc, and Achim Post, a senior member of the Social Democrats (SPD), junior partners in the coalition government, were more upbeat.

“We can be cautiously optimistic,” Hardt told the Stuttgarter Zeitung and Stuttgarter Nachrichten newspapers in an interview published Saturday. “The Russian president has maneuvered himself into a dead end on Syria and eastern Ukraine, and needs international partners. For that he has to move.”

A senior German official told the papers: “There has been some movement,” but gave no details.

Post said in a statement that he expected both Merkel and Putin to look for pragmatic solutions based on common interests. “In a world that is increasingly uncertain, we must speak particularly with difficult partners like Russia,” he said.

Russia and the West remain at loggerheads over Moscow’s annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014 and the ensuing conflict between Russian-backed separatists in the country’s east and the Ukrainian army.

On Syria, Germany wants Putin to finalize a lasting cease-fire there in agreement with the United States. Merkel on Friday said a four-way meeting on Syria involving Germany, Russia, Turkey and France was possible.

Germany is also under strong pressure from the United States to halt work on the planned Nord Stream 2 pipeline that will carry gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea.

The United States says it will increase Germany’s dependence on Russia for energy. Ukraine fears the pipeline will allow Russia to cut it off from the gas transit business. Germany’s eastern European neighbors, nervous of Russian encroachment, have also raised concerns about the project.

Merkel and Putin will each make statements at 1600 GMT on Saturday before the start of the talks. They do not plan to take questions.
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