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Sinn Fein, the Irish nationalist party, has fallen just short of becoming the largest party in elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly.

In results declared early Friday, the Democratic Unionist Party led with 28 seats, just one more than Sinn Fein’s total.

At stake in the outcome from Thursday’s snap election is the revival or demise of power-sharing between Irish Catholics and British Protestants, the central objective of the U.S.-brokered Good Friday peace accord nearly two decades ago.

Seeking to be No. 1

Sinn Fein was seeking to overtake the Protestants of the Democratic Unionists and become the No. 1 party for the first time in Northern Ireland, an achievement that would have given Sinn Fein the right to the top government post of first minister.

Sinn Fein’s new leader in Northern Ireland, 40-year-old Michelle O’Neill, was mobbed by supporters as the results rolled in.

O’Neill, the daughter of an Irish Republican Army veteran with childhood memories of the conflict that claimed 3,700 lives, represents a leadership shift within Sinn Fein to the first post-war generation following the IRA’s 1997 cease-fire and 2005 disarmament.

Thin margin of core support

Friday’s final Northern Ireland-wide total of first-preference votes, the core measure of party popularity, showed the Democratic Unionists narrowly on top with 28.1 percent, down 1 point from the last election 10 months ago. Sinn Fein trailed with 27.9 percent, up 4 points, the narrowest sectarian gap in Northern Ireland electoral history.

Commentators credited the Sinn Fein surge to Catholic voters’ anger at the Democratic Unionists, especially outgoing First Minister Arlene Foster, who was blamed for overseeing a wasteful green energy program and for fostering a culture of insults and disrespect toward Sinn Fein.

Voter turnout reached nearly 65 percent, 10 points higher than last year.

Former Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness triggered the election by resigning in January, declaring the vote a referendum on Foster’s leadership. McGuinness, a former IRA commander recently diagnosed with a rare and often fatal disease, didn’t seek re-election. 

 
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Cardinal Joseph Zen, the most senior Roman Catholic figure in China, says he is deeply skeptical about a reputedly imminent agreement between Chinese leaders in Beijing and Pope Francis in the Vatican.

Zen, the former bishop of Hong Kong, told VOA he is most concerned about the possibility that a rapprochement between China and the Vatican will give China’s government a role in the nomination of Catholic bishops there.

A deal between the church and the communist government would be seen by many as a diplomatic coup for Pope Francis, after more than six decades of difficult relations with China. But it is feared such an agreement could carry with it a resolution in China’s favor of the highly controversial issue of selecting bishops.

Pope choice of bishops is key

Reports of an agreement between the church and the Chinese leadership have been building for months, but details of what that agreement might consist of are still unverified.

Zen, who retired in 2009, freely admits he is an outspoken opponent of China’s communist-dominated system of government. 

“In the present situation,” he told VOA, “I cannot see how there might be a good deal” to be struck between the Vatican and Beijing.

In earlier interviews, the 85-year-old senior cleric has spoken more pungently, telling Britain’s Guardian newspaper, for example, that giving Beijing’s secular authorities a role in choosing Catholic bishops would be a “surrender” by the Vatican, and that “the people sooner or later will see the bishops are puppets of the government and not really the shepherds of the flock.”

Zen, interviewed by telephone from Hong Kong, told VOA the only acceptable way to include Chinese authorities in the choosing of new bishops is “if nomination starts and ends with the pope.”

If Beijing accepts the primacy of the Vatican in ecclesiastical matters, Zen said, “there’s hope to have a good agreement. But if it begins with the government, it is not acceptable.”

Troubled church-state history

China expelled Catholic missionaries after the Communist Party took power in 1949 and broke relations with the Vatican in 1957. Since then, the government has allowed Catholics to practice only in churches overseen by the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, an official organization staffed in part by communist officials.

“Patriotic Catholics” do not recognize the pope’s authority in the appointment of bishops or other church matters, despite Catholic doctrine that requires bishops to be named and appointed by the Vatican. Bishops in China are, in effect, appointed by the government.

That dilemma prompted many Chinese Catholics loyal to the pope to go underground years ago.

The Catholic News Agency reported that an agreement with China is a major effort of the current pope, and the highly charged issue of which entity will have greater say in appointing bishops is central to talks that have been under way for months. Those talks hit a bump in December, however, when a bishop supported by the Beijing government but not approved by the Vatican ordained a new group of senior Chinese clerics.

The current leader of the Hong Kong diocese, Cardinal John Tong, wrote in his diocesan newspaper three weeks ago that if Beijing and the Holy See agree that both sides have a role in appointing bishops, Chinese Catholics will have “essential freedom” but lack “entire freedom.”

‘Genuine or fake freedom’?

Zen likened this stance to elections in Hong Kong, where voters want universal suffrage and the right to directly nominate candidates for the former British territory’s chief executive. China insisted that candidates would not be chosen by a popular vote, but rather picked by a pro-Beijing committee. 

“It is the question of genuine or fake freedom, not the question of full or partial freedom,” Zen told VOA.

Zen said he believes Catholics who remain loyal to the pope and who have long worshiped underground are concerned that the Vatican may abandon them. 

“If there’s a bad agreement, the underground believers, and even some priests and believers belonging to the official church in China would feel that they have been betrayed … because they have suffered for so long just for being loyal to the Roman Church and the Holy See.”

To Zen, the key issue in China-Vatican relations centers on whether Beijing is willing to relinquish control of religious affairs.

“The government is going to control the church, which is a big problem,” he said. “The government has no plan, or will, to give up control over the church. They have been doing so for so many years, so how can they let it go? There’s absolutely no reason, right?

“The most important thing for the Communist Party is to control,” he said. “You can only do what the party allows you to do.”
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Georgia, responding to an intervention from a European court, on Friday suspended a ruling from a domestic court that had placed the country’s biggest independent TV station under the control of a close ally of the government.

The country’s supreme court on Thursday ordered broadcaster Rustavi 2 returned to its former co-owner, businessman Kibar Khalvashi, in a move critics at home and abroad called an attempt to muzzle the media.

Rustavi 2’s attorneys challenged the ruling at the European Court of Human Rights, which on Friday ordered its temporary suspension.

“We will follow this procedure,” Justice Minister Tea Tsulukiani told reporters, adding that the Strasbourg-based court had also instructed the government to abstain “from interfering with the broadcaster’s editorial policy in any manner.”

Government officials have accused the popular TV station of bias, while critics fear Khalvashi — a close supporter of the ruling Georgian Dream party — will silence the only strong media voice critical of the government.

President weighs in

President Giorgi Margvelashvili, who is at odds with the ruling party, on Friday added his voice to earlier U.S. and OSCE criticism of the ownership change.

“The international community perceives the process … not as a court case, but as a political process, which impacts media freedom and the pluralistic environment in Georgia,” he said in a televised statement.

Tsulukiani said the European court’s interim measure was in force until March 8, when it would examine the case further.

The TV station has been fighting court battles in Georgia since August 2015, when a lower court found in favor of Khalvashi, who says he was forced to give up his controlling stake under the former government of Mikheil Saakashvili.

The Supreme Court judgment confirmed that ruling Thursday.

Georgian Dream defeated Saakashvili’s party in an election in 2012 and strengthened its hold on power in another ballot in October 2016.
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Irish government investigators said Friday that up to 800 remains of babies have been discovered in a mass grave at a former Catholic home for unmarried mothers.

The discovery confirmed a local historian’s claim that the children may be in an unmarked grave at the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in the western Irish town of Tuam.

Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes Commission said excavations revealed an underground structure that contained “significant quantities of human remains.”

The commission said DNA analysis confirmed the ages of the children ranged from 35 weeks to three years. Records show the babies died between 1925 and 1961, the last year the home was open.

Burying the remains of babies in unmarked graves was a relatively common practice at Catholic-run homes in Ireland when there were high mortality rates in the early 20th century.

The government launched an investigation in 2014 after local historian Catherine Corless found death certificates for nearly 800 children who resided at the facility, but a burial record for only one baby.

“Everything pointed to this area being a mass grave,” Corless said. She recalled how boys playing in the area had reported seeing a pile of bones hidden in an underground chamber in the mid-1970s.

The Catholic church operated many of Ireland’s social services in the 20th century. Some housed tens of thousands of unmarried pregnant women, including rape victims.

Unmarried women and their babies were then viewed as a stain on Ireland’s reputation as a fervently-Catholic country.

The fathers of some of the babies were powerful figures, such as priests, the wealthy, and married men.

The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Katherine Zappone, said the news was “sad and disturbing.” She added that an investigation would continue and a decision would be made to determine what should happen with the remains.
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Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, is a low-key veteran diplomat who associates say is one of the most unlikely diplomats to wind up in the center of controversy.

Kislyak, whose conversations with close associates of U.S. President Donald Trump have repeatedly embarrassed the new administration, is 66 years old, married, with an adult daughter.

He has been a part of the Soviet and Russian foreign ministries since 1977. His posts have included the Soviet mission to the United Nations; Russia’s Permanent Representative to NATO; Russian ambassador to Belgium; and Deputy Minster of Foreign Affairs.

He has been Russian ambassador to the U.S. since 2008 and can frequently be seen casually strolling around Washington.

Michael McFaul, who was U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, calls Kislyak “a very successful ambassador who is “underrated” in Washington.

“I am impressed by him,” McFaul told a forum at George Washington University on Friday. “When I was in the government, sometimes he would drive me nuts because he was so active in developing relationships with individuals across our government. “

Observers describe Kislyak as friendly and say he likes to open the Russian Embassy for dinners and teas for journalists and Washington officials.

Kislyak once lamented that while Russia and the U.S. “were able to to end the Cold War … we weren’t able to build post-Cold War peace.”

He is also known for forcefully defending his government’s positions. For example, he has denounced the mass demonstrations that ousted Ukraine’s Russia-backed president, Viktor Yanukovych, in 2014 as the “unconstitutional forceful overthrow” of an elected government.

Like other Russian officials, Kislyak has also blamed Kyiv for the fighting between government forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, which has killed more than 9,750 people.

“What is portrayed as a Russian aggression in reality is a war of the government of Ukraine against their own people. So I would advise our friends not to misrepresent what is happening on the ground: government forces killing Ukrainian citizens. Nothing else, and nothing more,” he said.

VOA’s Nike Ching at the U.S. State Department contributed to this report.
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Mercedes is recalling about 1 million cars and SUVs worldwide because a starter part can overheat and cause fires.

The recall covers certain C-Class, E-Class and CLA cars and GLA and GLC SUVs, all from 2015 through 2017, including nearly 308,000 in the U.S.

The German automaker reported 51 fires worldwide, with about 30 in the United States. The company has no reports of any injuries.

Mercedes said in U.S. government documents released Friday that if for some reason the engine and transmission won’t turn over, a current limiter in the starter motor can overheat from repeated attempts to start the vehicles. That can cause the current limiter to overheat and melt nearby parts.

Mercedes began investigating the problem last June after getting field reports of “thermally damaged” current limiters.

Owners will be notified this month and again when replacement parts are available in July. It will take about an hour for dealers to install another fuse to prevent the problem. The repair will be done free of charge.
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Friday marks the United Nations’ World Wildlife Day, which aims to celebrate and raise awareness of the world’s wild animals and plants. Each year more species are added to the U.N.’s endangered list. Activists warn drastic action is needed to save many from extinction, as Henry Ridgwell reports.
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A threatened gap in global health funding because of a new ban on some U.S. aid prompted a hastily called international meeting of about 50 governments in Brussels Thursday. The major concern is continuing to support family planning services for poor countries.

At an estimated $10 billion a year, the U.S. provides the lion’s share of funding for global health services. But, as one of his first acts, President Donald Trump signed a decree prohibiting foreign NGOs that provide abortions or abortion counseling from receiving U.S. money, even if the groups use separate money for those purposes.

The move has raised alarm among international leaders, who see family planning, one of many services provided by the organizations, as a necessary and effective means of helping lift developing countries out of poverty. Leaders are also worried that a lack of U.S. funding will result in a rise in unsafe abortion practices.

Countries that gathered at a hastily called meeting said they hope to raise $600 million for family planning programs if the Trump administration revokes U.S. aid.

The first $100 million in pledges toward that goal has been made, the attendees said.

Other health services at risk

Jen Kates is the vice president and director of Global Health and HIV Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a U.S. public health think tank and advocacy organization.

She said the proposed ban on U.S. funding is broad and would affect much more than family planning services. She said funding for other services that an NGO provides also is in jeopardy. 

“It couldn’t receive U.S. HIV support, for example, or maternal and child health support, if it did [abortion-related] services with non-U.S. money,” she said. “So that just opens up the reach of this policy to a much wider range of organizations, which I think has led to some greater concern and urgency and more reaction from a wide range of groups about the implications.”

Trump proposal may go further

Previous U.S. bans have been enacted under Republican administrations dating back to President Ronald Reagan. They have involved withholding U.S. support for family planning services to NGOs that provide abortions or abortion counseling.

Kates explained that the Trump policy expands the reach by threatening to withhold monies for all global health services.

Through its many programs, the United States has saved the lives of millions of people around the world, she said. 

“The U.S. support has also been cited as an important example of ‘soft power’ — of ways the U.S. works in the world through non-military means to achieve national security goals, to secure nations and populations. So it’s definitely raised concerns about the impact on those goals and the progress that’s been made so far.”

Kates said specific details of the proposed global health funding ban have not yet been issued by the Trump administration, so it is not yet in effect. She said guidance is expected soon.
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European Union member states should be ready to detain more migrants who have no case for asylum to prevent them from running away before they are deported, the chief migration official with the bloc’s executive arm in Brussels said.

The European Union is pushing to reduce immigration after 1.6 million refugees and migrants reached its shores via the Mediterranean in 2014-16. It wants to prevent people from coming and deport more.

“Return rates have to be improved,” Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said Thursday in presenting new, nonbinding proposals by the executive European Commission.

“Member states should also use the possibility to place migrants in detention if there is a risk of absconding and for a sufficient period to be able to complete the return and readmission procedure,” he said.

Brussels estimates there may be around 1 million people in the EU who should be sent back but that only about a third of those slated for return are actually being returned.

Detention for minors?

While EU law sets out the minimum common standards for returns, some member states had stricter domestic rules that could be eased to streamline the process, the commission said.

It recommended shortening appeals deadlines, issuing return decisions with no expiration date and considering more detentions, including for minors, which is barred now by some member states.

It said EU states should be less coy about detaining people for the maximum allowed pre-deportation time limit of 18 months if that was needed to ensure an effective deportation.

’Dignified conditions’

“It should never be considered something like a concentration camp,” Avramopoulos said, fending off criticism by rights groups that detaining asylum seekers or migrants was inadvisable. “The ones who are not entitled to refugee status, they have to be returned. But in meantime they have to stay somewhere — in very dignified conditions — in order to avoid absconding.”

It said detention should not be ruled out for minors, which is currently a red line in some EU states.

Beyond deportation, the commission also proposed setting up by midyear a program for assisted voluntary returns from Europe. It is already stepping up funding for the U.N. migration agency IOM to increase returns from Libya, now the main embarkation point for Europe.

That is part of a broader plan to work with the internationally recognized government in Tripoli to cut the number of people getting on smugglers’ boats to head to Europe, even though the EU recognizes any cooperation with the lawless Libya can only bring limited results.

The bloc remains bitterly divided over what to do with those who are already in.

Poland, Hungry don’t take refugees

The commission said only 13,546 people had been moved from Greece and Italy — the two biggest arrival countries in the EU — to other member states under a two-year plan that was supposed to cover 160,000 people and expires in September.

It is a major point of contention among front-line Greece and Italy, Germany and Sweden — the eventual hosts for most refugees — and Poland and Hungary, which refuse to take in any.

Brussels has long threatened sanctions and, although the commission’s head Jean-Claude Juncker said Thursday that he would use “all the tools … to ensure that the commitments made are honored,” Avramopoulos also said that “we are not there yet.”
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A Californian musician and a Russian music fan decided to become business partners. They founded a company to manufacture high-end microphones from old machinery that once produced Kalashnikov rifles. VOA’s Faiza Elmasry has more. Faith Lapidus narrates.
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In his first major speech to Congress on Tuesday, President Donald Trump assured U.S. allies that he is committed to NATO, but some of his fellow Republicans have been blocking a Senate vote to expand the alliance for months.

The delay of the Senate’s consideration of Montenegro’s accession to the alliance has fueled questions about whether Trump’s administration and his party will stand up to Russia despite the president’s desire for better relations.

Moscow opposes any further expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Montenegro, a former Yugoslav republic with a population of 650,000, hopes to win the approval of all 28 NATO allies in time to become a full member at a summit in May. By late February, it had been approved by 24. Members see Montenegro’s accession as a way to counter Russia’s efforts to expand its influence in the Balkans.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has twice voted in favor of Montenegro, first in December and again in January.

But objections by Republican Senators Rand Paul and Mike Lee have blocked a vote in the full Senate.

At a September hearing, Paul questioned the wisdom of angering Russia by allowing a tiny country that could not play a significant role in defending the United States to join the trans-Atlantic alliance.

“I think we need to think this through, and we need to have a little bit more of a debate,” he said then.

On Wednesday, Paul said he still objected.

“I’m not so sure what they add to our defense. So I’m not so sure it’s a great idea that somehow Montenegro’s going to defend the United States,” Paul told Reuters.

A spokesman for Lee said the senator objected only to the Senate considering the matter with a quick voice vote, saying he wanted a roll call so every member’s position would be recorded.

Lee has not made his opinion on Montenegro’s accession public, the spokesman said.

Roll call

Asked if a roll call vote would be scheduled, a spokesman for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he had no updates to provide. If there is a Senate vote, Montenegro’s accession is expected to receive the two-thirds majority needed to pass.

Montenegrin Foreign Minister Srdjan Darmanovic told Reuters last month that he had been assured that the Senate would ratify his country’s accession by May.

Trump has called for closer ties to Moscow and criticized NATO as obsolete. In his speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, he reaffirmed support for the alliance, but said he expects U.S. allies to pay more of the cost of their own security needs.

Montenegrin officials blame Moscow for an extended campaign intended to prevent the country from joining NATO. Last month, they said they had evidence Russia was involved in a plot to overthrow its government during an election last October, an accusation Moscow dismissed.

The charges echoed assertions by U.S. intelligence that Russia sought to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election.

Trump could still keep Montenegro from joining by refusing to formally deposit the country’s Protocol of Accession. Doing so would signal a significant rift with his own party in Congress.
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A leading presidential candidate vowed Wednesday to press on with his campaign, despite a formal inquiry into a fake jobs scandal tainting his family and amid growing protests against political corruption in France.

Reversing an earlier promise that he would end his campaign if placed under formal investigation, conservative ex-prime minister Francois Fillon said at a press conference he would not give up despite a summons to appear before a judge March 15. He lambasted the judiciary and the media, likening the allegations against him to a political assassination.

“I won’t give up, I won’t surrender, I won’t pull out,” Fillon said, adding he counted on French voters to decide his fate rather than a biased legal procedure.”

Once considered a near shoo-in for president, the 62-year-old Fillon is now seeing his support vanish, a process that gathered tempo Wednesday as a key member of his campaign team stepped down and the center-right Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI) party allied with his campaign announced it was suspending its participation.

Shortly after Fillon’s remarks, Bruno Le Maire quit his campaign team as foreign affairs adviser, citing Fillon’s failure to keep his promise and withdraw should a formal investigation be opened.

Fillon was also booed during an afternoon visit to an agricultural fair outside Paris that is considered a must-attend event for presidential candidates.

Fillon “is losing his nerves” and “his sense of reality,” independent candidate Emmanuel Macron told French TV. Macron is running neck-and-neck with Fillon in second place, and his presidential bid will likely be boosted by his rival’s struggles.

Fillon’s announcement caps a campaign rocked by stunning upsets, with establishment favorites ousted from the race and the far-right eyeing its first real chance to capture the presidency during the April-May voting.

Fillon not alone

A French judge is investigating allegations that Fillon’s wife and two children were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for work they did not do. He is hardly the only politician mired in scandal. Far-right frontrunner Marine Le Pen and her National Front party also face allegations of misusing European Union funds to pay member of her staff for non-existent party jobs.

But the allegations targeting Fillon are particularly rankling, given his “Mr. Clean” image and his calls for public sacrifice and spending cuts – even as his family allegedly enriched itself on taxpayers’ money.

By contrast, French do not view Le Pen and her party as having personally enriching themselves from the allegedly fictitious jobs – and analysts suggest Le Pen’s anti-EU credentials may be burnished by the perceptions she has cheated the bloc.

Le Pen has also refused to be questioned by police, citing her immunity as a member of the EU parliament — although she lost that immunity this week over another matter.

Scandals have long entwined French political life, touching a slew of politicians, including former presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy was ordered to stand trial last month on charges of illegally financing his failed 2012 re-election bid. Chirac was given a suspended sentence six years ago after being convicted of graft when he was mayor of Paris.

But voter tolerance appears to be fading. Thousands joined recent anti-corruption protests across the country, including a small march to the National Assembly in Paris Wednesday afternoon. Those numbers pale compared with those of recent anti-corruption protests in Romania.

‘At all levels’

“The problem with corruption is [it’s] at all levels and concerns many more politicians than people think,” Greens Party lawmaker Isabelle Attard told local newspaper 20 Minutes of French corruption.  

Those sentiments are echoed by some French voters.

“He talks about equality for everyone, but according to the allegations he’s hired his wife and children for jobs they’re not necessarily qualified to do,” says 18-year-old student Solene Papegauy of Fillon. “That kind of injustice disgusts me.”

But 62-year-old Christian Humeau said he could tolerate a bit of graft.

“I’d rather have a politician who’s intelligent and good for the country, even if he robs a bit, than a stupid saint,” Humeau said, adding he would probably vote for Fillon.

But Fillon’s criticism of the judiciary drew a swift rebuttal by leftist President Francois Hollande, who is not running for re-election.

“I solemnly stand against all questioning of magistrates as they investigate and study cases in the respect of the rule of law,” Hollande said in a statement in which he described Fillon’s remarks as “extremely serious.”

Beyond questioning the impartiality of the judiciary, Fillon has also attacked the media, accusing it of having lynched and assassinated him politically.

The fake jobs allegations were first reported by satirical French newspaper Le Canard Enchaine. The scandal quickly earned the nickname “Penelopegate” in reference to Fillon’s wife, Penelope, who allegedly earned nearly $1 million as a parliamentary assistant and for editorial work that she may not have done.

Since then, new reports revealed his son and daughter also earned parliamentary salaries for questionable jobs.
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Tensions are increasing between Berlin and Ankara over claims that Turkey has been using Islamic preachers in Germany to spy on supporters of Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based cleric who President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses of orchestrating last July’s failed coup against him.

German police raided the homes last week of four imams suspected of collecting information on members of Gulen’s religious movement. Authorities say the spying in Germany by clerics paid by the Turkish government is part of a broader espionage effort likely extending to other European countries, including neighboring Austria, with imams hiding behind religion to conduct espionage on behalf of Ankara.

An official with the federal prosecutors’ office told VOA further raids couldn’t be ruled out.

Call for dismissal of DITIB-affiliated imams

The deputy chairman of the German Chancellor’s Christian Democratic party, Armin Laschet, called this week for the dismissal of all imams affiliated with the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), Germany’s largest Islamic umbrella group, which is tied to the Turkish government’s Directorate of Religion, or Diyanet.

“We want an Islamic religious instruction, but it must be independent of a foreign state in the long term,” said Laschet. The association oversees 900 mosques in Germany and their imams are selected by the Diyanet with their salaries paid by the religious authority.

DITIB said in a statement it will assist German federal prosecutors, but it has pointed out the raids have been on the private homes of imams and that the organization itself has not been targeted by police.

“The raids of private apartments of Muslim clerics have led to anger within the Muslim community,” DITIB warned in a statement posted on the organization’s web site. “Especially, since DITIB is intensively helping clarify the accusations since they first surfaced.”

Officials with Germany’s domestic intelligence agency said that 13 imams affiliated with DITIB sent the names of alleged Gulen followers to the Diyanet. Germany’s justice minister, Heiko Maas, warned in a statement following the raids: “Whoever uses Islam as a cover for espionage cannot rely [for protection] on the freedom of religion,” he said.

“If the suspicion that some DITIB imams were spying is confirmed, the organization must be seen, at least in part, as a long arm of the Turkish government,” he added.

According to German federal prosecutors, last week’s raids in the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rheinland-Palatinate are part of an investigation triggered by a September order from Diyanet instructing imams to supply Turkey’s diplomatic missions with information on Gulen supporters and sympathizers.

On a visit to Ankara in February, German Chancellor Merkel raised the issue, saying after a meeting with Turkey’s prime minister that “If we have problems, for example with the Gulen movement, and Turkey has information about that, then our security authorities must discuss that with each other.”

Other countries concerned

In neighboring Austria, lawmakers also are raising concerns about the activities of imams working in the country and paid for by Ankara. Green lawmaker Peter Pilz has accused the Erdogan government of operating a “global spying network,” and he claims to have documents showing the espionage extends across Europe and Asia.

In December, the Turkish government recalled its religious attache in the Netherlands after the Dutch government protested his role in collecting information on Gulen followers from 145 mosques.

The Dutch protest was prompted by a Diyanet report submitted to a commission of Turkish lawmakers tasked with investigating last July’s military coup attempt against President Erdogan. The report was loaded with references to intelligence supplied by imams from 38 countries about the activities of the Gulen movement.

In Scandinavia the activities of Turkish imams is attracting the attention of rights groups. The Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) has documented several cases since July’s coup attempt of what it sees as intimidating behavior by imams linked to Diyanet. It has highlighted the Facebook postings of Yusuf Yuksel, the general secretary of the Oslo-based Den Tyrkisk Islamske Union (Turkish Islamic Union), who has called on Turks living in Norway to spy on Gulen followers.

The Stockholm Center alleges some Turks living in Norway have had their Turkish passports revoked by Ankara as a consequence of profiling and intelligence activities by Turkish imams.

In the wake of the German raids, the chief of the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs, Mehmet Gormez, acknowledged some imams had “exceeded their authorities” and six have been recalled by Ankara. But he has dismissed accusations imams had been instructed to act as spies.

Senior Turkish officials have reacted angrily to the espionage allegations. On Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu criticized Berlin for allowing followers of what he termed the “Gulenist Terror Group” to live in Germany.

“It is not acceptable that they have found a place for themselves in a country like Germany,” he told reporters.
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Pope Francis is marking Ash Wednesday with prayer and a solemn procession between two churches on one of ancient’ Rome’s seven hills.

The day begins the Catholic church’s annual Lenten period of reflection in preparation for Easter. The day’s rituals include rubbing ashes on the head of faithful in a reminder of mortality.

Cloaked in purple vestments, Francis clutched his pastoral staff as he walked in procession in the fading afternoon sun. Recent warm weather helped flowers bloom on the Aventine Hill.

At the end of the few minutes of procession, and as a choir sang, Francis strode into St. Sabina’s Basilica, a 5th-century church that is considered among the most beautiful in Rome.

Francis was set to deliver a homily and put ashes on faithful in the basilica.

 
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U.S. President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging speech Tuesday to a joint session of Congress painted a bright future for America, but drew a mixed reaction from world leaders.

Japan

Japan was receptive to Trump’s plan to significantly boost defense spending as the island nation continues to face a nuclear threat in North Korea and increasing Chinese hostility in the Pacific.

Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, said Wednesday the country would have to wait and see how much Trump actually boosts defense spending, but regardless of the final number, any increase would help create world stability.

Earlier this week, Trump said he wants to increase military spending by $54 billion and recoup that money by cutting it from other, non-military government programs. The pledged increase in spending is seen as a show of commitment by Japanese officials, who had initially been concerned that Trump would shy away from the alliance.

China

The Chinese were less enthralled with Trump’s speech, taking issue with his criticisms that one-sided trade deals have led to tens of thousands of factories relocating from the U.S. to China.

Trump said. “We’ve lost more than one-fourth of our manufacturing jobs since NAFTA was approved, and we’ve lost 60,000 factories since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. Our trade deficit in goods with the world last year was nearly $800 billion dollars. And overseas, we have inherited a series of tragic foreign policy disasters.”

China says that’s not exactly the case. Geng Shuang, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said the China-U.S. trade relationship has been “of mutual benefit,” and pointed to a recent report produced by the U.S. China Business Council (USCBC) that shows bilateral trade and investment created 2.65 million jobs in the United States in 2015.

“I think this figure speaks volumes,” he said.

Geng said China is willing to “expand and deepen” bilateral trade between the two countries, in an effort to “further benefit people in the two countries and around the world.” Companies from the United States and other countries have complained of unfair competition in China, where they are severely restricted from operating in many lucrative industries, like finance and telecom.

Russia

In Russia, a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin said no one in the government felt put-off, because Trump didn’t specifically mention the country in his speech. Instead, Dmitry Peskov said it is “natural” for a president to be busy with American affairs while our president Putin is busy with Russian affairs.”

Peskov said there are areas where American and Russian interests overlap. He mentioned the war on terror as one such area of interest and said Moscow is “full of patience” in its quest to work with Washington on global issues.

WATCH: Trump’s speech before congress
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