A leading cardinal has acknowledged the global scale of the child sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church amid the refusal by some bishops — notably in Asia and Africa — to admit clerical paedophilia was an issue in their countries. Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias told the extraordinary summit, on Friday, on the second day of a landmark summit at the Vatican on tackling paedophilia in the clergy, that the refusal by some […]
International
North Korean leader’s train arrives in China
by Matthew Knight and Claire Lee North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s armoured train arrived in China late Saturday ahead of his highly anticipated second summit with US President Donald Trump in Vietnam, according to media reports. The train arrived in the border city of Dandong after 9:00 pm local time (1300 GMT), according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency and the specialist outlet NK News. Official North Korean news agency KCNA confirmed Kim’s departure […]
Japan’s Okinawa to vote on controversial US base move
Residents of Japan’s Okinawa go to the polls Sunday in a closely watched referendum on the controversial relocation of a US military base to a remote part of the island. The vote is seen as highly symbolic but is also non-binding, raising questions about what effect it will have, even if opponents of the move, including Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki, prevail. The ballot will ask residents whether they support a plan to reclaim land at […]
Singer R. Kelly gets $1 million bail
A US judge set a $1 million bail for R&B superstar R. Kelly on Saturday after prosecutors laid out in graphic detail what they said was his long history of sexual abuse of four victims, three of them minors. Kelly, who is known for hits like “I Believe I Can Fly,” surrendered to police late Friday. He is charged with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse against the four females, one of them as […]
Toxic alcohol kills 98 in India, hundreds hospitalised
Ninety-eight workers have died and at least 200 others have been hospitalised in northeastern India after drinking toxic liquor, officials said Saturday, in the latest case of alcohol poisoning in the country. The deaths in Assam state came less than two weeks after tainted liquor killed about 100 people in the northern states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. In addition to the latest toll, at least 200 more people were still hospitalised, according to a […]
Cardinal admits Catholic church files on paedophile priests ‘destroyed’
A top Catholic cardinal admitted Saturday that Catholic church files on priests accused of sexually abusing children were destroyed or never even drawn up in a move which allowed paedophiles to prey on others. “Files that could have documented the terrible deeds and named those responsible were destroyed, or not even created,” German Cardinal Reinhard Marx told a landmark Vatican summit on tackling paedophilia within the clergy. “Instead of the perpetrators, the victims were regulated […]
Venezuela border tensions turn violent amid aid distribution bid
President Nicolas Maduro’s security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets Saturday on a crowd awaiting the distribution of humanitarian aid at the Venezuela-Colombia border as tensions spiked ahead of an opposition deadline to bring in food and medical aid. “We want to work!” people chanted as they faced Venezuelan National Guard riot police blocking the crossing at the Urena border bridge to Colombia, one of several ordered closed Maduro late Friday. In the confusion, […]
Bashir declares year-long state of emergency across Sudan
by Jay DESHMUKH / Abdelmoneim ABU IDRIS ALI Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir declared a nationwide state of emergency on Friday and dissolved the government in an effort to quell weeks of demonstrations that have rocked his iron-fisted rule. Deadly protests have broken out across the east African country since the government tripled the price of bread on December 19, with demonstrators accusing the government of mismanaging the nation’s economy and calling on the veteran leader […]
Venezuela’s Guaido defies travel ban as aid row turns deadly
by Rodrigo Almonacid with Esteban Rojas in Urena Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido claimed the military helped him defy a travel ban by the government of President Nicolas Maduro as he joined thousands over the Colombian border on Friday for a charity concert to push for humanitarian aid deliveries. Maduro is trying to prevent food and medicines, mainly from the US, from entering the country as tensions over access to the supplies turned deadly elsewhere. […]
Trump rules out reducing US troops from South Korea
President Donald Trump on Friday ruled out reducing US forces from South Korea as part of a deal in his upcoming summit with North Korea. “No, it’s not. That is not one of the things on the table,” Trump said when asked if he would consider pulling some of the 28,500 troops from South Korea. Trump, answering questions as he met at the White House with a senior Chinese official, said that he would not […]
Vietnam readying for Kim train arrival next week: sources
Vietnamese authorities are preparing for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to arrive by train next week ahead of his summit with US president Donald Trump, several sources told AFP Friday. The leaders are slated to meet in Hanoi on February 27-28 to follow up on their first meeting last June in Singapore that ended with vaguely worded commitments on dismantling Pyongyang’s nuclear program. Sources told AFP that Kim was expected to arrive by train […]
Superstar R. Kelly charged with sex abuse, including against minors
by Nova Safo, with Maggy Donaldson in New York R&B superstar R. Kelly was charged Friday in Chicago with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sex abuse against four victims, three of them minors. A judge approved a no-bail arrest warrant for the 52-year-old, a Cook County clerk told AFP, a major development in the Kelly saga that has seen him for decades accused of child pornography, sex with minors, operating a sex cult and sexual […]





