News in Brief
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will hold a two-day summit with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un Feb. 27-28 in Vietnam to continue his efforts to persuade Kim to give up his nuclear weapons.
Trump has said his outreach to Kim and their first meeting last June in Singapore opened a path to peace. But there is not yet a concrete plan for how denuclearization could be implemented.
Denuclearizing North Korea is something that has eluded the U.S. for more than two decades, since it was first learned that North Korea was close to acquiring the means for nuclear weapons.
"As part of a bold new diplomacy, we continue our historic push for peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Trump said Tuesday in his State of the Union address.
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told Congress last week that U.S. intelligence officials do not believe Kim will eliminate his nuclear weapons or the capacity to build more because he believes they are key to the survival of the regime. Satellite video taken since the June summit has indicated North Korea is continuing to produce nuclear materials at its weapons factories.
***
BERLIN (Reuters) -- Germany must continue to increase its defenses spending despite having less wiggle room in its budget, NATO Secretary General said, after a government document on Monday showed the tax revenues were likely to rise less than expected in coming years.
Germany has begun to increase its spending and it has to continue on this way, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told Germany’s Funke newspaper group.
"I understand that this is not easy and states prefer investing in health, education or infrastructure, but we have to invest more in our security if the world becomes more unsafe,” Stoltenberg said.
The German government has assured NATO that it will stick to its aim of boosting defense spending to 1.5 percent of its gross domestic product by 2024, despite having less wiggle room in its budget, a German security source told Reuters on Wednesday.
***
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -- Pakistan’s top court on Wednesday warned the military and intelligence agencies they must not exceed their mandate and meddle in politics, an apparent rebuke over their handling of protests in 2017.
The judges’ comments were a rare public ticking off for the powerful armed forces, which have ruled for nearly half of Pakistan’s history and have in recent years been criticized for resuming a more active role in politics.
The army denies interfering.
The Supreme Court was investigating the so-called "Faizabad protest”, which saw a hardline group paralyze the capital Islamabad accusing a minister of blasphemy.
But the inquiry also looked at the role of security agencies, including ending the standoff through mediation. Seven people were killed and nearly 200 wounded when police initially tried but failed to remove protesters.
***
OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) -- Burkina Faso’s army said it had killed nearly 150 militants in response to an attack on civilians this week, but an international rights group said some of them had been executed in front of their families.
The army has stepped up operations in response to worsening security across northern Burkina since last year, including attacks by Islamist militants and inter-ethnic clashes, leading to accusations of extrajudicial killings and arbitrary arrests.
Rights activists fear such abuses could fuel spiraling instability in previously peaceful Burkina as they have in neighboring Mali, where jihadist groups have tapped into ethnic rivalries and anger with the central government to recruit.
***
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -- A board that oversees an ancient Hindu hill temple in southern India said on Wednesday it now favored allowing women of menstruating age to enter the temple, reversing its previous support for a centuries-old ban.
The Sabarimala temple has been the site of tension since India’s Supreme Court ruled in late September to end a ban on women and girls aged from 10-50 from entering.
The Travancore Devaswom Board, which administers the temple, had refused to abide by the court ruling and thousands of devotees have blocked attempts by women to visit the site.
On Wednesday, the board said it would now abide by the court ruling.
***
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican on Wednesday clarified comments by Pope Francis about a case of what he called "sexual slavery” within a French congregation of nuns, saying he was referring to an abuse of power that was reflected in instances of sexual abuse.
Francis cited the case when responding to a question about the sexual abuse of nuns by clergy during a press conference Tuesday returning home from the United Arab Emirates. It was the pope’s first-ever public acknowledgment of the problem of priests and bishops sexually abusing nuns. He stressed that the Vatican had been confronting the issue for some time and vowed to do more.
Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said Wednesday Francis "spoke of ‘sexual slavery’ to mean ‘manipulation’ or a type of abuse of power that is reflected in a sexual abuse.”
Trump has said his outreach to Kim and their first meeting last June in Singapore opened a path to peace. But there is not yet a concrete plan for how denuclearization could be implemented.
Denuclearizing North Korea is something that has eluded the U.S. for more than two decades, since it was first learned that North Korea was close to acquiring the means for nuclear weapons.
"As part of a bold new diplomacy, we continue our historic push for peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Trump said Tuesday in his State of the Union address.
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told Congress last week that U.S. intelligence officials do not believe Kim will eliminate his nuclear weapons or the capacity to build more because he believes they are key to the survival of the regime. Satellite video taken since the June summit has indicated North Korea is continuing to produce nuclear materials at its weapons factories.
***
BERLIN (Reuters) -- Germany must continue to increase its defenses spending despite having less wiggle room in its budget, NATO Secretary General said, after a government document on Monday showed the tax revenues were likely to rise less than expected in coming years.
Germany has begun to increase its spending and it has to continue on this way, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told Germany’s Funke newspaper group.
"I understand that this is not easy and states prefer investing in health, education or infrastructure, but we have to invest more in our security if the world becomes more unsafe,” Stoltenberg said.
The German government has assured NATO that it will stick to its aim of boosting defense spending to 1.5 percent of its gross domestic product by 2024, despite having less wiggle room in its budget, a German security source told Reuters on Wednesday.
***
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -- Pakistan’s top court on Wednesday warned the military and intelligence agencies they must not exceed their mandate and meddle in politics, an apparent rebuke over their handling of protests in 2017.
The judges’ comments were a rare public ticking off for the powerful armed forces, which have ruled for nearly half of Pakistan’s history and have in recent years been criticized for resuming a more active role in politics.
The army denies interfering.
The Supreme Court was investigating the so-called "Faizabad protest”, which saw a hardline group paralyze the capital Islamabad accusing a minister of blasphemy.
But the inquiry also looked at the role of security agencies, including ending the standoff through mediation. Seven people were killed and nearly 200 wounded when police initially tried but failed to remove protesters.
***
OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) -- Burkina Faso’s army said it had killed nearly 150 militants in response to an attack on civilians this week, but an international rights group said some of them had been executed in front of their families.
The army has stepped up operations in response to worsening security across northern Burkina since last year, including attacks by Islamist militants and inter-ethnic clashes, leading to accusations of extrajudicial killings and arbitrary arrests.
Rights activists fear such abuses could fuel spiraling instability in previously peaceful Burkina as they have in neighboring Mali, where jihadist groups have tapped into ethnic rivalries and anger with the central government to recruit.
***
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -- A board that oversees an ancient Hindu hill temple in southern India said on Wednesday it now favored allowing women of menstruating age to enter the temple, reversing its previous support for a centuries-old ban.
The Sabarimala temple has been the site of tension since India’s Supreme Court ruled in late September to end a ban on women and girls aged from 10-50 from entering.
The Travancore Devaswom Board, which administers the temple, had refused to abide by the court ruling and thousands of devotees have blocked attempts by women to visit the site.
On Wednesday, the board said it would now abide by the court ruling.
***
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican on Wednesday clarified comments by Pope Francis about a case of what he called "sexual slavery” within a French congregation of nuns, saying he was referring to an abuse of power that was reflected in instances of sexual abuse.
Francis cited the case when responding to a question about the sexual abuse of nuns by clergy during a press conference Tuesday returning home from the United Arab Emirates. It was the pope’s first-ever public acknowledgment of the problem of priests and bishops sexually abusing nuns. He stressed that the Vatican had been confronting the issue for some time and vowed to do more.
Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said Wednesday Francis "spoke of ‘sexual slavery’ to mean ‘manipulation’ or a type of abuse of power that is reflected in a sexual abuse.”