News in Brief
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been expelled from the Roman Catholic priesthood after he was found guilty of sexual crimes against minors and adults, the Vatican said on Saturday.
Pope Francis has decided that the ruling, which followed an appeal by the man who was a power-broker as Archbishop of Washington, D.C. from 2001 to 2006, was now final.
A Vatican statement said his crimes were made more serious by "the aggravating factor of the abuse of power”.
McCarrick, who in July became the first Roman Catholic prelate in nearly 100 years to lose the title of cardinal, has now become the highest profile church figure to be dismissed from the priesthood in modern times.
The decision comes as the Church is still grappling with a decades-long sexual abuse crisis that has exposed how predator priests were moved from parish to parish instead of being defrocked or turned over to civilian authorities in countries across the globe.
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MUNICH (Reuters) -- A day after British Defense Minister Gavin Williamson accused Moscow of "trying to goad the West” in a bellicose speech, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called him Britain’s minister of war.
Williamson, addressing the Munich Security Conference on Friday, accused Russia of "illegal activity” on land and at sea, and called on Moscow to reset its relationship with Western countries through dialogue.
Lavrov addressed the meeting on Saturday and seized the opportunity to jibe back at Williamson when asked about the security situation of the Arctic.
"We want to understand what kind of mandate NATO is going to have in the Arctic,” he said.
"If you listen to some people like the minister of war - oh, sorry the minister of defense - of the United Kingdom then you might get an impression that nobody except NATO have the right to be anywhere,” he added to laughter.
It was not the first time Lavrov and Williamson have clashed verbally.
Last year, after Williamson told Russia to "go away and shut up”, Lavrov retorted: "Maybe he lacks education.”
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KHARTOUM (Reuters) -- A parliamentary committee tasked with amending Sudan’s constitution to allow President Omar al-Bashir to run for another term said on Saturday it would indefinitely postpone a meeting to draft these changes, state news agency SUNA said.
The move comes amid almost daily street protests since mid-December, initially sparked by rising food prices and cash shortages, against Bashir’s nearly 30-year rule.
SUNA cited "special emergency commitments” as the cause for the delay without providing further details.
A majority of lawmakers had backed the proposed amendment two weeks before protests broke out and had tasked an emergency committee with drafting the changes ahead of the parliament’s first session in April.
Bashir, a former army officer, came to power after a military coup. He won elections in 2010 and 2015 after changes in the constitution following a peace agreement with southern rebels, who then seceded to form South Sudan.
He is now facing unprecedented opposition to his rule, with street protests involving hundreds of people almost every day. Elections are expected to be held in the spring of 2020.
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MOSCOW (AP) — A Moscow court has ordered a U.S. investment fund manager to be jailed for two months while facing fraud charges.
Michael Calvey, founder and senior partner at Baring Vostok equity firm, was detained Friday morning along with two other fund managers.
Prosecutors say Calvey is suspected of embezzling 2.5 billion rubles ($37 million) from Vostochny Bank, where Baring Vostok has a controlling stake.
But Calvey said during his court appearance Saturday that the charges against him are likely connected to an arbitration case that Baring Vostok initiated against some Vostochny Bank shareholders.
Calvey has worked for years in Russia and invested heavily in the country’s technology sector, including in the web search company Yandex.
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TIRANA (Reuters) -- Albanian opposition supporters broke a police cordon on Saturday after throwing petrol bombs and flares and began trying to smash the doors of the building that houses the office of Prime Minister Edi Rama, in a protest calling for him to step down.
A security officer appealed for calm as some protesters tried to dismantle scaffolding that protects an illuminated canopy - a piece of artwork dear to Rama.
Tear gas was thrown from above on the rioters, who were using metal rods to try to break the doors.
***
DAURA/YOLA, Nigeria (Reuters) -- Nigeria’s president and the leading opposition candidate urged people to remain calm after a national election scheduled for Saturday was postponed by a week just five hours before polls were due to open.
However, the opposition candidate, former vice president Atiku Abubakar, later accused President Muhammadu Buhari of instigating the delay in order to "disenfranchise” the electorate.
Early on Saturday morning, just as Nigerians began heading out to polling stations, the chairman of the electoral commission said it was no longer feasible to hold free and fair elections on Saturday due to logistical problems.
The vote will now be held on Feb. 23, the chairman said. But the delay still threw the country into renewed political uncertainty.
Electoral commission officials and Western diplomats said the problems concerned the inability to transport ballot papers and results sheets to some parts of the country, where 84 million voters have registered to vote.
Buhari, in power since 2015, faces a tight election contest against the People’s Democratic Party’s Atiku.
Pope Francis has decided that the ruling, which followed an appeal by the man who was a power-broker as Archbishop of Washington, D.C. from 2001 to 2006, was now final.
A Vatican statement said his crimes were made more serious by "the aggravating factor of the abuse of power”.
McCarrick, who in July became the first Roman Catholic prelate in nearly 100 years to lose the title of cardinal, has now become the highest profile church figure to be dismissed from the priesthood in modern times.
The decision comes as the Church is still grappling with a decades-long sexual abuse crisis that has exposed how predator priests were moved from parish to parish instead of being defrocked or turned over to civilian authorities in countries across the globe.
***
MUNICH (Reuters) -- A day after British Defense Minister Gavin Williamson accused Moscow of "trying to goad the West” in a bellicose speech, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called him Britain’s minister of war.
Williamson, addressing the Munich Security Conference on Friday, accused Russia of "illegal activity” on land and at sea, and called on Moscow to reset its relationship with Western countries through dialogue.
Lavrov addressed the meeting on Saturday and seized the opportunity to jibe back at Williamson when asked about the security situation of the Arctic.
"We want to understand what kind of mandate NATO is going to have in the Arctic,” he said.
"If you listen to some people like the minister of war - oh, sorry the minister of defense - of the United Kingdom then you might get an impression that nobody except NATO have the right to be anywhere,” he added to laughter.
It was not the first time Lavrov and Williamson have clashed verbally.
Last year, after Williamson told Russia to "go away and shut up”, Lavrov retorted: "Maybe he lacks education.”
***
KHARTOUM (Reuters) -- A parliamentary committee tasked with amending Sudan’s constitution to allow President Omar al-Bashir to run for another term said on Saturday it would indefinitely postpone a meeting to draft these changes, state news agency SUNA said.
The move comes amid almost daily street protests since mid-December, initially sparked by rising food prices and cash shortages, against Bashir’s nearly 30-year rule.
SUNA cited "special emergency commitments” as the cause for the delay without providing further details.
A majority of lawmakers had backed the proposed amendment two weeks before protests broke out and had tasked an emergency committee with drafting the changes ahead of the parliament’s first session in April.
Bashir, a former army officer, came to power after a military coup. He won elections in 2010 and 2015 after changes in the constitution following a peace agreement with southern rebels, who then seceded to form South Sudan.
He is now facing unprecedented opposition to his rule, with street protests involving hundreds of people almost every day. Elections are expected to be held in the spring of 2020.
***
MOSCOW (AP) — A Moscow court has ordered a U.S. investment fund manager to be jailed for two months while facing fraud charges.
Michael Calvey, founder and senior partner at Baring Vostok equity firm, was detained Friday morning along with two other fund managers.
Prosecutors say Calvey is suspected of embezzling 2.5 billion rubles ($37 million) from Vostochny Bank, where Baring Vostok has a controlling stake.
But Calvey said during his court appearance Saturday that the charges against him are likely connected to an arbitration case that Baring Vostok initiated against some Vostochny Bank shareholders.
Calvey has worked for years in Russia and invested heavily in the country’s technology sector, including in the web search company Yandex.
***
TIRANA (Reuters) -- Albanian opposition supporters broke a police cordon on Saturday after throwing petrol bombs and flares and began trying to smash the doors of the building that houses the office of Prime Minister Edi Rama, in a protest calling for him to step down.
A security officer appealed for calm as some protesters tried to dismantle scaffolding that protects an illuminated canopy - a piece of artwork dear to Rama.
Tear gas was thrown from above on the rioters, who were using metal rods to try to break the doors.
***
DAURA/YOLA, Nigeria (Reuters) -- Nigeria’s president and the leading opposition candidate urged people to remain calm after a national election scheduled for Saturday was postponed by a week just five hours before polls were due to open.
However, the opposition candidate, former vice president Atiku Abubakar, later accused President Muhammadu Buhari of instigating the delay in order to "disenfranchise” the electorate.
Early on Saturday morning, just as Nigerians began heading out to polling stations, the chairman of the electoral commission said it was no longer feasible to hold free and fair elections on Saturday due to logistical problems.
The vote will now be held on Feb. 23, the chairman said. But the delay still threw the country into renewed political uncertainty.
Electoral commission officials and Western diplomats said the problems concerned the inability to transport ballot papers and results sheets to some parts of the country, where 84 million voters have registered to vote.
Buhari, in power since 2015, faces a tight election contest against the People’s Democratic Party’s Atiku.