News in Brief

Date: 14 August 2019 - 21:53

News ID: ۶۹۳۴۸

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Dozens of people in New York state who were victims of sexual abuse as children sued the Roman Catholic Church in New York on Wednesday, the first day a new law temporarily enabled them to file lawsuits over decades-old crimes.
More than 70 people have filed lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Church in New York as of early Wednesday, according to the New York County Supreme Court records, most of them accusing priests of sexually abusing them as children and church leaders of covering up the priests’ crimes.
The state’s landmark Child Victims Act, which is effective from Wednesday and will scrap, for one year, a statute of limitations that had barred older complaints and which critics said was too restrictive. The law is expected to lead to hundreds of lawsuits against churches, schools and youth groups.
The change in the law means people of any age in New York state have a year to file a retroactive sexual abuse lawsuit against an alleged offender.

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DUBLIN (Reuters) -- Unions representing Ryanair cabin crew in Spain on Wednesday announced plans to hold 10 days of strikes in September unless the Irish airline changes its plans to close several bases in the country.
Ryanair staff unions in Britain, Ireland and Portugal have already announced plans to strike in the coming weeks over pay and conditions. Ryanair pilots in Spain are also due to vote on possible industrial action.
The low-cost carrier, Europe’s largest, managed to quell a series of industrial disputes last year by reaching recognition agreements with a number of unions in Europe and deals on pay and conditions with some.
But it has yet to move beyond recognition agreements with others and management angered staff two weeks ago by informing them it had 900 more pilots and crew than needed due to delays in the delivery of the grounded Boeing 737 MAX.

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BANGKOK (Reuters) -- Thai authorities issued arrest warrants on Wednesday for four more suspects believed to be responsible for a series of bomb attacks as the capital hosted a key diplomatic meeting this month.
Six small bombs and six incendiary devices went off on Aug. 2 as the foreign ministers of Southeast Asian nations met in Bangkok, an event also attended by diplomats from China, the United States and other world powers.
Four people were wounded, with police saying they were seeking at least 15 suspects over the coordinated attacks that could be linked to political issues.
Wednesday’s warrants seek four new suspects on charges of organized crime, arson, causing explosion, and illegal possession of explosives, Krisana Pattanacharoen, a deputy police spokesman, told Reuters.
"There will be more warrants for others involved,” he added, as the investigation continues.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) -- The Kremlin said on Wednesday that the existence of the World Trade Organization (WTO) would be in serious doubt if major economies such as the United States left it, a prospect raised a day earlier by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The Kremlin made the comment in response to a question about U.S. media reports which said Trump had threatened on Tuesday to pull out of the WTO over what he described as the organization’s unfair treatment of the United States.
"It is obvious that the existence of keystone international economic organizations (like the WTO) would be called into serious question after the exit of the biggest economies on earth,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.

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ATLANTA (AP) — Stifling heat smothered states from Texas to South Carolina on Tuesday with temperatures that felt like 120 degrees (49 Celsius), making it difficult to be outside for long, much less work or play.
As the entire Southeast baked amid heat warnings and advisories that reached from central Texas to coastal Georgia, construction workers toiled under a blazing sun in Louisiana. Alabama’s largest city opened its auditorium as a refuge for anyone needing to cool down.
Some schools and coaches limited football practice for players getting ready for the upcoming season, and social media was dotted with photos showing automobile thermometers with triple-digit readings.
Forecasters said a cold front and storms could lead to a slight midweek cool down, but for the meantime it was just too hot.

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ENGALURU/MUMBAI (Reuters) -- Floods and landslides have killed more than 270 people in India this month, displaced one million and inundated thousands of homes across six states, authorities said on Wednesday after two weeks of heavy monsoon rains.
The rains from June to September are a lifeline for rural India, delivering some 70% of the country’s rainfall, but they also cause death and destruction each year.
The southern states of Kerala and Karnataka, and Maharashtra and Gujarat in the west, were among the hardest hit by floods that washed away thousands of hectares of summer-sown crops and damaged roads and rail lines.
At least 95 people were killed and more than 50 are missing in Kerala, where heavy rainfall triggered dozens of landslides last week and trapped more than 100 people.

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