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Pope voices 'shame, remorse' for Irish child abuse
03/20 | 11:27 GMT
©AFP/File / Alberto Pizzoli
Pope Benedict XVI has issued a letter expressing "shame and remorse" for episodes of child sex abuse, saying "serious mistakes" were made by Irish bishops in responding to allegations.
©AFP/File / Alberto Pizzoli
The pope said priests and religious workers guilty of child abuse "must answer" for their crimes
VATICAN CITY (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday expressed in a letter "shame and remorse" for episodes of child sex abuse, saying "serious mistakes" were made by Irish bishops in responding to allegations.
"You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry," said the pope in a letter to Irish Catholics signed on Friday and published on Saturday.
The pope said priests and religious workers guilty of child abuse "must answer" for their crimes "before properly constituted tribunals."
"Openly acknowledge your guilt, submit yourselves to the demands of justice, but do not despair of God's mercy," he said, addressing himself to offenders.
The pope announced a mission to Irish dioceses rocked by sex scandals to assist "the local Church on her path to renewal," and said he is ready to meet again with victims of child abuse.
©AFPTV
VIDEO Pope to sign child-abuse letter to Irish Duration:01:28
The pope also told Irish bishops "you and your predecessors failed, at times grievously, to apply the long-established norms of Canon law for the crime of child abuse."
"On several occasions since my election to the See of Peter, I have met with victims of sexual abuse, as indeed I am ready to do in the future."
Predominantly Catholic Ireland has been shocked by three judicial reports in the last five years revealing ill-treatment, abuse and cruelty by clerics and a cover-up of their activities by church authorities.
The latest revelations, compounded by evidence of a cover-up by the church hierarchy, shook Ireland late last year.
Analysis:Hard line on paedophile priests was long in coming
Since then, new abuse scandals have come to light in the pope's native Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
©AFP/File / Peter Muhly
The Roman Catholic church has been hit by a wave of abuse scandals
One in Four, a leading Irish victims group said on Friday the pope should apologise to Irish sex abuse victims and admit the Catholic church abused its power and deliberately covered up the activities of paedophile priests.
One in Four wants the pope to say "clearly and unequivocally" that the church "at the highest levels" had always known about the clerical sexual abuse of children.
Facts:Main child abuse scandals faced by Catholic church
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Playmate Anna Nicole Smith's heirs, left penniless
03/19 | 22:29 GMT
©AFP/Getty Images/File / Peter Kramer
Model Anna Nicole Smith pictured in New York in 2005. A US federal appeals court ruled Friday that Smith's heirs will not receive a penny of the more than 300 million dollars she claimed to her billionaire husband's inheritance.
©AFP/Getty Images/File / Peter Kramer
Model Anna Nicole Smith
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A US federal appeals court ruled Friday that Anna Nicole Smith's heirs will not receive a penny of the more than 300 million dollars she claimed to her billionaire husband's inheritance.
The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in California ruled in favor of E. Pierce Marshall, the son of Texas oil tycoon Howard Marshall, whom the late Playboy centerfold married in 1994 after meeting him while working at a strip club. She was 26 at the time and he was 89.
Marshall died in 1995 after a 14-month marriage, sparking a prolonged legal battle over his 1.6-billion-dollar estate.
At the time of her death from an accidental drug overdose in a Florida hotel room in February 2007, Smith's will -- which had not been updated -- left all her wealth to her son Daniel, who had died six months earlier, with attorney Howard Stern assigned as the estate executor.
The person who had stood to gain from her estate was Smith's daughter Dannielynn Hope, born in September 2006, who was at the center of a court battle over a fortune in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
When Smith died, the identity of the girl's father was unknown.
Stern, actress Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband Frederic van Anhalt and celebrity photographer Larry Birkhead all filed paternity suits claiming they were the father.
Birkhead was determined to be the girl's father. It remains unclear whether he will pursue further litigation.
London's Royal Opera House announced Wednesday that it would stage the world premiere of an opera about Smith's life in February 2011.
The work is by Mark-Anthony Turnage and writer Richard Thomas, who co-created the controversial production "Jerry Springer: The Opera."
A 2007 autopsy found that Smith's death -- a worldwide media sensation at the time -- was due to a lethal cocktail of anti-anxiety medication, methadone, antibiotics and other prescription drugs.
It came just months after her son, 20-year-old Daniel, died from an overdose in the Bahamas in September 2006.
People
Playmate Anna Nicole Smith's heirs, left ...Brazil surgical robot fixes heart in Latin America first
03/19 | 17:32 GMT
©Albert Einstein Hospital
Brazilian surgeons at the Albert Enistein Hospital in Sao Paulo used a multi-armed robot to repair a hole in a woman's heart in the first operation of its kind in Latin America, they told AFP Friday.
©Albert Einstein Hospital
Albert Enistein Hospital in Sao Paulo
SAO PAULO (AFP) - Brazilian surgeons used a multi-armed robot to repair a hole in a woman's heart in the first operation of its kind in Latin America, they told AFP Friday.
Robinson Poffo, one of the surgeons involved, said the procedure was performed on a 35-year-old patient this week at the Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo.
"There was a hole between the right side and left side of the heart. We corrected this intracardiac defect by using the robot," he said.
The hi-tech assistant, a robot fitted with four arms able to carry out microscopic actions with precision, conducted the operation through three tiny incisions while doctors guided it with an endoscopic mini-camera inserted inside the anesthetized patient.
Poffo said the procedure avoided making a 25-centimeter (10-inch) cut in the chest of the patient, who was also able to leave hospital after three or four days instead of the usual 10 days.
The operation was unprecedented in Latin America, he said, though robot-assisted surgery has been carried out in the United States and Europe over the past decade.
High Tech
Brazil surgical robot fixes heart in Latin America ...Obama urges Senate action on finance reform
03/20 | 10:23 GMT
©AFP/File / Timothy A. Clary
A street sign marks Wall Street, New York's financial hub. US President Barack Obama on Saturday urged senators to pass a comprehensive overhaul of the US financial system that would include a new agency to protect consumers from Wall Street's excesses.
©AFP/File / Timothy A. Clary
A street sign marks Wall Street in New York
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President Barack Obama on Saturday urged senators to pass a comprehensive overhaul of the US financial system that would include a new agency to protect consumers from Wall Street's excesses.
"These reforms are essential," Obama said in his weekly radio address.
"As I've urged over the past year, we need common-sense rules that will allow our markets to function fairly and freely while reining in the worst practices of the financial industry."
On Monday, the Senate banking committee will debate a proposal by Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd that is designed to halt what he sees as abuse and excess by financial firms.
Congressional officials say the bill proposes greater scrutiny of large financial firms; oversight over the sales of complicated financial products such as derivatives; and measures to prevent banks from engaging in risky dealings through their own hedge funds.
It would also give shareholders inside companies a say in determining executive salaries and bonuses.
And the bill proposes to set up a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency to prevent predatory loan practices and other abuses.
The House of Representatives has already passed a similar reform proposal.
"I urge those in the Senate who support these reforms to remain strong, to resist the pressure from those who would preserve the status quo, to stand up for their constituents and our country," Obama said in his address.
"And I promise to use every tool at my disposal to see these reforms enacted: to ensure that the bill I sign into law reflects not the special interests of Wall Street, but the best interests of the American people."
Business
Obama urges Senate action on finance ...Thousands protests against re-election of Togo president
03/20 | 12:16 GMT
©AFP/File / Issouf Sanogo
Thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets of Togo's capital to protest against the re-election of President Faure Gnassingbe, seen here on March 4, with his opponent claiming the vote was stolen.
©AFP/File / Issouf Sanogo
Faure Gnassingbe
LOME (AFP) - Thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets of Togo's capital on Saturday to protest against the re-election of President Faure Gnassingbe, with his opponent claiming the vote was stolen.
His main rival in the March 4 poll, Jean-Pierre Fabre, led the peaceful protest along with other officials from the opposition Union of Forces for Change (UFC).
Fabre has rejected the results showing Gnassingbe, whose father General Gnassingbe Eyadema ruled the west African nation with an iron fist for 38 years until his death in 2005, won with 61 percent of the vote.
Fabre claims to have won between 55 and 60 percent.
Placards carried by protesters read "Enough is enough", "Let us save democracy" and "Togo people, free yourselves".
The opposition has staged several recent protests to denounce the poll results, which were confirmed on Thursday by the Constitutional Court.
Fabre took 34 percent of the vote, the court said.
The vote was peaceful, unlike the 2005 poll when hundreds were killed in clashes, and was seen as a test of democratic progress in the nation of 6.5 million people, though some observers expressed doubts over the election.
The head of west African bloc ECOWAS has congratulated Gnassingbe on his re-election and the opposition for the peaceful polls, the body said Saturday.
During a one-day official visit to Togo, James Victor Gbeho held "extensive" talks with Gnassingbe on "matters associated with the conduct of the election and its aftermath," ECOWAS said in a statement.
Although aspects of the election have been criticised, Gbeho said, it was the consensus of the international community, including ECOWAS, that the presidential election had been free and fair.
Africa
Thousands protests against re-election of Togo ...Pope voices 'shame, remorse' for Irish child abuse
03/20 | 11:27 GMT
©AFP/File / Alberto Pizzoli
Pope Benedict XVI has issued a letter expressing "shame and remorse" for episodes of child sex abuse, saying "serious mistakes" were made by Irish bishops in responding to allegations.
©AFP/File / Alberto Pizzoli
The pope said priests and religious workers guilty of child abuse "must answer" for their crimes
VATICAN CITY (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday expressed in a letter "shame and remorse" for episodes of child sex abuse, saying "serious mistakes" were made by Irish bishops in responding to allegations.
"You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry," said the pope in a letter to Irish Catholics signed on Friday and published on Saturday.
The pope said priests and religious workers guilty of child abuse "must answer" for their crimes "before properly constituted tribunals."
"Openly acknowledge your guilt, submit yourselves to the demands of justice, but do not despair of God's mercy," he said, addressing himself to offenders.
The pope announced a mission to Irish dioceses rocked by sex scandals to assist "the local Church on her path to renewal," and said he is ready to meet again with victims of child abuse.
©AFPTV
VIDEO Pope to sign child-abuse letter to Irish Duration:01:28
The pope also told Irish bishops "you and your predecessors failed, at times grievously, to apply the long-established norms of Canon law for the crime of child abuse."
"On several occasions since my election to the See of Peter, I have met with victims of sexual abuse, as indeed I am ready to do in the future."
Predominantly Catholic Ireland has been shocked by three judicial reports in the last five years revealing ill-treatment, abuse and cruelty by clerics and a cover-up of their activities by church authorities.
The latest revelations, compounded by evidence of a cover-up by the church hierarchy, shook Ireland late last year.
Analysis:Hard line on paedophile priests was long in coming
Since then, new abuse scandals have come to light in the pope's native Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
©AFP/File / Peter Muhly
The Roman Catholic church has been hit by a wave of abuse scandals
One in Four, a leading Irish victims group said on Friday the pope should apologise to Irish sex abuse victims and admit the Catholic church abused its power and deliberately covered up the activities of paedophile priests.
One in Four wants the pope to say "clearly and unequivocally" that the church "at the highest levels" had always known about the clerical sexual abuse of children.
Facts:Main child abuse scandals faced by Catholic church
International News
Pope voices 'shame, remorse' for Irish child ...Birthday boy Tamim flays England attack
03/20 | 11:37 GMT
©AFP / Munir Uz Zaman
Bangladesh's Tamim Iqbal plays a shot at the Sher-e Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka. Tamim celebrated his birthday with an explosive 85 as Bangladesh posted 330-8 on the opening day of the second and final Test against England on Saturday.
©AFP / Munir Uz Zaman
Tamim put the England attack to the sword in a superb exhibition of strokeplay
DHAKA (AFP) - Tamim Iqbal celebrated his birthday with an explosive 85 as Bangladesh posted 330-8 on the opening day of the second and final Test against England on Saturday.
The left-handed opener, who turned 21, put the England attack to the sword in a magnificent display of strokeplay, smashing one six and 13 fours in his 71-ball knock. He completed his half-century off just 34 balls.
Mohammad Mahmudullah (59), skipper Shakib Al Hasan (49), Junaid Siddique (39) and wicket-keeper Mushfiqur Rahim (30) fell when looking well-set. Naeem Islam was unbeaten on 33 at the close.
England had to work hard for wickets but still did not allow the hosts to build a big partnership on a batsman-friendly track, with spinners Graeme Swann (3-94) and James Tredwell (2-85) being the main wicket-takers.
Tamim looked set to achieve a rare feat of scoring a century in the opening session before being caught by wicketkeeper Matt Prior while attempting to sweep debutant Tredwell nine overs before the lunch break.
©AFP / Munir Uz Zaman
Swann picked 3-94 to put the brakes on Bangladesh innings
Only Australians Victor Trumper, Charles Macartney and Don Bradman, and Pakistan's Majid Khan have scored a century in the opening session of a Test.
Swann and Tredwell shared three wickets in the space of 48 runs to reduce the hosts to 167-4 in the afternoon, but Mahmudullah and Shakib steadied the innings with a 59-run stand for the fifth wicket.
The hosts were comfortably placed at 119-1 in the morning before losing Tamim, debutant Jahurul Islam and Siddique.
Tamim, who offered two chances, added 53 for the first wicket with Imrul Kayes (12) and 66 for the next with Siddique.
He was on 11 when he slashed paceman Tim Bresnan in the day's second over but Paul Collingwood failed to hold the ball after getting his hand to it at second slip.
©AFP / Munir Uz Zaman
Tamim smashed one six and 13 fours in his 71-ball knock
Tamim was on 35 when let off again, this time skipper Alastair Cook dropping him at mid-on off paceman Stuart Broad.
The England fast bowler, however, got a wicket in the same over when he had Kayes superbly caught by Steven Finn, who ran in from mid-off and dived to his right to latch on to the drive.
Bresnan was replaced by Swann after conceding 23 in his opening three overs, but runs continued to flow as the hosts raced to 95 in the opening hour.
Tamim greeted Swann with two fours in the bowler's opening over before smashing him for three boundaries and a six over long-on off successive deliveries to complete his sixth Test half-century.
