| Interpol issues wanted notice to Lebanon for ex-Nissan exec Posted: 01 Jan 2020 11:05 PM PST  Interpol issued a wanted notice Thursday for former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn, who jumped bail in Japan and fled to Lebanon rather than face trial on financial misconduct charges in an escape that has baffled and embarrassed authorities. Lebanese Justice Minister Albert Serhan told The Associated Press in an interview that Lebanon "will carry out its duties," suggesting for the first time that the automotive titan may be brought in for questioning.
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| Australian bushfires: Military deployed to help devastated communities as death toll rises Posted: 01 Jan 2020 05:05 AM PST  Australia deployed ships and helicopters on Wednesday to help towns devastated by bushfires that have left at least 17 people dead nationwide and destroyed more than 1,200 homes. At least seven people have died this week in New South Wales as fires rage across Australia. Another two people are missing. Record high temperatures and months of drought have created catastrophic conditions, with New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria hit particularly hard. In New South Wales tens of thousands of people are without power or communications after around 120 fires ripped through electricity infrastructure, phone lines and mobile towers. In Bateman Bay at least 31,000 people have been affected. Neil Pharaoh, whose mother lives in Bateman Bay, said: "There is no power, no mobile, no internet or utilities, the town is out of fuel and food, and no open roads to get in or out." "The water catchment for the bay has all been burnt… Residents are all worried about sewerage which is expected to start overflowing shortly without the pumping stations, and running out of tap water shortly," he wrote. In Mallacoota, Victoria, four thousand people were trapped on the beach after flames encircled the town. On Wednesday, helicopters were used to fly firefighters in and out of the area for shift changes after battling around the clock to save the town, and police boats brought drinking water and other vital supplies to those stranded. Andrew Crisp, Victoria's emergency management commissioner, said the 176-metre-long HMAS Choules may be used to evacuate many of those stranded in Mallacoota, though with a capacity of 1,000 it will be insufficient alone. HMAS Choules is due to arrive on Thursday. A firefighter hoses down trees and flying embers in an effort to secure nearby houses from bushfires near the town of Nowra in the Australian state of New South Wales Credit: AFP Gladys Berejiklian, NSW premier, said authorities were working to restore communications with areas cut off by the fires, though she warned conditions will deteriorate again over the weekend. "Weather conditions on Saturday will be as bad as they were" on Tuesday, Ms Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney. Staff at a small zoo in New South Wales defied an evacuation order so they could protect the 200 animals from harm, relocating some animals to a keeper's home. Chad Staples, director of Mogo Zoo, said on Wednesday that the situation had been "apocalyptic… (it) felt like Armageddon". "Right now in my house there's animals of all descriptions in all the different rooms, that are there safe and protected... not a single animal lost," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Bushfires rage as Australian heatwave leads to hottest ever day, in pictures Australia's capital Canberra was shrouded in thick smoke on Wednesday, reaching about 20 times hazardous levels, prompting health warnings. In Lake Macquarie, in eastern New South Wales, Luke Pearson, his partner and their three children were forced to flee their home on Wednesday. Mr Pearson told the Daily Telegraph that the family had just moved in to their house six weeks ago, but once three of the four roads in and out of the area were cut off by fire, they had no choice but to evacuate. "We have the fire app, it beeps whenever a fire gets within 25km. We looked and it said three of the four roads were already down, and we could see the smoke billowing," he said. The rubble of buildings sits on the ground after they were destroyed by fire in Cobargo, New South Wales Credit: Rex "The warning said to keep an eye out of embers and spot fires… We packed up and left… Our middle child has asthma and we have already had a few smoky days in the past couple of months," he said. The family fled to stay with relatives around 40km away. Elsewhere in the Lake Macquarie region, Miriam Basset and her family were keeping alert and prepared for the worst late on Wednesday. "We are still being vigilant. We live on the corner of a farm, surrounded by grass," she said. "We are keeping an eye out for to make sure there are no spot fires. We have smoke all around us." Smoke from Australia in Queenstown, New Zealand. Today vs yesterday. pic.twitter.com/laBw9bHJMQ— ��������var = Jason Thompson (@Agent_Jase) December 31, 2019 Ms Basset said her family had fire hoses and two generators ready, and "buckets of water around the place", and had removed as much flammable material from the house as possible. "The adrenaline pushing you along … The people fighting last night to defend their properties, I can only imagine how exhausted they are," she said. Ms Basset said a friend witnessed his neighbour having to drive her car through flames to escape her property. "She couldn't get out because burning trees fell across her driveway so she had to drive through a paddock downhill, with her lights on because of the smoke. There were flames leaping up around her car as she drove," she said. The woman was able to escape to the nearest evacuation centre. "Being surrounded by fire, the intensity of the heat, the sheer ferocity of it really struck us, it has been immense," she said.
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| China detains activists in year-end crackdown Posted: 02 Jan 2020 12:59 AM PST  Over a dozen Chinese lawyers and activists were detained or went missing in the final days of 2019 in a crackdown on participants of a private democracy gathering, rights groups said Thursday. The Chinese government has severely reduced the space for civil liberties since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012, rounding up rights lawyers, labour activists and even Marxists students in various sweeps. The latest crackdown was linked to a December gathering in the east coast city of Xiamen in Fujian province, where participants discussed "democratic transition in China," said Human Rights Watch researcher Wang Yaqiu.
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| Taiwan's military chief among eight dead in helicopter crash Posted: 01 Jan 2020 06:23 PM PST  Taiwan's top military official was among eight people killed on Thursday, after a helicopter carrying them to visit soldiers crashed in a mountainous area near the capital Taipei, the defense ministry said. The main portion of the helicopter lay in a northern forest wreathed in mist, its blades shattered, as dozens of rescuers combed the wreck for survivors, pictures released by emergency authorities showed. Shen, who took up his post in July, was Taiwan's highest-ranking general to die in the line of duty, President Tsai Ing-wen said, adding that she had asked the defense minister to launch an investigation.
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| In California: Blackouts, celeb scandals, crooked cops and wildfires Posted: 01 Jan 2020 03:32 PM PST  We closed out a year and ended a decade. ICYMI, here's a look back at last year's biggest stories from the Golden State
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| New corrections officers fired over apparent Nazi salute Posted: 01 Jan 2020 12:42 AM PST  "This kind of behavior will not be tolerated on my watch," said West Virginia Governor Jim Justice.
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| The 8 Most Beautiful Castle Gardens in Europe Posted: 02 Jan 2020 06:00 AM PST |
| Police, protesters clash in New Year's rally in Hong Kong Posted: 31 Dec 2019 08:08 PM PST  Hundreds of thousands of people packed Hong Kong streets for an annual New Year's Day protest march as the monthslong pro-democracy movement extended into 2020 with further violence between police and demonstrators. Banks and businesses identified with mainland China have been frequent targets of hardcore protesters.
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| Australia bushfires: Residents refuse to shake prime minister's hand as mass evacuation begins Posted: 02 Jan 2020 05:10 AM PST  The Australian prime minister was heckled out of a fire-ravaged town in New South Wales yesterday, as a mass evacuation of the region got under way ahead of worsening conditions. Video of the visit to Cobargo, on the south coast, showed Mr Morrison insist a woman shake his hand as she criticised him over the government's response to the crisis. "I am only shaking your hand if you give more funding to the RFS (Rural Fire Service)," she said as he turned away. "So many people have lost their homes. We need more help." The prime minister was soon ushered to his car by minders when other residents began shouting at him. "You won't be getting any votes down here buddy," one called out. Anger over the government's handling of the crisis has grown since the outbreak of wildfires, which have so far killed at least 17 people, including nine since Christmas Day, and destroyed 1,400 homes. In Cobargo, a 29-year-old dairy farmer and his father, 53, were killed earlier this week as fires swept through the village. Mr Morrison has overseen more than $12.9m cuts to the state's fire service in the latest budget, and has been criticised for rejecting calls to professionalise the service. New South Wales yesterday declared a state of emergency and told tourists to leave a 155-mile stretch of the state's southern coast as temperatures were expected to reach 40 degrees celsius on Saturday. The army began evacuations in what the state's transport minister said was the "largest mass relocation of people out of the region that we've ever seen". But tens of thousands were still stranded by last night as roads became gridlocked, with shops and fuel stations running out of supplies. A long queue forms at a Woolworths supermarket in Ulladulla, New South Wales The navy was called in to assist in getting people out of the town of Mallacoota, in the neighbouring state of Victoria, where 4,000 people were trapped on the beach for days after the fire devastated much of their town. Rob Rogers, NSW's Rural Fire Service deputy commissioner, said firefighters were struggling to combat the fires. "The message is we've got so much fire in that area, we have no capacity to contain these fires," he told ABC. Packed town hall meeting in Mallacoota. Residents told to prepare for evacuation on HMAS Choules. Not compulsory. Families sobbed and hugged as they try and decide what to do @theheraldsun pic.twitter.com/joYEzm39QU— David Hurley (@davidhurleyHS) January 2, 2020 "We just need to make sure that people are not in front of them." In addition to the loss of human life, homes and farmland, ecologists from the University of Sydney estimate almost half a billion mammals, birds and reptiles have been lost this fire season, with the toll expected to rise. At least 17 people were yesterday reported to be missing across Victoria. The body of Mick Roberts, who had been unaccounted for since Monday, was found dead in his home in Buchan, East Gippsland, on Wednesday, his niece said. Australia fires gallery "He's not missing any more ... sorry but his body has been found in his house… Very sad day for us to (start) the year but we're a bloody tight family and we will never forget our mate and my beautiful Uncle Mick," she wrote on Facebook . Brie Kingsely, a Melbourne resident, witnessed the sheer scale of the crisis while driving from Sydney to get home. She told The Telegraph the entire six-hour journey was "smoke-ridden". "I drove from Sydney to Melbourne. At the worst of it I was 10km from an active, 100 thousand-hectare out of control fire next to the Hume Highway," she said. "It wasn't closed, but basically smoke-ridden for six hours." A tender from HMAS Choules motors through smoke haze off the coast of Mallacoota Credit: AP Mr Morrison said the crisis was likely to last for months. "It (fires) will continue to go on until we can get some decent rain that can deal with some of the fires that have been burning for many, many months," he told reporters on Thursday. Australia's capital, Canberra, recorded the worst air quality of any city in the world on Thursday, an astonishing outcome for a city of just 400,000 people. An elderly woman who arrived in the city by plane died shortly after, and family believe it was related to smoke inhalation, though that is yet to be confirmed.
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| Lebanon denies president welcomed fugitive Ghosn Posted: 02 Jan 2020 12:48 AM PST  The Lebanese presidency on Thursday denied reports that President Michel Aoun had welcomed fugitive former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn upon his arrival in the country. The French-Lebanese tycoon, who had been under house arrest in Japan over several counts of financial misconduct, escaped in mysterious circumstances and arrived in Beirut on Monday. Several media outlets reported that he had been greeted by Aoun but a senior presidency official denied the two men had met.
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| El Chapo had same powers as a president, Mexico's leader says Posted: 02 Jan 2020 01:32 AM PST  Mexico's leader has claimed notorious drug cartel kingpin Joaquin Guzman – better known as El Chapo – wielded the power of a president up until his most recent imprisonment.In a New Year's speech Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office in December last year on an anti-corruption platform, celebrated his administration's efforts to root out those in high office who were found to have been under the thumb of El Chapo's deadly Sinaloa cartel.
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| Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher has launched a lifestyle brand after Trump reversed a military court's sentence Posted: 02 Jan 2020 09:48 AM PST  Edward Gallagher, who was charged with murder and acquitted, now has a lifestyle brand with T-shirts, hoodies, and drinking accessories.
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| Iraq riots expose an America weaker and with fewer options Posted: 31 Dec 2019 10:37 AM PST  Mobbing of US embassy after US strikes on state-sanctioned militia show America's plan of maximum pressure only added to chaosThe mobbing of a US embassy has historically served as an emblem of America in decline, so the scenes around the embattled mission in Baghdad are a fitting end to the decade.Tuesday's events are not quite as decisive as the 1975 helicopter evacuation of the embassy in Saigon, or the seizure of the Tehran embassy four years later. Iraqi forces did turn up eventually to protect the Baghdad mission. It turned out the ambassador was on holiday anyway, so he did not have to endure the humiliation of a rooftop escape. But the demonstration of US weakness, after spending $2tn in Iraq, was plain for all to see.The rioters, organised by the Iranian proxy militia Kata'ib Hezbollah (KH), brushed past Iraqi checkpoints, and there were members of parliament from the government bloc among them. Security forces who have had no compunction about firing tear gas canisters into the skulls of anti-Iranian protesters on Tahrir Square, stood by and watched molotov cocktails thrown at the US embassy. In its public pronouncements, the Iraqis put more blame on Washington than Tehran.For Iran, the embassy riot was the latest move in a deliberate strategy, to raise the costs of the US presence in Iraq and drive a wedge between the Iraqi government and Washington.The competition between the US and Iran for influence in Iraq would have escalated anyway as the threat from Isis declined. But the US effort to destroy Iran economically through its campaign of maximum pressure has meant the Iranians have nothing to lose."The Iranians have been very, very methodical over the past six months about their responses to the maximum pressure campaign. And unfortunately, it is not really met any counter-response," said Barbara Leaf, former US ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. "The question is: while Iran has a very methodical approach to upping the ante, do they at some point trip across a red line that they don't even know exists?"It was inevitable that the repeated attacks by KH on Iraqi bases hosting US troops would eventually lead to American casualties, as happened on Friday near Kirkuk, triggering US retaliatory airstrikes on KH camps in Iraq as well as Syria.Ariane Tabatabai, a political analyst at the Rand Corporation, said: "The US was sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place, because on the one hand, if it did not respond to this latest attack, considering that a US citizen was killed, it would have sent a pretty strong signal that the red line that it had laid out about US casualties didn't mean anything."By highlighting the Iraqi government's impotence on its own territory, the retaliation diverted public dissatisfaction with the heavy-handed Iranian presence in Iraq, to the desire to be rid of the imperious Americans. The US comes out of this tit-for-tat round weaker and with fewer options.It is not clear whether the US has a plan for what happens now. The campaign of maximum pressure was supposed to force Iran to accept a worse deal than the 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement on which Donald Trump walked out in 2018. The oil and banking embargo on Iran have been highly effective in damaging the Iranian economy, but have failed to make Iran bow to US demands for Tehran to give up its military stake in Middle East conflicts and its enrichment of uranium.Instead, Iran has hit back against tanker traffic in the Persian Gulf, and Saudi oil facilities, while ratcheting up pressure on the US military presence in Iraq.US officials have talked in recent days about "restoring deterrence" against such moves with air strikes against KH targets, and have warned they are ready to escalate by taking the fight into Iranian territory.US deterrence however is undermined by having given Iran so little to lose, and by the vacillation of the president, who is entering an election year claiming he has extricated the country from costly foreign wars, while simultaneously wanting to appear tough in the standoff with Iran."To those many millions of people in Iraq who want freedom and who don't want to be dominated and controlled by Iran, this is your time!" Trump tweeted on Tuesday, but he sent the tweet while on his way to his golf course in Palm Beach.He was convinced that maximum pressure would bring Iran to the negotiating table as a supplicant, but instead it has added to the chaos.No one – almost certainly not even Trump – knows how he is going to respond.
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| An Australian zookeeper took home monkeys, pandas, and a tiger in order to keep them safe from bushfires Posted: 01 Jan 2020 10:53 PM PST  "Right now in my house there's animals of all descriptions in all the different rooms with different pet packs so that they're safe and protected."
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| Why America's Navy Could Use A New Battleship Posted: 01 Jan 2020 05:00 AM PST  Thick armor is important.
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| USA TODAY's guide to cruise ship gratuity fees and service charges Posted: 31 Dec 2019 10:57 AM PST ![USA TODAY's guide to cruise ship gratuity fees and service charges]( "USA TODAY's guide to cruise ship gratuity fees and service charges") In the world of cruising, gratuities and service charges are the apex controversy. Check out these fee listings on major cruise lines.
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| Financial tug-of-war emerges over fire victims' settlement Posted: 31 Dec 2019 11:00 PM PST  A financial tug-of-war is emerging over the $13.5 billion that the nation's largest utility has agreed to pay to victims of recent California wildfires, as government agencies jockey for more than half the money to cover the costs of their response to the catastrophes. Pacific Gas & Electric declared bankruptcy nearly a year ago as it faced about $36 billion in claims from people who lost family members, homes and businesses in devastating wildfires in 2017 and 2018. PG&E settled with the insurers for $11 billion.
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| England rules that heterosexuals can form civil partnerships Posted: 31 Dec 2019 10:41 AM PST  England and Wales have marked a new era in which heterosexual couples can choose to have a civil partnership instead of a marriage.
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| Mexico vows to stand firm on granting asylum in Bolivia Posted: 02 Jan 2020 05:54 AM PST  Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Thursday pledged to stick by his government's decision to give asylum to several people in Mexico's embassy in Bolivia, which has sparked a dispute with the interim administration in La Paz. "It's a matter of principle," Lopez Obrador told reporters at a regular government news conference. To hand over the people would mean abandoning what Mexico regards as a "sacred" right to grant asylum, he added.
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| Yes, Bernie Sanders Could Be the Nominee—and It Would Be an Epic Nightmare for Democrats Posted: 02 Jan 2020 01:42 AM PST  It suddenly seems that Bernie Sanders—the democratic socialist candidate competing in the Democratic primaries—might actually have a chance of winning a significant number of primaries, thus becoming the Democratic Party's nominee for president in 2020. As Holly Otterbein and David Siders write in Politico, the man who was written off by party insiders "as a candidate with a committed but narrow base who was too far left to win the primary" is now forcing the party's leaders to reevaluate that assumption. The authors argue that "in the past few weeks, something has changed." Dan Pfeiffer, an Obama adviser, told them that Sanders could win Iowa and New Hampshire and create a groundswell by the time the South Carolina primary takes place (which Joe Biden is now favored to win) as well as Super Tuesday. By then Bernie might be an unstoppable force. NBC news national political correspondent Steve Kornacki told Newsweek that "if he starts winning, there could be a bandwagon effect." Why Democrats Haven't Laid a Glove on Bernie—YetShould Sanders actually pull off that feat, Donald Trump would have been given a gift that almost assures his re-election. Trump already refers to the Democrats as "the far-left Democrats" and has branded all of the potential candidates as socialists. "We will not live in a socialist America," he said to cheers in one of his rallies, suggesting that such an outcome would occur should any Democrat win the White House. With Sanders as the presidential candidate, he could say without distortion that the Vermont senator's end goal is a socialist United States.Two days before Christmas, Sanders appeared at a major rally, the first since his heart attack, in Venice, California. At the rally he was joined by his socialist comrade in arms, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Reporting on the event for Newsweek, reporter Benjamin Fearnow wrote that she said the United States shouldn't be called an advanced society even though it is the richest country in modern history, but "for who?…We're here to say that what we're living in now is not an advanced society. A society that allows people—it is fascism." As she ought to know, in a real fascist country, she would not be a member of the House, and Bernie Sanders would not be a senator. One of the first acts Hitler undertook after he had the Emergency Powers Act declared by the Reichstag was to outlaw both the Socialist and Communist parties, and the independent trade unions. Socialist and Communist elected members of the Reichstag were immediately arrested, and the party and trade union headquarters were raided by the Gestapo and closed down.What Ocasio-Cortez has really done is both to reveal her ignorance and to repeat the favorite accusation of members of the Old Left (Communists and their allies in the 40s and 50s) when they proclaimed all of their enemies to be fascists. They did it so many times that if a real fascist came along and was close to taking power in our country, no one would listen to their accusation. So prevalent was the accusation that the American Communist Party publicly called President Harry S. Truman—a president who desegregated the armed forces, favored universal health care coverage, and vetoed the repressive McCarran Internal Security Act—a fascist.While Sanders himself may be aware of the Communist past in the United States, and how the term "fascist" was carelessly thrown around at any opponent, Ocasio-Cortez clearly has no knowledge of the past history of the American far-left. So, when a rally participant shouted out after she called for building an advanced society, "Why aren't we calling it fascism? That's what it is," she agreed immediately and adopted the argument as her own.Sanders spelled out how he planned on becoming the Democratic candidate to the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times on December 21, the text of which was run in the paper's Dec. 26 edition. He told them that he was the contender most equipped to beat Donald Trump in the general election. Emphasizing his own populist credentials, Sanders argued that Trump exposed "the Democratic and the political establishment in general, including the Republican establishment." Clearly, Sanders was saying that like Trump, he rejected the political establishment, but unlike the President, he would act against the real power of the corporations, while Trump spoke the words but didn't walk the walk.Editorial Page editor Nick Goldberg put him on the spot. "What do you say to voters," Goldberg asked, "who worry that in a general election a candidate as far to the left as you are is going to alienate swing voters and moderates and independents?" Sanders answered that his campaign would register students who have not voted as well as poor African-American and Hispanic voters. By doing this he will create a "multi-racial coalition of African-Americans, of Latinos, of Asians." This base would be cemented by working with the union movement, persuading its members to vote for him, instead of letting disillusionment with America turn them to Trump, as they had when voting in 2016. Sanders addresses the very real problems facing Americans, i.e., the presence of growing economic inequality, the unparalleled wealth and power of the 1% that had seen "a $21-trillion increase in their wealth" in the last 30 years, while the "bottom half of America has seen a decline in their wealth." But his solutions like Medicare-for-All are not popular, as Elizabeth Warren found out when she attempted to explain how it would be paid for. Hopefully, sometime soon, rank-and-file Democrat activists and voters will come to their senses and understand that should Sanders win the nomination of his party, the election results will be a resounding victory for Trump. Our country is not the America of 1972, when Richard M. Nixon campaigned against the liberal-leftist Democratic candidate George McGovern, calling him the candidate of "amnesty, abortion and acid." In that election, only one state, Massachusetts, gave the electoral college vote to McGovern.Nevertheless, a Sanders nomination would put many states in play that Democrats had easily won for a quarter-century. Sanders is where he is today in part because no one has really attacked him. But just wait until Republicans spend a billion dollars painting him as an extremist. He'd win Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, Delaware, California, Washington, and Hawaii, and also probably New York and Illinois. But a huge number of usually-blue states would be up for grabs. He would also find that Democratic candidates would run away from him. Many candidates running for governor, the Senate, and the House in purple states and districts would refuse to campaign with him, or at best make a half-hearted quick appearance. In 1972, the candidate hated most by the left and the liberals, Richard Nixon, became President of the United States. Is that what today's Trump opponents really want to repeat?Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| 16 inmates killed in bloody two and a half hour prison riot after guns snuck into facility Posted: 01 Jan 2020 09:05 AM PST  At least 16 inmates were killed in a central Mexico prison and five others wounded after a bloody two-and-a-half hour riot.Four guns – believed to have been smuggled in during prison visits on Tuesday, where found at the scene of the violent melee at the Cienguillas state prison in the north-central Zacatecas region.
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| Russia Is Having Trouble Building The Submarines It Needs Posted: 01 Jan 2020 06:30 PM PST  The Russian navy — already badly depleted since the collapse of the Soviet Union — can't quickly replace most of its existing nuclear submarine fleet, which is approaching the end of its collective lifespan.
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| Armed, even in church: Texas shooting is about a lot more than Jack Wilson's heroism Posted: 01 Jan 2020 05:33 AM PST  Jack Wilson is a hero. But why were so many other parishioners armed? And how did the shooter get his gun, given his criminal history?
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| Arkansas judge orders officer who shot motorist reinstated Posted: 02 Jan 2020 08:09 AM PST ![Arkansas judge orders officer who shot motorist reinstated]( "Arkansas judge orders officer who shot motorist reinstated") An Arkansas judge on Thursday ordered the city of Little Rock to reinstate a police officer who was fired for fatally shooting a black motorist. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox reversed the Little Rock Civil Service Commission's ruling upholding the termination of Officer Charles Starks over the fatal shooting of Bradley Blackshire. Starks fired at least 15 times through the windshield of a car Blackshire was driving in February.
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| 'I am one of the undecided': With a month to go, many likely Iowa caucusgoers still unsure Posted: 01 Jan 2020 01:58 PM PST  With a month to go before the Feb. 3 caucuses, some Iowans are just starting to explore their choices. Others like several; can't make up their minds.
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| Star Wars, Ranked Posted: 02 Jan 2020 08:00 AM PST |
| Secretary of State Pompeo postpones Ukraine trip to focus on Iraq Posted: 01 Jan 2020 10:34 AM PST  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday postponed a trip to Ukraine so he could focus on the situation in Iraq after demonstrators attacked the U.S. embassy. Pompeo postponed his trip to Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Cyprus "due to the need for the Secretary to be in Washington, D.C., to continue monitoring the ongoing situation in Iraq and ensure the safety and security of Americans in the Middle East," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement. On Tuesday evening Pompeo had told Fox News the Ukraine trip was still on.
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| Kim Jong-un says North Korea ending moratoriums on tests - and touts 'new strategic weapon' Posted: 31 Dec 2019 06:58 PM PST  North Korea is to abandon its moratorium on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests, Kim Jong-un has announced. Addressing a meeting with party officials, the North Korean leader also said the country would unveil a new strategic weapon in the new future, the country's official KCNA news agency reported on Wednesday. "There is no ground for us to get unilaterally bound to the commitment any longer," he is quoted as saying. "The world will witness a new strategic weapon to be possessed by the DPRK in the near future." North Korea has not tested a long-range missile or nuclear warhead since 2017 under a self-imposed moratorium. But in recent weeks the North Koreans had been more bellicose as tensions escalated on the Korean peninsula. North Korean missile ranges Kim had signalled that Pyongyang was preparing a "gift" which would be unveiled if the US failed to make significant concessions in negotiations by the end of the year. He paved the way for the move at a meeting of 300 top officials. The North Koreans had been demanding the lifting of sanctions as a price for stepping up the pace of peace talks which appeared to have stalled. His announcement will be a blow for Donald Trump who thought personal diplomacy could end decades of hostility. A series of summits raised hopes that the US president's unconventional diplomatic approach could bear fruit. Mr Trump, who had derided Kim as "Rocket Man", struck a different note over the summer praising the leader of the rogue regime. The US president on Tuesday said he believed Kim would stick to his commitments on denuclearisation. "We did sign a contract, talking about denuclearisation. That was the number one sentence, 'denuclearisation', that was done in Singapore. I think he's a man of his word," a tuxedo-wearing Mr Trump told reporters before heading into New Year festivities at his holiday retreat in Florida. In Florida Mr Trump repeated his previous comments that he and Kim "like" each other and have a very good relationship. "He is representing his country. We will do what we have to do," he added. Hopes had been raised further when the two men met at the demilitarised zone (DMZ) which divides North and South Korea at the end of June. Kim Jong-un in pictures: Bizarre photoshoots of North Korea's leader The US president maintained that the suspension of nuclear tests was evidence that his approach had succeeded where others had failed and that Kim could be persuaded to give up his nuclear arsenal. In Washington officials had sought to play down the threat from Pyongyang, despite the increasingly aggressive noises coming from North Korea. But in recent months relations have worsened and the North Korean leader struck a harsh note at the meeting of the ruling Workers Party. "The US is raising demands contrary to the fundamental interests of our state and is adopting brigandish attitude," KCNA cited him as saying. "We can never sell our dignity," he added, saying Pyongyang would "shift to a shocking actual action to make (the US) pay for the pains sustained by our people". Kim added that "if the US persists in its hostile policy toward the DPRK, there will never be the denuclearisation on the Korean Peninsula and the DPRK will steadily develop necessary and prerequisite strategic weapons for the security of the state until the U.S. rolls back its hostile policy," according to the agency. Kim and President Donald Trump have met three times since June 2018, but negotiations have faltered since the collapse of their second summit last February in Vietnam. The North announced in December that it performed two "crucial" tests at its long-range rocket launch site that would further strengthen its nuclear deterrent, prompting speculation that it was developing an ICBM or planning a satellite launch that would provide an opportunity to advance its missile technologies. North Korea also last year ended a 17-month pause in ballistic activity by testing a slew of solid-fuel weapons that potentially expanded its capabilities to strike targets in South Korea and Japan, including U.S. military bases there.
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| Australia Faces Extinction but its Leaders Still Don’t Want to Know Posted: 02 Jan 2020 08:38 AM PST  "The whole town is on fire! Head for the beaches!"But wait…aren't those fireworks over Sydney Harbour Bridge?Such are the mixed signals as Australia proves, once more, that living at the front line of climate change—i.e. half the place seems to be on fire—hasn't taught its politicians anything.In Mallacoota, a coastal resort in southeastern Australia, the fires came in the night and 4,000 people fled for safety to the beach. Volunteer firefighters formed a last line of defense. At 8 a.m., one resident said, "It should have been daylight but it was black like midnight and we could hear the fire roaring…we were terrified for our lives." Ash was raining on the beach. At the same time the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, was facing calls to call off one of the city's most famous events, the New Year's Eve firework display launched from Sydney Harbour Bridge. Bush fires were ringing the city to the west, casting a pall in the sky, but she refused: The display would "give hope to people at a terrible time."A look at the current fire map shows the whole continent of Australia ringed with flame. This is the driest continent on earth, and it is now being cooked by global warming. After the driest spring on record it has had the hottest day, with average highs across the whole country above 107 degrees. As the apocalypse closed in on Mallacoota the prime minister, Scott Morrison, was AWOL: At first his office denied he was on holiday in Hawaii but when a picture emerged of him there, drinking beer with tourists on a beach, he was forced to head back home.In New South Wales, the state that includes Sydney, nine million acres have been burned up since November, and 900 homes destroyed.As well as being hot and dry, much of Australia is also largely flat. Alice Springs, a legendary town in the interior, is an exception, at 1,800 feet above sea level. Last week the temperature reached 113 degrees. "That's pretty insane" said Dr Andrew Watkins, head of long range forecasting at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.Australia's politicians seem to have no learning curve. Morrison, declaring that this was no time to discuss climate policy, said "We have been through these terrible disasters before, and we have come through the other side."Deputy prime minister Michael McCormack said climate concerns were being stoked by "raving inner-city lefties."Australia remains heavily committed to coal-fired power stations and has one of the highest per capita greenhouse gas emission rates. In fact, the 2020 World Climate Change Performance Index, just released, ranks Australia last of the 57 countries it monitors for their climate policies and said that it was actually going backwards under Morrison's Conservative government. But the opposition Labour party has also been attacked for pro-coal policies. There is a bone-headed zealotry to climate denial in Australia. Morrison has even gone as far as suggesting that environmental protest groups should be outlawed if they stage demonstrations. Nonetheless there have been no Trump-style purges of scientists from government departments. Dr. Watkins, the long range forecaster, has explained that a warming of the atmosphere over Antarctica is exacerbating the Australian droughts: "There is nothing left to evaporatively cool the air."At the same time, Australia is actually planning increases in fossil fuel production that would mean that by 2030 Australia, with 0.3 percent of the global population, will be responsible for 13 percent of the globally generated greenhouse gases.One of the people pushing this program is Gina Rinehart, the 65 year old chairman of a mining and extraction conglomerate with a net worth of $14.8 billion. With her coal mines producing more than 60 million tons a year, Rinehart has opposed carbon pollution taxes and has sponsored trips to Australia by climate change denier Christopher Monckton, a right wing British politician who is also an advocate for quack cures for multiple sclerosis, herpes and flu. In 2012 Rinehart complained that Australia's workforce was not competitive enough and cited African workers as a shining example: "Africans want to work and are willing to work for less than two dollars a day. Such statistics make me worry for this country's future." Julia Gillard, who was then prime minister, responded: "It's not the Australian way to toss people two dollars and then ask them to work for a day."The magnetic physical beauty of Australia is based, literally, on its fragility. The continent lives very close to the fine line between supportable life and extinction. When you drive into the outback, as I have done, and into the endless flatness of red desert, and eventually come to a small road town, it's evident that this outpost of life can have no physical roots it sits directly and rudely on the earth's crust.There is something gloriously defiant in the apparition, like a mirage that has suddenly become solid. A tin-roofed motel, a bar, a small school house, a few hundred people making a barely viable but happy life—and, usually, boasting one incongruous, well irrigated little piece of England, a soft, green cricket pitch.This is in miniature a diagram of how the whole country was built, from Sydney to Alice Springs—creating a fragile hold on a knowingly precarious basis. To endure, it needed a compact between the settlers and the hard face of nature. This was understood by the original inhabitants. Aboriginal culture worked out its own successful model of sustainable life.But no such compact has been made or even suggested by Australia's current political and industrial axis. There is something unique at work here, an ingrained cowboy hubris that is depressing to see—a kind of resurgent warrior philistinism in denial of irrefutable science.Nobody has better defined this species than the great Australian satirist Barry Humphries. No, not his best-known creation, the terrifying, ball-breaking matriarch Dame Edna Everage.I'm talking about the Honorable Les Patterson, the grandly titled Australian cultural attaché to the Court of St. James, whose job specification is to promote Australia as a place "with more culture than a penicillin factory" and as a "thinking organism." In this bibulous vulgarian, leering with unbridled testosterone and misogyny, Humphries identifies and impersonates a type—not a stereotype—that lives on in the country's political class.Nonetheless it would be an act of gross hypocrisy to see their behavior only as an Australian aberration. The country's obtuse political leaders set an example that other reactionary regimes in countries as varied as Brazil and Poland, are all too ready to emulate as they, too, protect their fossil fuel interests. And then, of course, there is us. Our continent has far greater ecological resilience than Australia, but our stewardship of it is just as careless as theirs. Under Trump's calculated demolition of science-based regulations America is on the same path to the apocalypse. It's simply happening a lot more slowly. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| The Air Force's B-52 Bomber: Could it Serve 100 Years? Posted: 31 Dec 2019 02:00 PM PST  Will it make it?
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| Chinese Government Razes Over 100 Uighur Cemeteries, Images Show Posted: 02 Jan 2020 09:17 AM PST  The Chinese government has systematically razed over 100 Uighur cemeteries belonging to the Muslim minority group in Xinjiang province, according to satellite images reviewed by CNN.Working for months to review images and collaborate with sources on the ground, CNN found that dozens of official Chinese government notices announcing the "relocation" of cemeteries corresponded to the destruction of traditional cemeteries. Another 60 gravesites have vanished entirely, a fact the Chinese government did not deny."Governments . . . in Xinjiang fully respect and guarantee the freedom of all ethnic groups . . . to choose cemeteries, and funeral and burial methods," a statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs read in part.One official explained a prior "relocation" as necessary "to meet the demand of city planning and promote construction."The destruction of Uighur cemeteries was first reported in October by AFP and satellite imagery analysts Earthrise Alliance. They found at least 45 cemeteries had been destroyed since 2014, and reporters on the ground found shattered tombs and discarded human bones.In southern Xinjiang, Uighurs were given two days to claim their dead or face "consequences" and the relocation of their deceased loved ones as "unclaimed corpse."China's totalitarian crackdown against the Uighurs has received attention after a trove of government documents leaked to The New York Times revealed how the Chinese were systematically incarcerating Uighurs and separating families in the name of "training."A report in November detailed how the Chinese government created a "Pair up and Become Family" program to assign Chinese men to live with and monitor the families of detained Uighur men in order to "promote ethnic unity."
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| Coast Guard suspends search for 5 missing crew in Alaska Posted: 01 Jan 2020 12:04 PM PST ![Coast Guard suspends search for 5 missing crew in Alaska]( "Coast Guard suspends search for 5 missing crew in Alaska") The search for five crew members of a sunken fishing vessel in Alaska has been suspended, the U.S. Coast Guard said. Two other crew members of the Scandies Rose were rescued after the 130-foot crab fishing vessel from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, sank New Year's Eve, the Coast Guard said. "The decision to suspend an active search and rescue case is never easy, and it's only made after careful consideration of a myriad of factors," Coast Guard Rear Adm. Matthew Bell said in a statement late Wednesday evening.
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| A Florida woman drowned her dog in the bathtub for barking too much, police say. She faces felony animal cruelty Posted: 02 Jan 2020 06:32 AM PST ![A Florida woman drowned her dog in the bathtub for barking too much, police say. She faces felony animal cruelty]( "A Florida woman drowned her dog in the bathtub for barking too much, police say. She faces felony animal cruelty") Florida woman Margaret Kinsella allegedly drowned her dog in the bathtub for excessive barking. She now faces a felony animal cruelty charge.
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| Johannesburg Drive-by Killings Highlight Pervasive Crime Problem Posted: 02 Jan 2020 04:57 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Shootings in Johannesburg early Wednesday left two people dead and 16 injured, marring the city's New Year celebrations and highlighting a crime problem that's one of the government's biggest challenges.Two people died and six were injured when the occupants of a car fired on Poppy's restaurant in the relatively affluent northern Johannesburg suburb of Melville."A terrible tragedy happened in my neighborhood in the early hours of this morning," said a blog posted from Melville. "A drive-by shooting. Two young women, dead. A car guard, shot in the head and critical."Two hours later, at 3 a.m. local time, 11 people were injured by gunshots that police believe were fired from a highway overpass into a crowd at a public celebration at Mary Fitzgerald Square in the city center.While the first attack may have been sparked by an earlier fight, according to eye witnesses, the motive for the second is unclear. No arrests have been made.While gun violence in South Africa's biggest city is common, with five people killed in a single attack at a tavern in Soweto township in December, the location of the latest shootings has illustrated just how prevalent the problem is, with coverage dominating local news services.South Africa has the continent's highest murder rate, with an average of more than 50 people killed each day.According to Gun Free South Africa, a non-governmental organization, there are 4.5 million licensed firearms in the country, almost 10,000 are reported lost or stolen every year and 23 people are murdered daily with guns.(Adds gun prevalence in last paragraph)To contact the reporters on this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net;Pauline Bax in Johannesburg at pbax@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: John McCorry at jmccorry@bloomberg.net, Mike Cohen, John ViljoenFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 3 mountain lions killed after feeding on human remains Posted: 02 Jan 2020 04:05 AM PST  Three mountain lions found feeding on human remains near a popular Tucson hiking trail have been killed, authorities said Wednesday. CBS affiliate KOLD-TV reports the animals were not suspected of killing the person, but were determined to be a danger to the public because they showed no fear of officers trying to remove the remains.
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| Illinois becomes latest US state to legalize recreational pot Posted: 01 Jan 2020 07:51 AM PST  Illinois started the new year on a high note Wednesday, becoming the latest US state to legalize recreational marijuana as the governor pardoned thousands for past low-level cannabis convictions. The Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act will allow residents 21 and older to legally purchase marijuana and will expunge thousands of individuals' criminal convictions throughout the state. On Tuesday night, Pritzker granted 11,017 pardons for people with low-level cannabis convictions, the first round of a planned total of more than 700,000.
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| Dizzying Day for Trump Caps a Year Full of Them Posted: 01 Jan 2020 05:57 AM PST  PALM BEACH, Fla. -- It was perhaps fitting that President Donald Trump ended another dizzying year in office with a crisis-driven day of surreal contrasts, one that began with him tracking a Middle East emergency from his golf club and ended with a tuxedo-clad president holding forth about North Korea, Iran and impeachment and vaping on a red carpet over the thumping din of party music.Trump arrived at the $650-a-person annual New Year's Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago resort shortly after 9 p.m., as a packed ballroom of guests -- including his children; his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who wore a green and red bow tie; and a procession of local society notables -- awaited him inside.He weighed in on the prowess of the Marines who rushed to the American Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday to help secure diplomats there under what amounted to a siege by demonstrators whom Trump administration officials said were directed by Iran."We have some of our greatest warriors there," the president said. "They got in very quickly."With his wife, Melania Trump, standing beside him in a sparkling black and gold dress, Trump said that Iran would be foolish to start a war with the United States. "I don't think that would be a good idea for Iran," he said. "It wouldn't last very long.""I want to have peace," Trump added. "I like peace."The president also restated his confidence in the character of the brutal North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, who warned hours earlier that he had an unspecified "shocking" action planned to repay the United States for sustained economic sanctions on his country.Noting that Kim had previously pledged to begin a process of denuclearization -- although many experts differ with that assertion -- Trump professed little concern that his diplomacy with the North was on the rocks."I think he's a man of his word," the president said, adding that he still had a "very good relationship" with Kim.And of course there was impeachment: "A big, fat hoax," Trump said, something that has been engineered by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom he called "a highly overrated person."Over pounding drums and a chorus that made it difficult to hear his words, the president renewed his complaints that European leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, had not done more to support Ukraine.By then it had already been a long and action-filled day for Trump after what had been a relatively peaceful holiday escape. For the better part of two weeks, he had been laying low during his vacation, shuttling back and forth between Mar-a-Lago and the Trump International Golf Club only a few miles away.Before he stopped to talk to reporters Tuesday night, Trump had last been seen in public Christmas Eve morning, when he explained that his time at what he called the "Southern White House" was far from leisurely."I really pretty much work -- that's what I like to do, is work," Trump said in a video conference with military members serving overseas.But White House officials have provided scant details about his daily activities, leaving the news media to speculate about what the golf-loving president was doing during the several hours per day he has been spending at his golf club.As ever, the news media loomed particularly large in Trump's mind. He bristled Tuesday at what he called false reports that he had hit the links amid the Iraq crisis."The Fake News said I played golf today, and I did NOT!" he wrote in an afternoon tweet. "I had meeting in various locations, while closely monitoring the U.S. Embassy situation in Iraq, which I am still doing. The Corrupt Lamestream Media knew this but, not surprisingly, failed to report or correct!"And near the end of his red-carpet remarks, Trump offered a message for the news media ahead of the year that will determine if he serves another term."If you're honorable, I'm going to win by a lot," the president told the reporters assembled before him. "If you're not honorable, I'm just going to win the election by a little. So I'd rather have you be honorable, OK?"And with that, he headed into the grand ballroom of Mar-a-Lago, and the dawn of a new year as president of the United States.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Why The F-16 Fighter Still Strikes Fear Into Russia And China Posted: 01 Jan 2020 06:00 AM PST  The F-16 was born out of the conundrum experienced by the Air Force in the Vietnam War.
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| There were more mass shootings than days in 2019 Posted: 02 Jan 2020 02:06 AM PST  365 days. 417 mass shootings.
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| Australian prime minister is jeered in wildfire-ravaged zone Posted: 01 Jan 2020 07:49 PM PST  Prime Minister Scott Morrison was confronted by angry residents who cursed and insulted him Thursday as he visited a wildfire-ravaged corner of the country. Locals in Cobargo, in New South Wales, yelled at him, made obscene gestures and called him an "idiot" and worse, criticizing him for the lack of equipment to deal with the fires in town. The outpouring of anger came as authorities said 381 homes had been destroyed on the New South Wales southern coast this week.
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| Watch: Pope slaps woman’s hand to free himself from her grip Posted: 01 Jan 2020 03:57 AM PST ![Watch: Pope slaps woman's hand to free himself from her grip]( "Watch: Pope slaps woman's hand to free himself from her grip") Pope Francis apologised on Wednesday for having angrily slapped a woman's arm when she had grabbed hold of his hand and yanked him towards her, saying he had lost his patience and set a "bad example". His unusual apology came after he used his first homily of the new year to denounce violence against women, which he compared to profaning God. Pope Francis, 83, had a sharp encounter with a woman on Tuesday evening during a walkabout in St. Peters Square. The pilgrim, who has not been identified, unexpectedly seized his hand and pulled him towards her, causing him evident alarm. A clearly disgruntled Francis wrenched himself free by slapping down at her arm. "So many times we lose patience, even me, and I apologise for yesterday's bad example," the pope told thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday at the end of the traditional New Year Mass. He had used the service to issue a forthright condemnation of the abuse of women in modern society. "All violence inflicted on women is a desecration of God," he told a packed St. Peter's Basilica. "How often is a woman's body sacrificed on the profane altar of advertising, profit, pornography," he said, adding that the female body "must be freed from consumerism, it must be respected and honoured". Despite creating life, women "are continually offended, beaten, raped, forced into prostitution" and made to have abortions, he said. "We can understand our level of humanity by the way we treat a woman's body," he told the congregation. During his homily, Francis also addressed another theme close to his heart, immigration, saying women who moved abroad to provide for their children should be honoured, not scorned. "Today even motherhood is humiliated, because the only growth that interests us is economic growth," he said. "There are mothers, who risk perilous journeys to desperately try to give the fruit of the womb a better future and are judged to be redundant by people whose bellies are full of things, but whose hearts are empty of love." The leader of the Roman Catholic Church, which allows only unmarried men to be ordained as priests, also said women "must be fully involved in decision-making processes". The pope said last April the Church had to acknowledge a history of male domination and sexual abuse of women. A month later, he appointed for the first time four women to an important Vatican department that prepares the major meetings of world bishops.
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