Archbishop accused of sex abuse buried
WARSAW, Poland – The Polish church on Saturday buried a former papal diplomat who was charged by a Vatican court of sexually abusing minors and possessing child pornography but who died before he answered the accusations.
Silence and contemplation replaced the sermon at the burial for Jozef Wesolowski in the southern Polish village of Czorsztyn, according to a report by the Polish press agency PAP. At a funeral for him at the Vatican on Monday, eight minutes of silence also replaced a homily for the disgraced former archbishop.
At the burial, fragments from a letter to family members were read out in which he declared his innocence. “They accuse of me deeds which I never committed,” one of the letters said, according to PAP.
Wesolowski, 67, died in his room at the Vatican on Aug. 27 as he was awaiting trial in a Holy See court. The Vatican has said that a preliminary autopsy showed he died of a heart attack.
Russia is against more aid to Assad
BEIRUT – Anti-government violence erupted Saturday in a southern Syrian province that had largely stayed on the sidelines of the country’s civil war.
Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports suggesting that Russia was planning to expand its military support for Syrian President Bashar Assad prompted a warning from the U.S. that such actions could lead to a confrontation with coalition forces.
The violence in Sweida province, a stronghold of the Druze minority sect, came after the killing of a prominent cleric in rare explosions Friday that killed at least 25 others, activists and pro-government media said.
Rioters holding the government responsible for the cleric’s death destroyed the statue of late Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad and besieged security offices, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and other activist groups said.
In Washington, the State Department issued a statement after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to express concern about unconfirmed reports “suggesting an imminent enhanced Russian military build-up” in Syria.
Yemen rebel attack rises as Saudis killed
SANAA, Yemen – Saudi Arabia’s military said Saturday that 10 of its troops were killed in a rebel missile strike a day earlier in Yemen, raising the death toll in the attack to at least 55 coalition troops slain.
It was the first public acknowledgement by the Saudis that they have ground troops in Yemen, where they lead a coalition targeting Shiite rebels known as Houthis and their allies.
The United Arab Emirates lost 45 troops in the attack Friday, when rebels hit an ammunition depot in Marib, about 75 miles east of the capital, Sanaa. It was the deadliest day for the UAE’s military in the nation’s 44-year history.
“Ten Saudi soldiers from the Arab coalition forces were martyred,” in the attack on the weapons depot, Saudi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asiri said in a statement.
Hundreds of toddlers have died in Syria
DAMASCUS – A photograph of Aylan Kurdi, a 3-year-old Syrian child, lying face down and lifeless in the sand on a Turkish beach, has sparked anger and anguish worldwide. It’s raised a difficult question: Why did Aylan’s family leave Syria and decide to take the journey that led to his death?
The answer to that question is equally uncomfortable: By staying in Syria, Kurdi would have risked becoming one of the hundreds of other 3-year-olds killed by the civil war there. These children’s deaths are little acknowledged by the international community, but a variety of activist groups have recorded their deaths in the hope that they won’t be totally in vain.
One group that tracks the deaths in the war, the Syrian Revolution Martyr Database, has detailed records for the deaths of at least 232 children aged 3. The real number may be far higher: The organization, which is run by opponents to the Syrian regime, notes that in many cases, the age of the child is not known and thus cannot be recorded. In other cases, the death itself is never even recorded.
India targets tax ‘black money’ evaders
NEW DELHI – Among the pledges that propelled Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power a year ago was one to bring home millions of dollars of illicit money the super rich had stashed abroad.
Trying to make good on his promise, his government has introduced a string of tough new measures in recent months designed to crack down on so-called black money, and fueling panic among India’s elite and growing numbers of millionaires.
The anxiety has deepened in recent weeks as a government-imposed tax payment deadline for those who have stashed their cash in foreign accounts approaches on Sept. 30.
No one knows for sure how much black money is hidden in India and overseas, but estimates range from $400 billion to over $1 trillion.
The Associated Press and The Washington Post
