UNITED STATES
Prince Andrew to settle
Britain’s Prince Andrew, accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing a then-17-year-old girl supplied to him by financier Jeffrey Epstein, has agreed to settle by making a donation to his accuser’s charity and declaring that he never meant to malign her character, a court filing showed on Tuesday. The deal avoids a trial. Besides the undisclosed donation to Virginia Giuffre’s charity, it says that Andrew acknowledges she has suffered as an abuse victim. It did not specify whether Giuffre would personally receive money as part of the settlement. Judge Lewis Kaplan said he would suspend the case until March 17, when he might set a trial date if the lawyers do not ask for a dismissal by then.
UNITED STATES
Priest gets blessing wrong
Thousands of Catholics might have to be rebaptized after the church discovered that a priest had gotten one word wrong in the blessing for decades, invalidating the rite. For 26 years, Father Andres Arango had been performing the first sacrament of Catholic life with the words: “We baptize you,” instead of “I baptize you,” which is what the Vatican stipulates. “It is not the community that baptizes a person and incorporates them into the Church of Christ; rather, it is Christ, and Christ alone, who presides at all sacraments; therefore, it is Christ who baptizes,” Bishop of Phoenix Thomas Olmsted said. Arango’s error was identified in the middle of last year, a quarter of a century after he began working as a priest, diocese spokeswoman Katie Burke told reporters on Tuesday. “Father Arango was using the incorrect words from the beginning of his priesthood until it was brought to the attention of the diocese last summer,” she said. “I do not have an exact number of people baptized between 1995 and 2021, but I believe they number in the thousands.” Since the mistake came to light, Arango has quit his regular job “to dedicate his full time ministry to helping and healing the people who were affected by this mistake,” Burke said. “The diocese is working closely with Father Arango and the parishes at which he was previously assigned to notify and make arrangements to baptize anyone who may have been baptized invalidly.” A Web site has been set up to answer questions from worried parishioners, including: “Does this affect my marriage?” and: “Do I need to go to confession?”
BRAZIL
Flooding, landslides kill 18
Landslides and flooding triggered by heavy rainfall killed at least 18 people in a tourist town in the hills above Rio de Janeiro, firefighters said on Tuesday. “So far, 18 deaths caused by landslides and floods have been confirmed,” the Rio de Janeiro Fire Department said in a statement. More than 180 firefighters and other rescue workers were at the scene in the hill town of Petropolis, the statement said.
MEXICO
Migrants sew mouths shut
A dozen undocumented migrants on Mexico’s southern border on Tuesday sewed their mouths shut in a bid to convince the country’s immigration authority to grant them passage toward the US border. The migrants helped each other seal their lips using needles and plastic thread, leaving a small space to consume liquids and using alcohol to wipe away drops of blood from the stitches, images showed. “We hope that the National Migration Institute can see that they are bleeding, that they are human beings,” said Irineo Mujica, a rights advocate at the demonstration.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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