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This is VOA news. I'm David Byrd in Washington.
Pope Francis began the first papal visit to Ireland in almost four decades by expressing outrage that he shares with the Catholic community over what he called the "repugnant" crimes committed by priests and the failure of Church authorities to address them. Sabina Castelfranco has more. The pope spoke at Dublin Castle, where he addressed the issue of clerical sexual abuse. Pope Francis said the "The failure of ecclesiastical authorities - bishops, religious superiors, priests and others - to adequately address these repellent crimes has rightly given rise to outrage and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community." He added he shared those sentiments. Sabina Castelfranco. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been detained in Moscow just two months after his release from prison for organizing protests against the government of President Vladimir Putin. Reuters reporter Saskia O'Donoghu reports. The spokeswoman for the Russian opposition leader took to Twitter on Saturday, saying he'd been taken to a local police station but that the reason for his detention was unclear. Navalny has been detained and jailed several times for organizing anti-Kremlin protests. He was barred from running in Russia's presidential election earlier this year on what he says was a false pretext. The 42-year-old was last sentenced to 30 days in prison in May for his role in organizing nationwide protests against President Vladimir Putin. He had called for demonstrations in more than 90 times and cities under the slogan "Putin is not our tsar." He says the leader's presidency in Russia is a kin to autocratic rule. Saskia O'Donoghu. This is VOA news. Italy has disembarked all 150 people migrants from a rescue ship that had been docked for five days at a port in Sicily and had created a bitter standoff between Rome and other EU countries. Albania, Ireland and the Catholic Church have agreed to take the migrants, mainly men from Eritrea. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Albania offered to take 20 migrants while Ireland said it would take between 20 and 25. The rest will be housed by Italy's Catholic Church at no cost to the Italian government. More than 650,000 migrants have reached Italian shores since 2014. Rome has said that it will not let any more rescue ships dock unless those aboard are shared with other EU nations. Bulgarian authorities say a tourist bus flipped over on a rain-soaked highway near Sofia, killing at least 16 people and leaving 26 others injured. Police said the bus was carrying Bulgarian tourists following a trip to a monastery. It ran off the road in torrential rain and plunged down a ravine. In doing so, it hit four cars but the passengers in those vehicles were not injured. Ambulances rushed to the scene and took the injured to Sofia hospitals. Doctors said some of them are in critical condition. The country's health minister had given an initial death toll of 15, but doctors from Sofia's emergency hospital said another bus victim died Saturday night. Afghanistan's national security adviser and three other government officials abruptly resigned Saturday amid rising violence across the country and the high number of casualties the Taliban insurgency is inflicting on government forces. National security adviser Mohammad Hanif Atmar said in his resignation letter he was quitting the office because of developing "serious differences" with the top leadership of the government "over principles and policies." Reuters news agency reports that the country's defense minister, interior minister and the head of the National Directorate of Security also resigned. Separately on Saturday, a suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body near an office in the eastern city of Jalalabad and killed three people. Thousands of Rohingya refugees staged a protest to mark the one-year anniversary of Myanmar's crackdown on the ethnic minority that sent them fleeing across the border into Bangladesh. The protesters held demonstrations and said prayers in what has become the world's largest refugee camp at Cox's Bazar. Myanmar's government says the crackdown was security officials lawfully suppressing Muslim militants. International officials have characterized the crackdown as ethnic cleansing. I'm David Byrd, VOA news. |