Sargent Shriver dead at 95

BETHESDA, Md., Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Robert Sargent Shriver, the first director of the U.S. Peace Corps, has died at age 95, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

The newspaper didn't report any other details about his death.

Shriver was hospitalized at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md., a hospital spokeswoman confirmed Sunday.

He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2003.

Besides being a driving force behind the Peace Corps, Shriver also was the first director of the Office of Economic Opportunity and served as ambassador to France.

He wound up on the ballot in 1972 as the Democratic nominee for vice president after Thomas Eagleton withdrew as George McGovern's running mate after it was revealed he had been treated for mental health issues.

Shriver was part of the Kennedy political family, having married Eunice Kennedy, who died in 2009. UPI

Final hurdle removed for mosque construction

The City Council’s Environment and Technical Committee has given its final approval to zoning changes that will permit the construction of two mosques, one in the Amager district and one in the Nordvest district.

Last night's 9-2 vote brings an end to nearly four decades of discussion about building the city’s first proper mosque.

Muslim groups are applauding the move. They say the vote sends a message that the city respects their religion and views it on an equal footing with other faiths.

Others, however, have voiced their opposition, particularly due to the design of the Nordvest building.

According to drawings for the 2,000 sq metre building released last year, the Shiite mosque on Vibevej Road will feature a blue onion dome standing 24 metres tall, and two 32 metre minarets. Due to noise concerns, the minarets will not be permitted to be used to call Muslims to prayer.

During the month-long hearing process about the Nordvest mosque earlier this year, some 1,156 people contacted the city with their opinion, compared with 93 for the one in Amager. In each case, about half were against. Most mentioned the designs, while others pointed to noise and increased traffic as problems.

In voting against the change, councillors Jacob Næsager, Conservative, and Karin Storgaard, Danish People’s Party, both cited concerns that the classical Muslim design of the Nordvest mosque was out of place in the working class neighbourhood.

Storgaard added that part of her opposition came from concerns that the 50 million kroner needed to build the Nordvest mosque would come from Iranian organisation Ahlul Bayt.

Currently, city Muslims gather for prayer in converted buildings, but once Muslim congregations secure enough funding, they expect to be worshipping in the new mosques within two years after construction begins.

Discussions about building a mosque in Copenhagen began in the 1970s, when Muslim ambassadors brought up the idea with the City Council. The Copenhagen Post

Tunisia's Interim President, PM Quit Ruling Party

State media reports from Tunisia say the country's interim president and prime minister have resigned from the ruling party of ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. 

The reports say President Fouad Mebazza and Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi quit the Democratic Constitutional Rally party but will retain their posts in running the country. 

The resignations may be an effort to end days of protests by demonstrators who have called for a complete eradication of the old ruling party.

Earlier Tuesday, fresh protests broke out in the capital, Tunis, with some demonstrators voicing opposition to the selection of a new government that included many members of Mr. Ben Ali's ruling party. 

Also Tuesday, at least three ministers announced they were resigning from Tunisia's day-old coalition government.  Officials with the country's main labor union (the UGTT) said the three ministers were withdrawing because the union had decided it will not recognize the new government. 

The Associated Press  said Tunisia's health minister, who is from another opposition party, also resigned.  

On Monday, Prime Minister Ghannouchi announced a coalition government that included the current ministers of defense, interior, foreign affairs and finance.  He announced lower-level Cabinet positions for several opposition figures. 

The announcement came after former president Ben Ali fled the country Friday after a month of protests and rioting sparked by widespread unemployment and high food prices.  His departure ended more than two decades of authoritarian rule.

The capital remains occupied by tanks and heavily armed riot police, while many stores and businesses are closed.  A ban on public assemblies is in place, as well as a strict nighttime curfew.

Tunisia's Interior Ministry said Monday that 78 people have died in the month-long violence.  The government previously put the number of fatalities at 23.  Unofficial estimates put the death toll at around 100.

Separately, ecstatic supporters of formerly exiled opposition leader Moncek Marzouki greeted him Tuesday as he arrived in the country from Paris.  The head of the Congress for the Republic party says he is considering running for president. 

Prime Minister Ghannouchi said Tunisia will work toward transparent, fair elections under the supervision of international observers.  A presidential poll is to be held within 60 days. VOA News

The Netherlands puts conditions on expanding EU bail-out fund

The Netherlands has stopped its opposition to the expansion of a European emergency fund to bail out countries which get into financial trouble on condition countries get their finances in order.

The financial stability fund can borrow up to €440bn and is central to the €750bn eurozone bail-out system. But in order to maintain a good credit rating, it can actually only lend countries around €250bn.

Finance minister Jan Kees de Jager said at the start of a two-day Ecofin meeting in Brussels that 'we must make sure the money we have promised is actually available'.

While it is 'theoretically possible' to increase the fund's loan capacity without raising individual contributions 'that will be difficult', he said in an interview in the Financieele Dagblad.

Debt crisis

Both Greece and Ireland have been bailed out during the debt crisis and there are worries Portugal and possibly Spain may also apply for emergency financing. But there are fears the fund needs more money because it will not be enough to cover both countries.

De Jager told Dow Jones news agency the Netherlands, Germany and Finland want eurozone members to commit to budget, banking sector and structural economic reforms before they take action on the fund.

The capacity should be expanded, 'only under the condition that the other countries deliver on other topics - economic reforms, fiscal consolidation, and address any concerns if any in the banking sector,' Dow Jones quoted De Jager as saying.

The Netherlands is one of six eurozone AAA rated members – alongside Germany, France, Austria, Luxembourg and Finland. The Dutch guarantee currently stands at €26bn. Dutch News

2 charged over iPad hacking on AT&T network

NEW YORK - US prosecutors have charged two men with stealing and distributing email addresses for about 120,000 users of Apple Inc's popular iPad.

Investigators accused Daniel Spitler and Andrew Auernheimer of using an "account slurper" to conduct a "brute force" attack over five days last June, to extract data about iPad users who accessed the Internet through AT&T Inc's 3G network.

Among the possible victims were celebrities, businesses executives and government officials such as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer, movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and perhaps then-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, prosecutors said.

Spitler, 26, and Auernheimer, 25, were taken into custody by FBI agents on Tuesday morning, US Attorney Paul Fishman in New Jersey said in a statement.

Prosecutors said both defendants are associated with Goatse Security, a group of "self-professed Internet 'trolls'" who try to disrupt online content and services. They said Auernheimer bragged in published interviews about his trolling.

"Hacking is not a competitive sport, and security breaches are not a game," Fishman said. "Companies that are hacked can suffer significant losses, and their customers made vulnerable to other crimes, privacy violations and unwanted contact".

The defendants were each charged with one count of fraud and one count of conspiracy to access a computer without authorization. Each charge carries a maximum punishment of five years in prison plus a $250,000 fine.

Bail was set at $50,000 for Spitler, a resident of San Francisco, at a hearing in the federal court in Newark, New Jersey. Auernheimer was detained pending a Jan. 21 hearing at the federal court in his hometown of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Slurping data

Lawyers for both defendants were not immediately available to comment. Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller declined to comment. AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said that company cooperates with law enforcement when necessary to protect customer privacy.

Responding to an email request to Goatse for comment, Sam Hocevar, a member of Goatse's "team," according to the group's website, confirmed the charges relate to the June hacking. He said he did not have additional information.

Apple launched the iPad last April. On Tuesday, it reported sales of 7.33 million of the tablet computers in its quarter ended Dec. 25, which included the holiday shopping season.

According to the complaint, the account slurper randomly guessed at data held on AT&T's servers until it could match names with emails.

The defendants then supplied stolen data to gossip website Gawker, which published some details, the complaint said.

Email threat

"Having email addresses by itself is not much of a threat: people give them out all the time, and spammers can and do guess them easily," said Eugene Spafford, executive director of the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security at Purdue University.

"It is more an issue if you can pair addresses with places of employment, such as government agencies," he added. "Then it becomes possible to collect further information, and perhaps get a toehold into Google, Bing or other information sources".

AT&T was Apple's partner in the United States to provide wireless service on the iPad. After the hacking, it shut off the feature that allowed email addresses to be obtained.

The case "has hopefully awakened users to the value of a simple email address," said Jamz Yaneza, a threat research manager at Internet security company Trend Micro Inc. China Daily

European court deals blow to no win, no fee deals in Naomi Campbell case

The European court of human rights today unanimously ruled that the recovery of success fees by lawyers in privacy and defamation cases represents a significant violation of freedom of expression, in a case brought by the publisher of the Daily Mirror.

In a judgment that is likely to have significant ramifications for future privacy and libel cases in the UK, the Strasbourg court ruled in favour of Mirror Group Newspapers, finding that the "depth and nature of the flaws" in the no win, no fee payments system is in breach of the European convention on human rights.

Today's ECHR judgment follows a marathon legal battle by MGN stretching back to 2001, when the Daily Mirror lost a case brought by Naomi Campbell for invasion of privacy, breach of confidence and breach of the Data Protection Act after it published an article and photographs of her leaving a Narcotics Anonymous meeting.

However, the ECHR ruled by six votes to one that there was no breach of the Daily Mirror's freedom of expression in the earlier UK court judgment that the paper had invaded Campbell's privacy.

The model was initially successful in her battle with the paper but a court of appeal later overturned that ruling. Then, in 2004, the House of Lords found by a majority of three to two that Campbell's privacy was invaded by the Trinity Mirror-owned paper.

The Daily Mirror was faced with a total bill for £850,000 for the two appeals, of which £365,000 represented success fees – although the newspaper reached a settlement on costs for a total of £500,000.

Strasbourg today said that the requirement to pay Campbell's success fees was "disproportionate".

"The court considers that the requirement that the applicant pay success fees to the claimant was disproportionate having regard to the legitimate aims sought to be achieved and exceeded even the broad margin of appreciation accorded to the government in such matters," the court judgment said.

Campbell was represented by the London-based law firm, Schillings, which took on her case as a conditional fee arrangement (CFA), entitling it to receive a 95% success fee and 100% of base costs.

MGN said: "This has been a long, hard fight on the success fee in this case, but we have been proved right. Not only that, but the whole system of CFAs with success fees has been found by the court to be flawed.

"This judgment should increase pressure on the coalition government to abolish the recovery of such fees from defendants and we look forward to that happening in the near future. We are disappointed to have lost the breach of confidence claim on a story which everyone agrees was in the public interest and which we have fought to defend for 10 years".

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: "The government is considering the court's ruling and will respond with its observations in due course as invited by the court.

"We have already put plans out to consultation for much-needed reform of conditional fee arrangements, including success fees. This is intended to support wider government efforts to help businesses and public bodies fearful of costly litigation.

"We want to deter avoidable or unnecessary cases by ensuring claimants have a financial interest in controlling legal costs in their case, which will reduce overall costs. Under the current arrangements claimants generally have no interest in the costs incurred because, win or lose, they do not have to pay anything towards them. Our proposals are designed to correct this and prevent the situation in which, regardless of the merits of their case, defendants are forced to settle for fear of prohibitive costs".

Freedom of expression advocates including Index on Censorship, Human Rights Watch and Global Witness told the Strasbourg court conditional fee agreements (CFAs) were having a "chilling effect" on freedom of expression in the UK.

Mark Stephens, the media lawyer who drafted a submission on behalf of the organisations, told the Guardian that today is a "very good day for justice in this country".

"This is a stunningly good result," Stephens said. "I put a brief in on behalf of NGOs [non-governmental organisations] who are being threatened by these rapacious claimant libel lawyers.

"Today the claimant libel lawyers' train has hit the buffers – this is a very good day for justice in this country. Our legal costs are 140 times more expensive than in many countries in Europe. I hope this is a clarion call to judges in the high court to keep costs low".

Jo Glanville, editor of Index on Censorship, added: "This is a resounding triumph, spelling the end of success fees in defamation and privacy cases, one of the most serious chilling effects on freedom of expression in the UK". The Guardian

Israeli tanks take part in deadly Gaza Strip raid

Israeli tanks have entered the northern Gaza Strip, sparking fighting that killed one Palestinian and injured two.

AFP news agency reported that seven tanks had made a limited incursion 200m into Palestinian territory on Tuesday, sparking a shootout with militants.

Other reports suggested armoured vehicles and bulldozers were involved.

Hamas emergency services spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya said Amjad al-Zaanein, 23, had been killed by Israeli tank fire east of Beit Hanoun.

Local Palestinians said the casualties had been collecting stones to recycle into bricks when they came under fire.

Israel's military said it was responding to an attack by Palestinian militants who had detonated an explosive device targeting an army patrol along the border.

"A short while after the incident, soldiers identified two militants handling the device trigger system and consequently opened fire on them," a military spokeswoman was quoted as telling AFP. "A hit was confirmed".

Cross-border violence has escalated in recent weeks. Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules the enclave, has appealed for calm, urging other militant factions to stop their attacks on Israel.

It is two years since a war in Gaza which left 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead. BBC News

Apple makes record profits of $6bn in last three months

Apple made record profits and record revenues in the last three months as shoppers bought more iPhones and iPads than analysts predicted.

The company said that in the quarter to 25 December net profit was $6bn (£3.7bn) on revenues of $26.74bn.

Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, said in a statement: "We had a phenomenal holiday quarter".

There was no mention of his health problems, but the subject may come up during a media conference call later.

Mr Jobs announced on Monday that he is taking indefinite medical leave. On Tuesday shares in the company fell as much as 6%, though they recovered to close 2.2% down.

While Mr Jobs is continuing as chief executive and will be involved in any major decisions, day-to-day running has passed to Tim Cook.

The news came on Monday, a US public holiday, when markets were closed. BBC News

Major earthquake strikes southwestern Pakistan

(CNN) -- An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.2 struck Wednesday morning in a remote area of southwestern Pakistan, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

The earthquake occurred at 1:23 a.m. (3:23 p.m. Tuesday ET) at a depth of 84 kilometers (52 miles). It was centered 45 kilometers (30 miles) west of Dalbandin, and 1,035 kilometers (640 miles) west-southwest of Islamabad, the USGS said on its website.

Arif Mahmood, director of the Pakistan Meteorological Department, put the epicenter at 320 km (about 200 miles) southwest of Quetta near Kharan, Balochistan, and said it had been felt in Punjab, Sindh, and Balochistan provinces in Pakistan, as well as parts of Iran and India.

Mahmood predicted major aftershocks. "Earthquakes with such magnitudes in the past have brought on aftershocks," he told CNN from Islamabad.

In Karachi, Faraz Leghari, director general police, said he had heard no immediate reports of casualties or building damage.

USGS initially reported the quake at 7.4. Quakes of 7.0 to 7.9 are classified as major; anything over 8.0 is classified as great. CNN

Fourth person arrested in death of newlywed in Mauritius

(CNN) -- A fourth person has been arrested in the death of an Irish newlywed at her honeymoon hotel on the island of Mauritius, police said Tuesday.

The arrest is "important" a police spokesman said, "as the man is involved in security work at the hotel".

Michaela Harte-McAreavey, 27, was found dead January 10 in her hotel room. An autopsy showed that she died of asphyxiation.

The three other suspects in her death are also employees of the luxury hotel, according to the Mauritius Police Force.

Room attendant Avinash Treebhoowoon, 29, and Sandip Moneea, 41, a floor supervisor, have been charged with murder. Room attendant Raj Theekoy, 33, faces a conspiracy charge. Police said one of the men has confessed and participated in the reconstruction.

The name of the fourth suspect was not given.

Authorities have said they believe the group was inside and burgling the room when Harte-McAreavey returned and surprised them, leading to the attack.

The killer used an electronic key card to enter the room, police said. The former beauty queen's husband was in the restaurant of the hotel when his wife was killed, and is not a suspect, authorities have said.

Thousands of mourners attended Harte-McAreavey's funeral on Monday at the same Catholic church in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, where she married Gaelic footballer John McAreavey on December 30. She was buried in her wedding dress in the graveyard next to the church.

In the Northern Ireland Assembly Monday, Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson said memories of the murdered honeymooner had united people in grief.

"Any life taken away by murder is a horrific event, all the more so when it is of a young person," he said. "The loss is even more harrowing and devastating because the victim in this case was a beautiful young woman who was on her honeymoon.

"This is one of the rare tragedies that has captured public attention and united the community in grief". CNN

Al-Qaida plans infiltrations

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Al-Qaida is reported to be forging ahead with plans to infiltrate white Westerners, all converts to Islam, into their home countries "to spread the flames of the South Asian war theater to the West".

The Westerners include 12 Canadians who are said to be undergoing terrorist training in jihadist camps in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan. Others reportedly include Americans, Britons and Germans.

Asia Times Online quoted "well-placed Taliban sources" as saying the Canadian group is led by a 30-year-old known as Abu Shahid. He converted to Islam in 2007.

ATO's Pakistan Bureau Chief Syed Saleem Shahzad, who has access to senior Islamist circles, reported that the Canadians initially joined Jihad al-Islami, a militant Egyptian group, which helped them get to Afghanistan in February 2010.

"After nine months, al-Qaida's leaders decided to send them to North Waziristan," Shahzad wrote. The group arrived at the al-Qaida base at Darpakhel in North Waziristan in November, where they remain awaiting infiltration back to Canada.

There was no way to independently verify Shahzad's report and it may be deliberate disinformation by the jihadists at a time when U.S.-led intelligence on the militants has greatly improved, with a score of senior chieftains killed in missile attacks by drones in recent months, but his reporting of Islamist activity in the past has proved to be reliable.

He quoted one militant leader at Darpakhel as saying that in Afghanistan the Canadians "received basic jihadi training, while currently they're busy doing some special courses.

"Their main learning is how to use sophisticated weapons and how to connect to local smuggling networks in North America.

"They're also learning how to use ordinary material like sugar and basic chemicals to make powerful explosives," he said.

"These militants will then return to their country to execute al-Qaida's plan of targeting big cities in Canada".

Shahzad, again quoting sources, named some of the Canadians as Jean Paull, known locally as Sadiq Ullah; Leman Langlois (Sana Ullah); James Richard (Abdur Rehman); Otto Paul (Abu Usman); Thomas (Abdullah) and Paul Gall (Hafuz Ullah). None of these could be independently verified.

Other Western militants undergoing training included converts from the United States, Britain and Germany, as well as militants from Central Asia and the Arab world, he reported.

Shahzad noted that eight Westerners were killed in a U.S. drone attack in October.

A senior German militant known as Abdul Ghaffar was slain in a drone strike in September, while two Britons identified as Stephen, aged 48, and Darry Smith, 25, were killed in another strike Dec. 15 in Darpakhel.

The reports of Western converts being mustered in North Waziristan in preparation for attacks in Europe and North America follow a recent flurry of intelligence warnings that such operations were likely.

No major jihadist attack has actually been mounted, so far as is known, but the ATO report underlined the growing threat Western governments perceive from renegades recruited by al-Qaida.

The report also supported the belief among Western intelligence services that the focal point of this threat is Pakistan, now the major battleground in the war against al-Qaida.

The increase in such activity observed in recent months has occurred at a time when al-Qaida has been re-energized by the gathering of a new field leadership comprising veteran commanders drawn from other regions, many with their eyes on hitting the West hard.

These include such notorious figures as Mohammed Ilyas Kashmiri, a 45-year-old Pakistani who fought the Indians in Kashmir for years and now heads Osama bin Laden's Lashkar-e Zil, or Shadow Army.

Kashmiri, who joined al-Qaida in 2005, is also closely connected to bin Laden's notorious Brigade 313, one of the key components of the Lashkar-e Zil. According to the CIA, "the footprints of Brigade 313 are now in Europe".

Al-Qaida's leadership cadre has also been reinforced by the return of veteran commanders such as Said al-Adel, an Egyptian, and other seasoned jihadists from Iran, where they were reportedly held under varying degrees of restriction since late 2001.

Adel, a former Egyptian Special Forces officer and considered one of bin Laden's most able lieutenants, is reported to be operating in North Waziristan and planning major strikes against the West. UPI

Bulgarian MEP Urges Serbia to Open Communist Era Files

Bulgaria's rightist MEP Andrey Kovatchev has advised Serbia to open the file of itscommunist era security services in order to speed up its EU prospects.

Kovatchev, who is from Bulgaria's ruling party GERB and the European People's Party, spoke in the European Parliament during a debate on the signing of an EU Association Agreement with Serbia and the latter's ambitions to secure the status of an EU candidate country by the end of 2011.

"Our goal is to turn the existing borders from divisive into uniting lines. It should not matter on which side of the border our citizens live – whether in Nis, Kalotina, Tsaribrod, or Sofia, whether in Prishtina or Leskovac. The European integration is the only road to stability, security, and prosperity for the citizens of Serbia and for their neighbors," the Bulgarian MEP stated.

He pointed out that Eastern European EU member states can give valuable advise toSerbia so that it can avoid their mistakes on its road to the EU.

One such piece of advice, in his view, is the opening of the archives of the repressive apparatus of the former Yugoslavia as soon as possible.

"In Bulgaria we have a very bitter experience with the late opening of the archives. The former security services are connected to a great extent with corruption and organized crime in the region. The future of a democratic country must not be controlled by its totalitarian past. We in Eastern Europe are well-aware of the manipulations of the former communists who will use every opportunity to present their actions as a protection of the national interests. Do not get fooled by that – their own welfare is their only driving force," Kovatchev declared welcoming Serbia's efforts to restrict the influence of the former communist structures in its government.

He thinks that the opening of the communist Yugoslavia archives will be a clear sign that Serbia wants to break away from the regime that held it apart from Europe for many decades. Novinite

Arizona shootings bring proposed ban on large ammunition magazines

(CNN) -- Legislation banning the kind of multiple-round ammunition magazine used in the Tucson, Arizona, shootings that killed six and critically wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will be introduced Tuesday in the U.S. House.

Democratic Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York will propose a measure banning "large capacity" ammunition magazines, defined as those that hold more than 10 rounds, said McCarthy's spokesman, Shams Tarek.

McCarthy scheduled a news conference Tuesday in Washington to announce the legislation.

Police say the semi-automatic weapon used in the January 8 mass shooting at a political event outside a supermarket had a magazine that could hold at least 30 rounds of ammunition.

Such large-capacity magazines were outlawed under the assault weapons ban that was in place from 1994 until 2004, when Congress let it expire under President George W. Bush. CNN

Film about Chernobyl disaster to debut at Berlinale

Alexander Mindadze's new film about the 1986 Chernobyl disaster will get its world premiere at next month's Berlin Film Festival.

V subbotu (Innocent Saturday) is a story of a Communist Party official, who is looking for his loved one to try to escape the aftermath of the world's worst nuclear accident in April 1986.

The $3-million picture starring Anton Shagin of Valery Todorovsky's Stilyagi (Dandies) fame was coproduced by Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and German companies.

The festival runs from February 10-20. RIA Novosti

Sierra Leone to extradite Russian diamond dealer

Russian diamond dealer Alexey Fedorenko, accused of murdering his boss, is to be extradited to Russia from Sierra Leone, a spokesman for the Russian prosecutor general's office said on Tuesday.

According to investigators, the body of the Russian president of a diamond company was discovered in Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, in October 2007. His body bore the marks of a violent murder.

Fedorenko was accused of murder in Russia in the same year and federal and international arrest warrants were issued. The extradition was delayed due to the lack of an extradition treaty between Russia and the west African country. RIA Novosti

Papa Bento 16 comentará era digital no 45º Dia Mundial das Comunicações Sociais

O papa Bento 16 discorrerá sobre a era digital e as novas mídias na próxima segunda-feira, 24 de janeiro, data em que será celebrado o 45º Dia Mundial das Comunicações Sociais.

Intitulada "Verdade, anúncio e autenticidade de vida na era digital", esta será a segunda mensagem sobre as mídias digitais que Bento 16 aborda nesta data.

O pontífice costuma encaminhar uma mensagem sobre comunicação em todo dia 24 de janeiro, em memória litúrgica de São Francisco de Sales, padroeiro dos jornalistas.

Segundo a Rádio Vaticana, a mensagem destacará que todos os processos de comunicação se encontram no ser humano "mesmo num tempo tão amplamente dominado pelas novas tecnologias".

O texto afirma que os novos instrumentos no campo das comunicações não modificam ou aumentam "o nível de credibilidade de cada um dos operadores, nem podem alterar seus valores de referência".

O discurso papal será proferido às 11h30 locais (14h30 no horário de Brasília), na sala do Pontifício Conselho para as Comunicações Sociais, ao lado do presidente do conselho, o arcebispo Claudio Maria Celli, do secretário, Dom Paul Tighe, do secretário adjunto, Dom Giuseppe Antonio Scotti, e do subsecretário, Angelo Scelzo. Folha Online

Vaticano pediu a bispos irlandeses que não denunciassem abusos

Uma carta do Vaticano de 1997 recém-revelada pedia para bispos irlandeses não reportarem à polícia todos os casos de suposto abuso infantil. A divulgação da carta pode levar à abertura de mais processos contra a Igreja Católica em todo o mundo, que nega qualquer envolvimento com acobertamento dos casos.

A carta, obtida pela emissora irlandesa RTE e fornecida para a Associated Press, documenta a rejeição do Vaticano de uma iniciativa da Igreja irlandesa de começar a ajudar a polícia a identificar padres pedófilos.

A mensagem da carta debilita as persistentes afirmações do Vaticano de que a Igreja nunca instruiu bispos a reter evidência ou suspeita de crimes da polícia. Ela enfatiza o direito da Igreja de lidar com todas as alegações de abuso infantil e determinar punições, ao invés de delegar esse poder às autoridades civis.

Para ativistas, a carta de 1997 demonstra de uma vez por todas que a proteção de padres pedófilos da investigação criminal não é apenas sancionada pelos líderes no Vaticano, mas ordenada por eles.

Um argumento fundamental utilizado pelo Vaticano em defesa de dezenas de processos judiciais sobre abuso sexual clerical nos EUA é que eles não tiveram nenhum papel na ordenação de autoridades da Igreja local de eliminação de provas dos crimes.

Em sua carta pastoral de 2010 ao povo irlandês, o Papa Bento 16 não condenou bispos irlandeses por não terem respeitado a lei canônica e não ofereceu nenhuma menção explícita dos esforços de proteção às crianças da Irlanda pela Igreja da Irlanda ou do Estado.

Colm O''Gorman, diretor da divisão irlandesa da Anistia Internacional, abusado várias vezes por um padre irlandês quando era coroinha e esteve entre as primeiras vítimas a falar sobre o assunto, em meados da década de 1990, disse que há evidências de que alguns bispos irlandeses continuaram a seguir as instruções do Vaticano de 1997 e reteram relatos de crimes contra crianças até 2008.

Segunda a carta, a Congregação para o Clero estabeleceria as políticas mundiais para a proteção da infância "no momento adequado".

O Vaticano não aceitou formalmente nenhum dos três principais documentos da Igreja irlandesa sobre proteção de menores desde 1996. Os três enfatizam a denúncia obrigatória de supostas violações. Folha Online