A court in eastern Bangladesh sentenced the principal of an Islamic school and 15 others to death on Thursday over the killing of an 18-year-old woman who was set on fire for refusing to drop sexual harassment charges against the principal.

Judge Mamunur Rashid of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal found Principal Siraj Ud Doula and the others guilty of either killing the woman or ordering her death in April.

The brutality of the death triggered nationwide protests. Tens of thousands of people attended Rafi’s funeral prayers in her hometown, and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina pledged that her family would get quick justice.

All of the defendants, including a local ruling party member and some students at the school, were in the court in handcuffs during the reading of the verdict.

The principal, who had smiled as he was brought into the court, cried after the verdict was announced, local media reported. The defendants began shouting and screaming as they were taken away in a police van.

Defense lawyer Giasuddin Nannu said all 16 defendants would appeal the verdict.

The young woman, Nusrat Jahan Rafi, said she was lured to the roof of her rural school in Feni town and told to withdraw the charges by five people clad in burqas. When she refused, she said her hands were tied and she was doused in kerosene and set on fire.

Rafi told the story to her brother in an ambulance as she was taken to a hospital and he recorded it on his mobile phone. She died four days later with burns covering 80% of her body.

The violence shook Bangladesh, triggering protests and raising concerns over the plight of women and girls in the conservative Muslim-majority nation of 160 million people, where sexual harassment and violence are often unreported, victims are intimidated and the legal process is lengthy. Many avoid reporting to police because of social stigma.

Police also often show an unwillingness to investigate such cases and are accused of being influenced by local politics or bribes, according to human rights groups.

Days before Rafi was set on fire, she filed a complaint with police that the principal of her madrasa had called her into his office and repeatedly touched her inappropriately. Her family agreed to help her to file the complaint, which prompted police to arrest the principal, infuriating him and his supporters. Influential local politicians backed the principal.

Police told the court that the suspects told them during interrogations that the attack on Rafi was planned and ordered by the principal from prison when his supporters visited him. They said it was timed for daytime so it would look like a suicide attempt.

The U.S. decision to remove almost all of its troops from Syria is creating waves in neighboring Israel as well. Israelis worry the move could lead to a resurgence of Islamic State and give Iran more freedom of movement. On a broader level, it raises questions about the U.S. commitment to its allies, including Israel.

Iran has long been Israel’s greatest concern. Israel Army Radio reported that Israel is stepping up its defenses over fears that Iran could launch a missile strike against Israel, as retaliation for a series of Israeli strikes on weapons convoys in Iraq and Syria that Israel says were destined for Hezbollah.

The Israeli radio report, which cited unnamed sources, said Israel was focusing its efforts on stopping low-flying cruise missiles and drones, which are harder to detect than ballistic missiles that can be intercepted.

Israel is worried that Iran is trying to build a land bridge from Iraq to Syria and assert greater control in the Middle East. Now, with the U.S. leaving Syria, Iran could have more of a free hand on Israel’s northern border.

But some Israeli analysts say they do not believe the U.S. pullout will make a direct difference.

“I know there are people concerned about Israel building a land bridge from Iraq to Syria,” (retired) General Shlomo Brom, an expert on Lebanon and Syria, said in an interview. “But that is already happening with U.S. forces present.”

‘U.S. weakness’

Brom said he was concerned, however, about what he calls “indirect implications” of the U.S. pullback.

“It shows U.S. weakness and the weakening position of the U.S. in the Middle East,” he said. “The alliance between Israel and the U.S. is so strong, and it is an essential element of its strategy. So if the U.S. is weakening, then Israel is weakening.”

President Donald Trump said a small number of U.S. troops will remain in Syria at the request of Israel and Jordan.

“The other region where we’ve been asked by Israel and Jordan to leave a small number of troops is a totally different section of Syria, near Jordan, and close to Israel,” Trump said when asked whether he would leave soldiers in Syria. “So we have a small group there, and we secured the oil. Other than that, there’s no reason for it, in our opinion.”

Israeli officials have long said that Israel must be prepared to take care of itself, and that opinion has only strengthened recently.

Islamic State

There also are fears the pullout could strengthen Islamic State. There are reports from Syria that more than 100 Islamic State prisoners escaped jails in the area attacked by Turkey. There is no evidence, though, that Islamic State is planning a direct attack on Israel.

It also appears that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is taking control of some of the areas in Syria that previously had been held by the Kurds. While Assad is far from a democratic leader, the Israeli-Syrian border was quiet for decades. Even now, during the past eight years of fighting, the border has been relatively calm. In several incidents where mortar fire has spilled over into the Golan Heights, Assad has worked to calm tensions.

Israel has stayed out of the eight-year civil war, except for medical aid for civilians in southern Syria. Thousands of civilians have been treated in Israeli hospitals. Officially, Israel says the future of Syria is up to the Syrian people. But privately, many officials say having Assad remain in charge is the best outcome Israel could have hoped for given the alternative of chaos or Islamic State gaining control.
 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared it “historic,” while Russian President Vladimir Putin dubbed as “crucial” the accord aimed at ending Turkey’s military operation into Syria against a Kurdish militia.

But Ankara is warning of a resumption of fighting if the deal is not honored.

The Tuesday agreement struck in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi aimed to address Ankara’s vital security concerns.

Under the deal, Ankara has agreed to a 150-hour cease-fire to allow the Syrian YPG Kurdish militia, the main force within the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to withdraw 30 kilometers from the Turkish border.

Last week, Turkey launched a military offensive into northeast Syria against the militia. Ankara designates the YPG as a terrorist organization linked to the PKK, which is waging a decades-long insurgency against Turkey.

WATCH: US President Trump Announces Syria Deal with Turkey ‘Permanent’ 

Turkey’s latest cease-fire agreed to with Russia follows an earlier suspension of military action agreed to Thursday with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence. The YPG was a crucial ally in the Washington-led war against the Islamic State.

Sochi agreement

The Sochi agreement is widely seen as far more comprehensive than Ankara’s deal with Washington. Under a 10-point plan, Turkish Russian patrols will enforce a 10-kilometer Syrian buffer zone on Turkey’s border.

However, the memorandum of understanding ends Erdogan’s goal of Turkish forces creating a 450-kilometer-long and 30-kilometers deep buffer zone into Syrian territory. A much smaller strip of 120-kilometers long and 30 kilometers of Syrian land secured by Turkish forces last week is under Ankara’s control.

Under the deal, Ankara is now relying on Moscow and Damascus.

“The implementation of the deal is passed on to both the Syrians and the Russians,” said former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who served in the region.

Erdogan, while welcoming the deal with Putin, warned Ankara was ready to resume its military operation.

“There will be no change in the steps we would need to take if promises made in the agreements with both U.S. and Russia will not be fulfilled,” Erdogan told reporters Tuesday while returning from Sochi.

“Although a ‘150 hours’ clause exists, the Turkish Armed Forces cannot realistically take on both the Syrian and Russian armies, as that will mean full-fledged war,” Selcen said.

Little trust between neighbors

Turkey’s Syrian military operation has isolated Ankara, with condemnation from Washington, the European Union and the Arab League.

However, analysts warn there is little trust between Ankara and Damascus, with Turkey severing diplomatic relations with Syria at the start of the civil war. Ankara is one of the principal backers of the Syrian rebels.

“Ankara will also be mindful, Moscow is courting the region’s Kurds. Putin is again dealing on the one hand with the Turkish side on one side,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.

“But is not closing the PYD (political wing of the YPG) and PKK offices in Moscow,” he adds. “He still keeps this channel open, and Turkey cannot do anything. Erdogan is not so strong to put pressure on Moscow to close those offices.”

Ankara will be aware that the Syrian Kurdish militia could rebrand itself as part of the Syrian army. Erdogan is calling for the disbandment of the militia.

Analysts also warn Erdogan could soon face pressure for the withdrawal of its military presence in Syria.

“Putin and other Russian officials repeated in Sochi that the “foreign troops” should leave Syria. Whom do they mean? Along with this logic, Turkish troops may be considered as foreign troops,” said Zaur Gasimov, a senior research fellow in the Russian studies department at the University of Bonn.

“If the borderland between Syria and Turkey were freed of Kurdish guerrilla groups, the issue of the presence of Turkish troops in that region would arise again,” he added.

Ankara is likely to come under growing pressure from Moscow to restore diplomatic relations with Damascus. Under the Sochi agreement, the 1998 Adana Agreement between Turkey and Syria was recognized as the basis for Ankara addressing security concerns.

The Adana Agreement ended Damascus’s support of the PKK, with the expulsion of its leader Abdullah Ocalan, who was subsequently captured by Turkish security forces in 1999. The accord allows Turkish cross border operations, but only with Damascus’ consent.

The restoring of Turkish-Syrian relations is, analysts say, a priority for Putin. Putin also stressed the need for Ankara to cooperate with Damascus on the issue of returning Syrian refugees from Turkey.

Erdogan is facing mounting domestic pressure to repatriate the more than 3.5 million Syrians in Turkey who fled the civil war. The Turkish president declared that the creation of a 450-kilometers-long and 30-kilometers deep so-called “safe zone” in Syria would allow up to 2 million refugees in Turkey to return.

But with the Sochi agreement ending Turkish military operations in Syria, the mass return of refugees is in doubt.

“The return of refugees is shelved, as 2 million Syrians will not be voluntarily squeezing into a 120 by 30 kilometers rectangle (Syrian territory under Turkish military control),” Selcen said.

Iran will not be allowed to participate in any international judo competitions until it allows its athletes to face Israelis.

The International Judo Federation (IJF) on Tuesday issued an indefinite ban “until the Iran Judo Federation gives strong guarantees and prove that they will respect the IJF Statutes and accept that their athletes fight against Israeli athletes.”

IJF investigated Iran’s policy after Iranian Saeid Mollaei walked off the Iranian team during last year’s world championships in Tokyo. Mollaei, who was the reigning champion, claimed that he had been pressured to deliberately lose in the semifinals in order to avoid facing Israelis.

The IJF accused the Iranian government of pressuring its athletes and flouting international completion rules.

Iran has denied pressuring Mollaei, who is now in hiding in Germany.

But the IJF investigation into the incident found that Iran’s actions “constitute a serious breach and gross violation of the Statutes of the IJF, its legitimate interests, its principles and objectives.”

Iran is expected to appeal the ban to the Switzerland-based Court for Arbitration of Sport.

Aid workers in northern Iraq say they are seeing increasing numbers of Syrians fleeing over the border into the mainly Kurdish region as the cease-fire in northeastern Syria is about to expire.

In the past day alone, the Norwegian Refugee Council reports that 1,736 Syrians crossed into Iraq, the highest number to cross in one day since the beginning of Turkey’s military operation.

They say that many have escaped with just the clothes on their backs. 

Ibrahim Barsoum is a program officer working with Syrian refugees for the Christian Aid Program Northern Iraq, run by a Catholic priest, Father Emanuel Youkhana. The group has been helping Iraqis displaced by Islamic State militants. Barsoum says the KRI, or Iraq’s Kurdistan Region authority, facilitates their transfer into the country.

“Usually the families come through the night because they are not allowed, for some reason, to cross the borders over there, Barsoum said. “They come with smugglers or just cross the borders through the night. The security forces for KRI receive them. “

Barsoum said that the U.N. refugee agency is taking the lead in providing shelter in a number of northern Iraq’s existing camps, some already hosting Yazidis, victims of Islamic State attacks in 2014. He said that many have escaped Turkish bombardment and attacks from Syrian militias allied with Turkey with just the clothes on their backs.

“Many of them need immediate and urgent support,” Barsoum said. “Food and basic needs for winter time — blankets and clothes, even.  They don’t have it. They just ran to save their lives and their kids’ lives. It is a tragedy. “

The Norwegian Refugee Council believes that more than 7,140 Syrians have crossed into Iraq since Turkey started its military operation, which has displaced around 165,000 Syrians.

A refugee from Qamishli named Rifaa told the NRC that she escaped into northern Iraq with her husband and three daughters. She says there were dead bodies on the street.  They managed to find a smuggler to bring them to northern Iraq, paying the man 2,000 U.S. dollars for five people. She said, “We saved our lives, but we suffered.”

NRC’s Tom Peyre-Costa urges for more to be done to facilitate the safe passage of Syrians escaping violence in their homeland.

“Most of them are children, women and elderly people in a huge state of physical and psychological distress,” Peyre-Costa said.  “We call on all fighters and authorities to guarantee safe passage for Syrian refugees for them to them to seek refuge and protection in Iraq.”

The United Nations and aid agencies are planning for up to 50,000 Syrian refugees expected to cross into northern Iraq in the coming months.

Chile’s government said Tuesday that 15 people have been killed in five days of rioting, arson and violent clashes that have almost paralyzed the South American country and rocked its global image as the region’s oasis of stability.

About half of Chile’s 16 regions remained under an emergency decree and some were a under military curfew, the first — other than for natural disasters — imposed  since the country returned to democracy in 1990 following a bloody 17-year dictatorship.

Riot police used tear gas and streams of water to break up marches by rock-throwing demonstrators in several streets of Santiago on Tuesday, while military and police guarded other Chileans who formed long lines at supermarkets.

Many stores, subway stations and banks were burned, damaged or looted over the weekend, and some people have reported problems getting cash at ATMs.

The unrest was sparked by a relatively minor, less-than-4% increase in subway fares, with students jumping subway station turnstile last week in protest. But it exploded Friday with demonstrators setting fire to subway stations, buses and a high-rise building. It then spread nationwide, fueled by simmering frustration by many Chileans who say that they are not sharing in the advances of a country that is one of Latin America’s wealthiest.

“The students jumped the turnstiles, and as it happens in revolutions, the elements that trigger a social phenomenon are not very rational,” said Marta Lagos, director of the polling firm Latinobarometro.

“It’s not just this government” that’s to blame for the frustrations, she said. “This has  been accumulating in the last four governments.”

Shortly before the rioting broke out, Conservative President Sebastian Pinera boasted in an interview with The Financial Times that Chile “looks like an oasis” in the region because it has a stable democracy, the economy continues to grow and it has been creating jobs, improving salaries and maintaining its macroeconomic balance.

But its wealth is unevenly spread, with one of the region’s highest rates of inequality. Many Chilean families earn $550 to $700 a month, and pensions can be as low as $159.

“You can argue … that we have reduced poverty, that there’s no inflation these days, that the economy is controlled, etc., etc.,” Lagos said. “And all those arguments mean nothing to the people who can’t make it to the end of the month.”

Jose Tomas Lopez, a cook, said he was protesting “because I’ve seen how my other lives, with a salary of not more than ($700) to maintain my three siblings, and I know her debts and all her efforts to meet them.

“I fight so that all that will end and so that all of us will have something fair,” he added.

After the protests erupted, Pinera rolled back the subway hike and declared a state of emergency. He later said that Chile is “at war with a powerful, relentless enemy that respects nothing or anyone and is willing to use violence and crime without any limits.” But he did not identify the enemy, and the remark brought rebukes from celebrities, politicians and soccer players.

“A war needs two sides,” Chilean soccer player Gary Medel said on Twitter. “And here, we’re just one people who want equality.”

Pinera, a billionaire and former airline owner then switched to a more conciliatory tone. He said that the government is working on a reconstruction plan to cover the hundreds of millions of dollars in damaged infrastructure. Pinera also planned meetings with the opposition to explore a “social agreement” to solve “the problems that affect Chileans.”

But some leftist parties said they would boycott the meeting with Pinera to protest the nearly 10,000 soldiers patrolling the streets, part of a curfew that brings back haunting memories.

At least 3,095 suspected leftists were killed during Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s 1973-1990 military dictatorship, according to government figures, and tens of thousands more were tortured or jailed for political reasons.

Most of the demonstrations have been peaceful, with people banging on pots, a common form of protest in the region.

The government says that some marches have been infiltrated by violent groups of hooded vandals who seek to destabilize the country.

Riot police also used tear gas on Tuesday to break up a group of people who tried to loot a supermarket in the Chilean capital while screaming mothers tried to get milk for their children, according to local Radio Cooperativa.

About 2 million students were also forced to stay homes from classes and many people were unable to arrive to their jobs.

China is planning to replace Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam with an “interim” chief executive, the Financial Times reported, citing people briefed on the deliberations.

If Chinese President Xi Jinping decided to go ahead, Lam’s successor would be appointed by March and cover the remainder of her term, which ends in 2022, the report said.

Lam’s top successors include former head of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority Norman Chan, and Henry Tang, who has also served as the territory’s financial secretary and chief secretary for administration, the report said.

Sources told the FT that officials in China want a stabilized situation before a final decision can be made on leadership changes, as they do not want to be seen to be giving in to violence.

In September, in response to a Reuters report about a recording of Lam saying she would step down if she could, she said she had never asked the Chinese government to let her resign to end the Chinese-ruled city’s political crisis.

Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Hong Kong since mid-June in sometimes violent protests against now-suspended draft legislation that could have seen people sent to mainland China for trial in Communist Party controlled courts.
 

Lebanon’s embattled prime minister sought international support Tuesday for economic reforms announced a day earlier, which were intended to pacify massive protests calling for his government to resign.

Saad Hariri hopes the reform package will increase foreign investments and help Lebanon’s struggling economy. But the nationwide demonstrations that began last week only grew larger Monday after the reforms were announced, with protesters dismissing them as more of the same “empty promises” seen in past decades that never materialized.

Lebanon’s biggest demonstrations in 15 years have unified an often-divided public in their revolt against status-quo leaders who have ruled for three decades and brought the economy to the brink of disaster. Rampant corruption has also hollowed out the country’s infrastructure and basic services.

In downtown Beirut, thousands of protesters were digging for a sixth day of demonstrations, insisting Hariri’s government resign. Scores of other protesters held a sit-in outside the central bank, while protests in other cities and town continued as well.

Hariri held meetings Tuesday with ambassadors from the U.S., Russia, China, the European Union and the 22-member Arab League to explain the reform package.

“These measures are only the first step,” Hariri told the envoys, as quoted in a statement released by his office. He said the package came after being “unanimously agreed upon by the government because of the young men and women who demonstrated over the past days for the sake of national dignity.”

Hariri was also studying a possible government reshuffle, to be “determined in the coming few days,” according to the prime minister’s economic adviser, Nadim Mounla.

The Cabinet approved the 2020 budget with a 0.63% deficit on Monday. The government also approved a series of reforms that would cut the budget deficit, with the central bank and the banking sector helping to reduce the deficit by about $3.4 billion next year. Lebanon has one of the highest debts in the world that stands at more than $86 billion, or more than 150% of the gross domestic product.

Mounla said restoring the people’s confidence in their government “is not going to be an easy job. It’s going to be an uphill battle.”

He told reporters that the plan would include cutting debt servicing costs, privatizing no more than 40% of the telecoms sector, improving the dysfunctional power sector and cutting salaries of top officials in half.

Lebanese officials hope that plans to fix the electricity sector — which costs the state around $2 billion annually — would lead to the release of $11 billion in loans and grants made by international donors at the CEDRE conference in Paris last year.

Mounla said international companies like Siemens, General Electric or Mitsubishi will have a two-month window to make bids for constructing new power stations, with the winning bid announced two months later.

He said the plants — which will take years to build — should increase Lebanon’s power production by 1,000 megawatts by mid-2020. Lebanon currently produces about 2,000 megawatts, while its peak demand is nearly 3,500 megawatts. Residents rely on private generators to cover the deficit.

Walid Joumblatt, a powerful politician who has representatives in the government, criticized the reforms as “weak drugs” that aim to buy time.

France’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Paris is closely following the developments in Lebanon, adding that the protests should remain peaceful and the right of Lebanese to protest should be respected. It said France encourages the Lebanese government to carry out reforms in order for the CEDRE conference resolutions to be implemented. France, Lebanon’s former colonial ruler, remains a major player in Lebanese politics.

Earlier Tuesday, Information Minister Jamal Jarrah removed Lor Suleiman from her post as director of state-run National News Agency. She’s been running the agency for 11 years. Anti-government activists said her removal was politically motivated because of her coverage of the ongoing protests.

Later in the day, some activists stormed state-run television, Tele Liban, accusing the station of pro-government bias in its coverage of the protests. The station only began reporting on the protests Tuesday, after airing normal programming for five days. That’s in contrast with private TV stations, which had live coverage of the protests around the clock.

From 2007 until 2010, Lebanon’s economy grew at an average of 9% annually. But it hit a major downturn in 2011, when a political crisis brought down the government and the uprising in neighboring Syria stoked unrest among Lebanese factions.

Since then, growth has averaged a mere 1.5%, according to government estimates. Munla said there will be no economic growth in 2020.

Nearly three decades after the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, Lebanon still experiences frequent cutoffs of water and electricity. With public transport networks virtually non-existent, its aging roads are clogged with traffic. Chronic problems with waste management have sparked mass protests in recent years.

Local banks will remain closed on Wednesday for the sixth day because of the protests, the country’s banks association said. Some reports say there are concerns by the government that people might rush to local lenders to withdraw their money, worsenening the economic crisis.

The ozone hole near the south pole this year is the smallest since it was discovered, but it is more due to freakish Antarctic weather than efforts to cut down on pollution, NASA reported .
 
This fall, the average hole in Earth’s protective ozone layer is 3.6 million square miles (9.3 million square kilometers). That’s down from a peak of 10.3 million square miles (26.6 million square kilometers) in 2006.
 
This year’s hole is even smaller than the one first discovered in 1985.
 
 “That’s really good news,” NASA scientist Paul Newman said Tuesday. “That means more ozone over the hemisphere, less ultraviolet radiation at the surface.”
 
Earth’s ozone layer shields life on the surface from harmful solar radiation, but man-made chlorine compounds that can last in the air for 100 years nibble at the ozone, creating thinning and a gap over the Southern Hemisphere.
 
The hole reaches its peak in September and October and disappears by late December until the next spring in the Southern Hemisphere.
 
The 1987 international Montreal Protocol — the only United Nations treaty ratified by every country on Earth — banned many of the chlorine compounds used in refrigerants and aerosols. The ban resulted in a slightly smaller ozone hole in recent years, but this year’s dramatic shrinking isn’t from those efforts, Newman said.
 
 “It’s just a fluke of the weather,” said University of Colorado atmospheric scientist Brian Toon.
 
Chlorine in the air needs cold temperatures in the stratosphere and clouds to convert into a form of the chemical that eats ozone, Newman said. The clouds go away when it warms up.
 
But this September and October, the southern polar vortex — which just like the northern one is a swirl of cold high-speed winds around the pole — started to break down. At 12 miles (20 kilometers) high in the atmosphere, temperatures were 29 degrees (16 degrees Celsius) warmer than average. Winds dropped from a normal 161 mph to about 67 mph (259 kph to 108 kph), NASA reported.
 
This is something that happens on occasion, occurring in 1988 and 2002, but not this extreme, Newman said.
 
 “We got a little bennie [benefit] this year,” he said.
    

A top Vatican administrator is denying the Holy See risks default over its structural deficit, saying claims in a new book about possible financial ruin are overblown.

Archbishop Nunzio Galantino, president of the office that manages the Vatican’s real estate and other assets, told the Avvenire newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference Tuesday that all that is needed is a “spending review” to bring down costs.
 
Galantino was responding to claims in a new book published Monday, “Universal Judgment” by Italian author Gianluigi Nuzzi, that has added to speculation about the Vatican’s finances and the state of Pope Francis’ promised reforms.
 
The Vatican hasn’t published a budget since 2015 and has been without an in-house auditor or economy minister for more than two years, fueling conspiracies about its financial health.
 
Those conspiracies have only grown following a new financial scandal that erupted this month, after Vatican police raided the secretariat of state and the financial intelligence unit in search of documentation about a problematic 150 million-euro London real estate investment.
 
The search warrant, excerpts of which were published this weekend by L’Espresso magazine, alleges fraud, money laundering and abuse of office connected to the London venture and efforts by the Vatican to renegotiate the terms and identify money managers who were fleecing the Holy See in the deal.
 
The scandal has laid bare both the vast amount of money the Holy See has at its disposal for investment — including donations from the faithful for charity — and the seeming incompetence of the Vatican monsignors responsible for managing it.
 
Citing the warrant, L’Espresso reported the secretariat of state was managing off-balance sheet assets of some 650 million euros “derived mostly from donations received by the Holy Father for works of charity and supporting the Roman Curia,” or the Vatican bureaucracy.
 
L’Espresso said the Vatican in 2012 considered investing some $200 million of that money in an Angolan offshore oil rig, based on a proposal by Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the Vatican’s then-chief of staff and onetime ambassador to Angola.
 
His proposal was ultimately rejected as unsafe. Instead, the money was invested in converting a onetime Harrod’s warehouse in Chelsea into luxury apartments. But even that deal went sour, after Becciu’s replacement in 2018 realized the Vatican was being fleeced by the Italian financiers it had trusted, and sought to buy them out.  
 
The scandal is the latest to draw attention to the opaque finances of the central government of the 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church, which is funded not by taxes but from donations and revenues from the Vatican Museums, real estate and other money-making ventures in the city state.
 
Galantino, head of the APSA administrative office, confirmed the Vatican owned 2,400 apartments and 600 commercial spaces in Rome and nearby, 60% of which are rented to Holy See employees at a reduced rent as part of their benefits.
 
German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who heads the Vatican’s economy council, has acknowledged Francis has told him to bring down costs but has insisted the shortfall can be resolved over the next year or two. He did not dispute news reports estimating the deficit at about 70 million euro.
 
“We have to go forward otherwise I cannot see how to sign a budget with a structural deficit,” Marx told reporters this month. “But that is a way we can go in several years. That is not a catastrophe.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan for the country to leave the European Union faces two key votes in the House of Commons Tuesday.

Lawmakers will gather later in the evening to approve Johnson’s 115-page Withdrawal Agreement Bill, which would approve the British leader’s Brexit deal with the EU, in principle. If the bill is approved, the MPs would then vote on a separate bill that sets a rapid three-day timetable to formally approve the legislation.  

“The public doesn’t want anymore delays, neither do European leaders and neither do I,” Johnson said Monday.  “Let’s get Brexit done on October 31 and let’s move on.”

It is unclear whether the government has the votes or time to enact the legislation before Britain’s planned departure from the EU on next Thursday.

Johnson struck a surprise Brexit deal with the 27 other EU countries last Thursday, but lawmakers voted to delay their backing for the agreement until legislation is approved spelling out the terms of Britain’s split from the EU after 46 years of membership in the continent’s coalition.  They also approved a measure that forced Johnson to send a letter to the EU asking for a Brexit delay until January 31, which he did not sign. He sent another signed note as well saying he opposes any delay.

Johnson suffered another setback Monday when Parliament Speaker John Bercow blocked the House of Commons from holding a new vote on Brexit, saying “it would be repetitive and disorderly to do so.”

British lawmakers are debating whether to leave with a deal with the other EU countries, without a deal or hold another referendum. British voters narrowly favored Brexit in a 2016 referendum, but British leaders have failed since then to draft an exit plan with the EU that also could clear the House of Commons.

Former Prime Minister Theresa May resigned in Johnson’s favor after parliament three times defeated her Brexit proposals.

The constant delays have led to rising frustration with EU officials.  European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told a meeting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, that the Brexit quagmire in London was “a waste of time and energy” for the EU, and that European Parliament can not ratify the deal until the British parliament does.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons has started photocopying inmate letters and other mail at some federal correctional facilities across the U.S. instead of delivering the original parcels, in an attempt to combat the smuggling of synthetic narcotics like K-2, officials told The Associated Press on Monday.

The program is being implemented at a “number of Bureau facilities impacted by the increased introduction of synthetic drugs,” the agency said in a statement to the AP. At those jails and prisons, Bureau of Prisons employees are currently copying incoming mail and then distributing the copies to inmates, the agency said.

Officials would not say how many staff members are being assigned to make photocopies or whether they are removing correction officers to perform the task. The initiative raises questions about whether the agency, which has been plagued by chronic staffing shortages and violence, is reassigning staff members to spend time making photocopies instead of watching inmates.

The Bureau of Prisons has faced increased scrutiny since billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein was able to take his own life behind bars at a federal facility in New York in August. Across the board, the agency has been down 4,000 jobs since 2017. Staffing shortages are so severe that guards routinely work overtime shifts day after day, sometimes being forced to work mandatory overtime.

 In the wake of Epstein’s death, Attorney General William Barr removed the agency’s acting director and named Kathleen Hawk Sawyer, the prison agency’s director from 1992 until 2003, to replace him.

Officials did not provide details on the specific jails and prisons where the program is being implemented, but a person familiar with the matter told AP that one of the facilities is USP Canaan, a high-security penitentiary for male inmates in Pennsylvania. The person spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss jail operations.

Officials say wardens at each of the facilities have discretion under current policy to order the photocopying because they “may establish controls to protect staff, inmates, and the security, discipline, and good order of the institution.”

The agency is also exploring the possibility of using an off-site vendor to scan general correspondence and then send it as electronic files to kiosks in the correctional facilities where inmates would be able to view and print the letters.

The choice to have mail photocopied depends on the size and security level of the correctional facility, as well as the “degree of sophistication of the inmates confined, staff availability, and other variables,” the statement said.

Canadian news outlets are predicting that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party will win a second term in office, but will have to do so as a minority government.  

As of late Monday night, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said Trudeau’s Liberals were either elected or leading in 146 of 338 legislative districts, versus just 118 for the Conservatives, led by Andrew Scheer.  If the results hold, that would leave the Liberals short of the 170 seats needed for a solid working majority.  Trudeau would have to form a governing coalition with one or more smaller parties, most likely the progressive New Democrats. 

The 47-year-old Trudeau won a definitive parliamentary majority in 2015, leading the first Liberal government in 10 years. During his term, he has become a champion of liberals worldwide for his support of free trade, diversity, environmental policies and taking an active role on the world stage.
 
But Trudeau’s bid for a second term was threatened by a handful of scandals, both personal and political in nature. At least three photographs of Trudeau in blackface and brown face from the 1990s and early 2000s surfaced just weeks ahead of the vote.

In another scandal, Trudeau’s former attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, said he pressured her to stop the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalian, a Quebec engineering company, under bribery charges. The firm was formally charged with corruption for paying Libyan government officials, including former dictator Moammar Gadhafi, millions of dollars for contracts between 2001 and 2011.

Wilson-Raybould said she resigned because of the pressure, and continued to receive “veiled threats” from a government official after her resignation.

Trudeau said he was standing up for jobs, but the scandals have benefited Scheer’s campaign.

Conservative supporters chanted “Lock him up! Lock him up!” at a rally Saturday after Scheer said he would investigate the possible corruption. He changed the chant to “Vote him out.”

If Conservatives win the most seats and fail to win a majority, they would probably try to form a government with the backing of Quebec’s separatist Bloc Quebecois Party.

A first-term Canadian prime minister with a parliamentary majority has not lost a bid for re-election in 84 years.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama made an unprecedented endorsement of Trudeau in an Oct. 16 tweet, urging Canadians to reelect the weakened prime minister.

U.S. President Donald Trump is lashing out at Democrats and the media after criticism prompted him to cancel his plan to hold a meeting for leaders of major industrialized countries at one of his properties in Florida.

“You people with this phony emoluments clause,” Trump said to reporters during a Cabinet meeting Monday.  

The Nobility Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article 1, Section 9) is intended to prevent federal officeholders from receiving any type of compensation from foreign governments to avoid a corrupting influence.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re rich,” said Trump, brushing aside such constitutional concerns.

The Trump administration’s announcement last Thursday that next year’s Group of Seven summit would be held at the Trump Doral resort ran into an immediate backlash from lawmakers, including Republicans.

“The Democrats went crazy, even though I would have done it (for) free,” said Trump, who announced late Saturday he was dropping the idea. “Best location, right next to the airport” in Miami.

Critics argued even if Trump’s property was willing to provide rooms and services “at cost,” as announced by acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, it would still have amounted to the president profiting from his public office to benefit his private business.

“Everybody in the G-7 would have had their own building,” explained Trump to reporters. “It would have been the greatest G-7 ever.”

In an attempt to justify there is nothing wrong with mixing the presidency and his real-estate holdings in this manner, Trump is reaching back to the first president of the United States, George Washington, in the late 18th century. 

“He ran his business simultaneously while he was president,” noted Trump. “George Washington, they say, had two desks. He had a presidential desk and a business desk.”

Washington, indeed, did run his 3,200-hectare farm while in office. Historians note that Congress was only in session December through March, and there was a skeleton federal government the rest of the year.

“There was no conflict in Washington overseeing his business and also being president,” Jeffrey Malanson, associate professor of history at Purdue University, told VOA. “He wasn’t directing the federal government to purchase tobacco or wheat or nails from his own plantation.”

Ethics laws were strengthened over the centuries. When Jimmy Carter was president in the late 1970s, he placed his large farm and peanut warehouse in a semi-blind trust to avoid conflicts of interest.

During Monday’s Cabinet meeting, Trump was asked by a reporter about his plans now for the G-7 summit after abandoning the preferred venue that carries his name.

“We’ll look at other locations,” replied Trump, saying that would cost the country a fortune. “I don’t think it’ll be as exciting. I don’t think it’ll be as good.”

The main opposition candidate in Bolivia’s presidential election Monday blasted unexplained delays in announcing the results and accused President Evo Morales of trying to avoid a second round run-off.

Carlos Mesa, a former president who came a close second to Morales in Sunday’s polls, accused the long-time incumbent of colluding with the electoral court to try to “eliminate a path to the second round.”

Partial results announced Sunday put Morales in the lead with 45 percent of the votes, with Mesa on 38 percent, meaning Morales — controversially seeking a fourth term — would have to contest a run-off for the first time.

Washington also expressed concern, urging Bolivia to act immediately to ensure transparency in the vote count.

The top US diplomat for Latin America said that the United States was closely watching the election including the abrupt stop in vote tabulation late Sunday.

“Electoral authorities should immediately restore credibility and transparency to the process so that the will of the Bolivian people is respected,” Michael Kozak, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, wrote on Twitter.

Official results remained inexplicably stuck overnight at 84 percent of ballots counted, leading an observer mission of the Organization of American States to ask for clarification.

Morales, a former coca farmer and leftist union leader who has championed the impoverished nation’s indigenous people, has had a rocky relationship with the United States, especially over Washington’s bids to stop the drug trade.

Watching the votes

Opposition supporters held vigils overnight outside key count centers around the country, in the southern city of Potosi, Cochabamba in the center and Santa Cruz in the east, to keep up the pressure on electoral authorities.

To avoid a second round, Morales would have to obtain at least 40 percent of the votes, and with a margin of 10 percentage points over Mesa.

“It seems unlikely that the result will change at this stage,” said analyst Daniel Valverde.

“That would require 75 percent of the missing votes to be in favor of (Morales’ party) MAS and that won’t happen because the government has lost support.”

Morales obtained Constitutional Court permission in 2017 to run again for president even though the constitution allows only two consecutive terms.

A new mandate would keep him in power until 2025.

Even as he voted on Sunday in the capital La Paz, Mesa told journalists that he feared the election could turn out to be rigged, such was Morales’ powerful grip on key institutions.

“I don’t trust in the transparency of the process, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal has demonstrated that it’s an operative arm of the government. We have a very high level of distrust,” said Mesa, who was president between 2001-2005.

As leader of his Movement for Socialism Party (MAS), Morales points to a decade of economic stability and considerable industrialization as his achievements, while insisting he has brought “dignity” to Bolivia’s indigenous population, the largest in Latin America.

But he stands accused of corruption, and many voters are enraged at his refusal to step aside even though the South American country’s constitution officially barred him from running again.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he has failed to form a new government following last month’s inconclusive parliamentary election, making way for centrist rival Benny Gantz to try to put together a majority coalition of lawmakers and become the country’s new leader.

Netanyahu, already the Jewish state’s longest serving premier, was trying for a fifth term as prime minister. But Netanyahu, head of the conservative Likud party, told Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, that he was unable to form a 61-seat majority in the Knesset by joining in a unity government with Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party.

Rivlin said he now would give Gantz, a former Israeli defense chief, 28 days to try to form a government, although he too faces daunting odds. By law, if Gantz cannot form a government in 28 days, any member of parliament can try to form a government in the next 21 days after that.

But if that also fails, Israel would be forced to hold its third parliamentary election since April.

Gantz’s party won 33 seats in the September election and Netanyahu’s Likud 32, both far from a majority and forcing each of them to try to collect support from parties with smaller representation in the newly elected parliament.

Netanyahu relied on Orthodox Jewish and far-right parties, which pushed him close to a majority. Gantz has relied on support from the Arab alliance Joint List and other more liberal Israeli parties, which also could push him close to a majority.

The key once again could be the Yisrael Beiteinu party, led by Avigdor Lieberman, who has called for universal conscription in the Israeli military, a position opposed by Jewish-centric parties, and other sectarian policies. Lieberman has not endorsed anyone for prime minister, but his party holds eight seats in the Knesset that could prove decisive.

Netanyahu accused Gantz and his potential coalition partners of “only talking about unity. In effect, they’re doing the exact opposite, encouraging sectarianism” by refusing to join a government with ultra-Orthodox parties.

Netanyahu said he would oppose any government formed by Gantz that included the Arab parliamentarians, who Netanyahu said “encourage terror and oppose Israel’s existence. How can a minority government led by Gantz and supported by these (lawmakers) fight terror?”

But Blue and White said in a statement that “the time of spin is over, and it is now time for action. Blue and White is determined to form the liberal unity government, led by Benny Gantz, that the people of Israel voted for a month ago.”

New global rules forcing ships to reduce air pollution by using cleaner fuels will see more sulphur and nitrates dumped into the oceans, analysts and civil society leaders say.

From January 2020, the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) will ban ships from using fuels with a sulphur content above 0.5%, compared with 3.5% now.

The rules herald the biggest leap in how ships are powered since they switched from burning coal to oil over a century ago, but vessels will still be allowed to use higher-sulphur fuel if fitted with cleaning devices called scrubbers.

Closed-loop scrubbers keep most of the water used for sulphur removal onboard for disposal at port. Open-loop systems, however, remove sulphur coming through a ship’s smokestack with water that can then be pumped overboard.

“Were open-looped scrubbers ever a really good idea?” Bill Hemmings of the Clean Shipping Coalition told industry figures at the IMO’s headquarters in London.

Such systems could provide a cautionary tale on half-measures to tackle emissions, he said.

“Maybe in hindsight, we need to ask whether we would do things the same way and whether there are any lessons to be learned for climate change.”

BLIND SPOT

Years of studies have examined whether open-loop scrubbers introduce into waterways acidic sulphur harmful to marine life, cancer-causing hydrocarbons, nitrates leading to algal blooms and metals that impair organ function and cause birth defects.

The results have largely been inconclusive and the IMO itself has encouraged further study into the environmental impact of scrubbers.

“It’s a bit of a blind spot, and the optics of it are not great,” Alan Gelder, vice president of refining at consultancy Wood Mackenzie, told Reuters.

“Though some studies suggest the impact of open-loop scrubbing is going to be very small given the great volume of seas, which already contain many sulphates, what it’s doing is solving air pollution by producing a marine pollutant instead.”

Speaking at the IMO’s gathering, Tristan Smith of University College London said scientific research had found environmental damage in open oceans would likely be minimal.

“In areas such as the heavily populated Baltic Sea, which are more delicate and brackish, the impact would be more pronounced on marine life.”

ALLEVIATING MASS DEATH

The stated aim of the new measures is to improve human health, and in that regard they should have a significant impact. Combating greenhouse gases or pollution is not their goal, per se.

A study in the journal Nature last year found ship emissions with current sulphur levels caused about 400,000 premature deaths from lung cancer and cardiovascular disease as well as around 14 million childhood asthma cases every year.

Post-2020, those numbers are set to fall to about 250,000 and 6.4 million, respectively.

Singapore and Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates have banned the use of open-loop scrubbers from the start of next year. China is also set to extend a ban on scrubber discharge to more coastal regions.

Worldwide compliance with the rules is expected to be almost 100%, and the change has rapt the oil, shipping and refining industries, which have invested billions of dollars in the switchover.

Scepticism lingers among some, however.

“There are all these huge changes,” one senior oil trader said. “But in the end you can still buy a piece of kit that just dumps it in the water.”

A 93-year-old German former Stutthof guard on trial in Hamburg on thousands of counts of accessory to murder says he regrets having served in the Nazi concentration camp.

Bruno Dey, a former SS private, told the court Monday that ‘the images of misery and horror have haunted me my entire life,’ the German dpa news agency reported.
 

There’s no evidence Dey was involved in a specific killing at the camp near Danzig, today the Polish city of Gdansk.
 
But prosecutors argue that as a guard he helped the camp function. He’s charged with 5,230 counts of accessory to murder for killings while he was there from 1944-45.
 
Dey says he was posted involuntarily to Stutthof because he was unfit for combat duty, and was never a follower of Nazi ideology.

The top American commander in Afghanistan revealed Monday the size of U.S. troop force in the country has quietly been reduced by 2,000 over the last year, insisting remaining military personnel  are still capable of reaching their stated objectives.

The revelation by Gen. Austin Scott Miller, means the number of residual U.S. force now stands at roughly 12,000 soldiers. They are tasked with fighting terrorist groups, including al-Qaida and Islamic State, as well as training, advising and assisting Afghan forces battling Taliban insurgents.   

“Unbeknownst to the public as part of our optimization, over the last year… we have reduced our authorized strength by 2,000 here,” Miller told a joint news conference with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper in Kabul.

“So, there is a constant look as a military commander to optimize the force here, and what it’s based on is you understand the risks to the force, risks to the mission, and look at it in terms of capabilities,” Gen Miller said. He was responding to comments Esper made a day earlier that even if the troop size is eventually reduced down to 8,600, it will not undermine the U.S. mission in Afghanistan.

The U.S. defense secretary arrived in the Afghan capital on an unannounced visit Sunday and held talks with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, and met with U.S. service members.

Esper on Monday dismissed concerns that Washington could be preparing to stage an abrupt pull out from Afghanistan, as many see the U.S. military doing in northeastern Syria.

“We have a long standing commitment to our Afghan partners. We have invested billions upon billions of dollars. Both the Afghan people and the American people have sacrificed treasure and the lives of their soldiers,” Esper noted.  

A “virulent terrorist “ threat is still facing the country, he said.

“So, all these things I think should reassure our Afghan allies and others that they should not misinterpret our actions in the recent week or so with regard to Syria and contrast that with Afghanistan,” Esper stressed.

During his visit, the U.S. defense secretary also emphasized that a political agreement was “always the best way forward” with regard to next steps in Afghanistan.  

His comments came days after U.S. chief peace negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad informally met with Afghan Taliban leaders in Pakistan, raising hopes the stalled dialogue might eventually resume to bring an end to the 18-year-old Afghan war.

U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly broke off the yearlong dialogue last month, just when the two adversaries had come close to signing a peace deal. He cited an uptick in Taliban attacks and the death of an American solider in a car bombing in Kabul that also killed 11 Afghan civilians.

Just before the collapse of the dialogue with the insurgent group, Khalilzad had said the U.S. was supposed to withdraw more than 5,000 troops from Afghanistan within the first five months of the signing of the draft deal he negotiated with the Taliban.

That would have reduced the size of the U.S. troop force to roughly around 8,600.

The Taliban has repeatedly called for American interlocutors to return to the negotiating table to conclude the agreement, insisting the document is just awaiting signatures from the two sides.

Also Sunday, a group of senior American lawmakers led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a secret grip to the country.

Pelosi’s office said in a statement Sunday her bipartisan delegation met President Ghani, the country’s chief executive Abdullah Abdullah and civil society leaders, as well as U.S. military commanders. The delegation was able to briefly compare notes with Esper and was briefed by U.S. diplomats in Afghanistan on reconciliation efforts with Taliban insurgents.

Trump has in recent days repeatedly underscored the need for ending what he often refers to as America’s “endless” foreign wars. He has made those comments particularly with reference to the Afghan conflict, which entered its 19th year this month.

Some analysts,  like Michael Kugelman at the Willson Center in Washington are skeptical on whether U.S. assurances will help ease Afghan concerns.

“Trump’s growing impatience with the war in Afghanistan is a major concern among Afghans, and the U.S. defense secretary’s boilerplate comments about seeking an eventual settlement won’t do much to ease those concerns. There’s well-founded anxiety in Afghanistan that Trump may eventually withdraw before a peace deal is struck,” Kugelman noted.

He says it is no secret that Trump wants to bring U.S. troops home and he has been “unwavering” in his sentiment.

“When he articulates this desire publicly, he not only underscores one of his few consistent positions- and one supported by many Americans – but he also reinforces the leverage enjoyed by the Taliban. President Trump is in a hurry to leave Afghanistan, and the insurgents have the luxury of waiting him out until the day that U.S. soldiers head for the exits,” Kugelman cautioned.