U.S. tells judge to give pope immunity in abuse lawsuit
Rome – The U.S. government has told a Texas court that Pope Benedict XVI should be given immunity from a lawsuit accusing him of conspiring to cover up the sexual molestation of three boys by a seminarian, court documents show.
Assistant U.S. Attorney General Peter Keisler said in Monday’s filing that, as pope, Benedict enjoys immunity as the head of a state – the Vatican.
He said allowing the lawsuit to proceed would be “incompatible with the United States’ foreign policy interests.”
There was no immediate ruling from Judge Lee Rosenthal of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston, who has been presiding over the case. However, the Supreme Court has held that U.S. courts are bound by such “suggestion of immunity” motions submitted by the government, Keisler’s filing says.
A 1994 lawsuit against Pope John Paul II, also filed in Texas, was dismissed after the U.S. government filed a similar motion.
The Vatican Embassy in Washington had asked the U.S. government to issue the immunity suggestion and do everything it can to get the case dismissed. As a result, Keisler’s motion was not unexpected.
In the lawsuit, which names the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as a defendant, the three plaintiffs claim that a Colombian-born seminarian on assignment at St. Francis de Sales church in Houston, Juan Carlos Patino-Arango, molested them during counseling sessions in the mid-1990s.
BAGHDAD, Iraq
Hussein barred from defense role
Iraqi legislators have changed the rules for the forthcoming trial of Saddam Hussein, preventing the deposed president from representing himself, according to documents provided to the Los Angeles Times.
Under the original rules for the trial, adopted in December 2003 when U.S. officials were running the country, Hussein was permitted “to defend himself in person or through legal assistance of his own choosing.” But under revised rules, adopted without fanfare By the Iraqi National Assembly on Aug. 11, Hussein has only the right “to procure legal counsel of his choosing.” The same change applies to other defendants whose special trials, along with Hussein’s, are scheduled to begin in mid-October.
CHICAGO
Engineer says he saw no switching signals
The engineer of a commuter train that derailed, killing two passengers, told investigators that he continued traveling at nearly 70 mph because he saw no signals indicating he was supposed to switch tracks, a union official said Tuesday.
“He said that he saw all clear signals, and that would have allowed him to operate at maximum track speed of 70 mph,” said Rick Radek, a vice president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.
The train was traveling at 69 mph, but officials said it should have been going no faster than 10 mph, when it switched tracks and derailed about 5 miles south of downtown Chicago on Saturday.
BRIDGEPORT, Conn.
Former state senator admits to felonies
In the latest in a string of corruption cases in Connecticut, a former state senator pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony charges of receiving a bribe, mail fraud and tax evasion.
Sen. Ernest Newton II acknowledged in federal court that he accepted a $5,000 bribe in exchange for helping the director of a job training agency secure a $100,000 grant.
As part of a plea agreement, Newton also admitted filing false tax returns and diverting $40,000 in campaign contributions for personal use over five years.
JAKARTA, Indonesia
Bird-flu outbreak brings tight measures
The government imposed “extraordinary” measures Tuesday to keep a bird-flu outbreak that has killed four people in Indonesia from spreading, including the forced hospitalization of people who exhibit symptoms of the disease.
In addition to the fatalities, six patients suspected of having the H5N1 strain of bird flu have been admitted to Jakarta’s infectious diseases hospital, officials said. Two of the patients are zoo employees. Blood samples from the patients have been sent to Hong Kong for testing.
RAFAH, Gaza Strip
Israel completes its planned pullouts
Israel pulled the last of its troops out of two isolated West Bank settlements Tuesday, completing the final phase of the withdrawal it began in Gaza last month.
As Israeli soldiers left the empty settlements of Ganim and Kadim, next to the West Bank town of Jenin, thousands of Palestinians streamed in, setting fires as gunmen fired in the air – reprising the scenes in Gaza after last week’s pullout.
Earlier, Israeli forces left two other evacuated West Bank settlements. Unlike Gaza, however, Israeli forces will continue to patrol the area, the military said, as it has not turned over control of the northern West Bank to Palestinians.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands
U.N.: Vatican hinders war-criminals hunt
The chief prosecutor of the U.N. war-crimes tribunal has accused the Vatican of hindering the hunt for a fugitive Croatian general. Prosecutor Carla del Ponte’s spokeswoman said Gen. Ante Gotovina was believed to be receiving support from a network of Catholic monasteries in Croatia.
If church leaders “would give orders not to harbor war-crimes suspects, if they would assist justice, fugitives wouldn’t find protection in monasteries,” Del Ponte’s spokeswoman said.
