VALENCIA, Spain
Pope challenges Spain’s gay marriages
Pope Benedict XVI stressed traditional family values Saturday during a quick visit to Spain, challenging a Socialist government that has angered the Vatican by instituting liberal reforms such as gay marriage and fast-track divorce.
Benedict was in Valencia for about 26 hours to close a Vatican-organized gathering on family issues – an event expected to draw about 1.5 million people to this Mediterranean city – and he wasted no time in defending the Holy See’s vision of marriage as a union of man and woman.
“The family is a unique institution in God’s plan, and the church cannot fail to proclaim and promote its fundamental importance,” Benedict said.
WARSAW, Poland
Poland promotes president’s twin
Poland’s governing party accepted the resignation Saturday of Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz and recommended party chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski – the president’s identical twin – to replace him.
The Law and Justice “party leadership put forward a proposal, and I accepted it,” Kaczynski said.
He acknowledged that the party had weighed the possible difficulties in having twin brothers as president and prime minister.
“For various reasons, we came to the conclusion that, at this time, putting forward a different candidate – of which we have many good ones – would be a worse way out than recommending me.”
Marcinkiewicz would become the Law and Justice candidate for Warsaw mayor in fall elections.
LONDON
Penny Lane won’t be renamed, officials say
Penny Lane will keep its name.
Liverpool officials said Saturday that they would modify a proposal to rename streets linked to the slave trade when they realized the road made famous by the 1967 Beatles song was one of them.
The unassuming suburban avenue was named for James Penny, a wealthy 18th-century slave ship owner. Liverpool, the Beatles’ northern English hometown, was once a major hub for the slave trade.
“I don’t think anyone would seriously consider renaming Penny Lane,” said city council member Barbara Mace, who has been pressing to get rid of names linked to slavery.
Liverpool was an important port of call for slave ships traveling between Africa and the Americas. During the second half of the 18th century, much of the city’s economy was based on the trade.
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates
Frank Gehry to build Guggenheim museum
The Guggenheim Foundation announced Saturday it had commissioned American architect Frank Gehry to build a new branch of the Guggenheim modern and contemporary art museum in the United Arab Emirates.
The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is planned at 323,000 square feet, larger than any of the existing Guggenheim museums.
Construction was expected to begin shortly on Saadiyat Island, which is being developed as the cultural district of the United Arab Emirates’ capital city, officials said.
WASHINGTON
Libya waiting to pay families of victims
Libya is holding off on making hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to the families of Americans killed in the bombing of a Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.
The payment appears to have fallen victim, at least for now, to a Libyan desire for a prominent public acknowledgment of its rehabilitation, according to experts in the dispute.
The payments were to have been made when the United States removed Libya from the list of states that sponsor terrorism, which Washington did June 30.
