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Vatican questions $17 million donation to impact investing fund, moves to prevent similar gifts

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:55:29 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The former monastery on a quiet residential street in Rome once sheltered Jews fearing deportation in World War II. Purchased by the Vatican in 2021 as a dormitory for foreign nuns studying at Rome’s pontifical universities, the building now stands empty, a collateral victim of the latest financial scandal to hit the Holy See.Pope Francis has asked aides to get to the bottom of how at least $17 million, including money to refurbish the dorm, was transferred from the Vatican’s U.S.-based missionary fundraising coffers into an impact investing vehicle run by a priest, The Associated Press has learned. Two years later, the U.S. fundraiser says the money is gone, and the monastery is shuttered. Its renovation is tied up in bureaucratic red tape, while the nuns studying in Rome are still housed at a convent a 90-minute commute away.The story of what happened to the money is one that has vexed Vatican officials on both sides of the Atlantic, all the more because the tr...

Australian general says US warns war crime allegations could prevent work with Australia’s SAS

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:55:29 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s defense force chief says the U.S. government has warned that allegations of war crimes against Australian soldiers in Afghanistan could prevent U.S. forces from working with Australia’s Special Air Service Regiment.Gen. Angus Campbell told a Senate committee on Wednesday that he received a letter from the U.S. defense attache in Canberra on March 2021 suggesting the SAS may have been “tainted” by the allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan raised in an Australian investigation report.Campbell said “one individual” had his “posted position adjusted” following the letter.The letter warned that the Brereton report, which detailed “credible information” that Australian soldiers had unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners and civilians, could trigger a U.S. law that prevents the country’s military working with units linked to “gross violations of human rights.”“I received a letter from the defense attache of the United States Armed Forces based in Ca...

Gaza Strip’s Palestinians polarized by unorthodox watermelon delicacy

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:55:29 GMT

KHUZAA, Gaza Strip (AP) — Locals call it “watermelon salad.” But this delicacy popular in the southern Gaza Strip at this time of year is far from the sweet, refreshing taste the name evokes.“Lasima,” “Ajar,” or “Qursa” are different names for the hot, savory meal that takes hours to prepare. There’s watermelon inside, but one can hardly taste it.In a territory that prides itself on its culinary traditions, Lasima is surprisingly divisive. Residents in southern Gaza love the dish. Just a few kilometers (miles) to the north, people shun it as unclean, due to its hands-on preparation.Lasima is available just two months a year. It is made with melons that are picked when they are small and not yet ripe. They are roasted on a fire and peeled, and the soft flesh is mixed with roasted eggplants and thinly sliced tomatoes, lemon, garlic, onion and olive oil. Then it is eaten with a special dough baked in the ashes of the fire.The name “Ajar,” or “unripe” in Arabic, refers to the baby melon...

Ukraine peace plan only way to end Russia's war, says Zelenskiy aide

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:55:29 GMT

Kyiv's peace plan is the only way to end Russia's war in Ukraine and the time for mediation efforts has passed, a top aide to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.Chief diplomatic adviser Ihor Zhovkva said that Ukraine had no interest in a ceasefire that locks in Russian territorial gains, and wanted the implementation of its peace plan, which envisages the full withdrawal of Russian troops.He pushed back on a flurry of peace initiatives from China, Brazil, the Vatican and South Africa in recent months."There cannot be a Brazilian peace plan, a Chinese peace plan, a South African peace plan when you are talking about the war in Ukraine," Zhovkva said in an interview late on Friday.Zelenskiy made a major push to court the Global South this month in response to peace moves from some of its members. He attended the Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia on 19 May, holding talks with host Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Iraq and other delegations.He then flew to Japan where he met t...

EU's Borrell: Russia won't enter negotiations while trying to win war

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:55:29 GMT

The European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell (pictured), on Monday (29 May) said he believed Russia will not be willing to negotiate while it is still trying to win the war in Ukraine, adding that he was "not optimistic" about what could happen in the conflict this summer."I see a concentration of troops on both sides, the clear will of Russia to try to win the war," Borrell told an event in Barcelona. "(Russia) will not go to a negotiation until it has tried to win the war."He added that Russia has repeatedly signaled it would not cease the campaign until its military goals have been achieved.Borrell's comments came the same day Russia said its military had hit Ukrainian air bases and Ukrainian forces shelled industrial facilities inside Russia as both sides sought the upper hand ahead of what Kyiv hopes will be a decisive counter-offensive."I'm afraid that between now and the summer, the war is going to continue. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has amassed over 300,000 men ...

80-year-old man arrested for fatal shooting in parking lot of Amazon Fresh store in Westchester

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:55:29 GMT

An 80-year-old man has been arrested in connection with a fatal shooting Tuesday outside an Amazon Fresh store in Westchester.  The deadly altercation unfolded around 4 p.m. in the 6800 block of La Cienega Boulevard, near Centinela Avenue, in the store’s parking lot.  Cellphone video captured the confrontation between the 80-year-old man, who can be seen holding a gun, and a 30-year-old man standing near a white pickup truck, as it escalated into a fatal shooting that was witnessed by several people.  “The young guy that got shot was being very aggressive,” Tracey Knox, who witnessed the shooting, told KTLA. “He was saying derogatory things to the African American gentleman, and I believe that there was some words that were said and he turned around and shot him.” Another witness said the whole incident started when the younger man drove his pickup truck erratically into the store’s parking lot.  “The guy that got shot came through the alley, I’m assuming to...

El presidente de Colombia, Gustavo Petro, anuncia que Colombia se reintegra a Unasur

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:55:29 GMT

(CNN Español) — El presidente de Colombia, Gustavo Petro, anunció este martes en su cuenta verificada de Twitter que el país se va a reintegrar a la Unión de Naciones Suramericanas (Unasur).Petro dijo que para garantizar pluralismo y permanencia en el tiempo ha pedido que se cambie el nombre a Asociación de Naciones Suramericanas.He decidio reintregar el país a la Unasur ratificando el tratado aprobado por el Congreso a través de ley y he solicitado que se llame Asociación de Naciones Suramericanas para garantizar el pluralismo y la permanencia en el tiempo.— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) May 31, 2023Colombia se retiró de Unasur en 2018 durante el gobierno de Iván Duque. En aquella oportunidad, el entonces ministro de Relaciones Exteriores de Colombia, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, explicó las razones detrás de esta decisión: “creemos en la necesidad de relanzar la OEA para fortalecerla, en desarrollo del principio de defensa y fortalecimiento del sistema interamericano. Vamos...

Freeman has 4 hits to extend hitting streak to 19, Dodgers beat Nationals 9-3

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:55:29 GMT

Los Angeles Dodgers' Freddie Freeman (5) hits a home run during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals in Los Angeles, Tuesday, May 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis) Los Angeles Dodgers' Freddie Freeman (5) hits a home run during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals in Los Angeles, Tuesday, May 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis) LOS ANGELES (AP) — Freddie Freeman and J.D. Martinez powered the Los Angeles Dodgers — again.Freeman extended his hitting streak to 19 games, capping a four-hit game with an eighth-inning homer, and Martinez went deep for the third straight game as the Dodgers beat the Washington Nationals 9-3 on Tuesday night.Jason Heyward a...

Olympic sports leaders meet amid uncertainty over Russians competing at 2024 Paris Games

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:55:29 GMT

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Olympic sports bodies meet Wednesday amid ongoing uncertainty about if and how Russian athletes could return to their competitions ahead of the 2024 Paris Games.The annual meeting of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) comes more than two months after the IOC detailed advice on how individual athletes from Russia and its military ally Belarus could be reintegrated as neutral athletes.Exactly how that neutrality is being defined is not very much clearer now as key qualification events start for the Olympics that open in July next year. The International Olympic Committee in March advised that some Russians and Belarusians could return in individual events but not team sports, if they had not actively supported the war in Ukraine, and are not contracted to “military or national security agencies.” The IOC also suggested ASOIF and the winter sports umbrella group, AIOWF, could oversee “creating a single independent panel” to ...

Top Russian official says British politicians now a legitimate military target

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:55:29 GMT

LONDON — British politicians are now a legitimate military target for Moscow, a senior Russian official said, after the U.K.’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly argued Ukraine has the right to use force within Russian borders.Speaking in Estonia Tuesday, Cleverly said Ukraine “has a right” to project force “beyond its own borders” as part of its self-defense, following a series of drone strikes that hit Moscow’s wealthiest neighborhoods. The U.K. minister argued that Kyiv striking inside Russia would “undermine” the Kremlin’s ability to continue its war in Ukraine, which has officially denied responsibility for the attack.Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and deputy chair of the Russian Security Council, hit back on Wednesday arguing that the U.K. is “de facto leading an undeclared war against Russia” by supplying Ukraine with military aid and specialists.“That being the case, any of its public officials (either military, or civil, who facilitate the war) can be consider...