World in brief

Rescuers and onlookers examine the debris from an aircraft that crashed Sunday in Goma, Congo. The crash killed the small plane’s 17 passengers and two crew members, as well as several residents on the ground, officials said.
Rescuers and onlookers examine the debris from an aircraft that crashed Sunday in Goma, Congo. The crash killed the small plane’s 17 passengers and two crew members, as well as several residents on the ground, officials said.

At Hiroshima, pope rips nuke arsenals

HIROSHIMA, Japan -- Pope Francis traveled to Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Sunday to demand that world powers renounce their nuclear arsenals, declaring the use and possession of atomic bombs an "immoral" crime and a dangerous waste.

Standing before survivors of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings, Francis denounced the steady erosion of arms control agreements and rejected the Cold War-era doctrine of deterrence that had been sanctioned by the Catholic Church for nearly three decades.

In the rain of Nagasaki and the silent darkness of Hiroshima, he urged political leaders to accept that true peace and international security cannot be built in a climate of distrust, but rather solidarity.

"The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral," the pope declared during a nighttime prayer at Hiroshima's peace memorial. He added off-the-cuff, "As is the possession of atomic weapons."

"We will be judged for this," he warned.

Francis visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the first full day of a three-day trip to Japan aimed at emphasizing his call for a global ban on atomic weapons. Nagasaki was the perfect place to begin, the birthplace of Christianity in Japan where he could honor innocents killed in war as well as Christian missionaries and martyrs killed for their faith.

[Gallery not loading above? Click here for photos » arkansasonline.com/1125pope/]

Iraqi forces kill 13 protesters; 150 hurt

BAGHDAD -- Thirteen anti-government protesters were killed Sunday by Iraqi security forces in clashes in the country's south, as protests swept through the oil-rich area, officials said. Demonstrators angered by rampant government corruption and poor services burned tires and blocked main road arteries.

Seven protesters were killed in the southern province of Basra, near the Umm Qasr port, when Iraqi authorities used live fire and tear gas to disperse them, said security and hospital officials, who requested anonymity in line with regulations.

One security official in Basra said it was "one of the worst" days since the start of the protest movement. At least 150 protesters were wounded in clashes across southern Iraq.

Four protesters were killed in Nassiriya province, and one killed in both Najaf, the seat of Iraq's Shiite religious authority, and Diwanieh provinces.

At least 342 people have died since demonstrations began Oct. 1, when thousands of Iraqis, mostly youths, took to the streets to decry corruption and poor services.

The leaderless movement seeks to dismantle the sectarian system and unseat the government, including Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi.

Congo plane crashes into homes; 26 die

GOMA, Congo -- A small plane crashed into homes shortly after takeoff Sunday in Congo's eastern city of Goma, killing 26 people, including the aircraft's passengers and crew, as well as residents on the ground, the government of the central African nation said.

The 19-seat Dornier 228-200, owned by private carrier Busy Bee, was headed to Beni, about 220 miles north of Goma, when it crashed in the Mapendo district near the airport in the North Kivu province, according to the government.

Although the National Border Health Program initially said there were two survivors from the plane, including a crew member, the provisional death toll was later put at 26 -- 17 passengers, two crew members and seven residents of the homes, the Ministry of Transportation said after collecting information from other government departments.

The U.N. mission in Congo said it sent an Emergency Crash and Rescue team with two fire engines to support Congolese authorities.

The government extended its condolences to the families of those killed.

3rd man charged in trafficking deaths

LONDON -- Police in Essex, England, have charged another man with human trafficking in the deaths of 39 Vietnamese people whose bodies were found in the refrigerated trailer of a truck in October.

The man, Christopher Kennedy, 23, of County Armagh, Northern Ireland, was arrested Friday on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic people and conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration. He was detained in connection with the investigation into the grisly discovery in Grays, England, on Oct. 23, Essex police said Sunday in a statement.

Kennedy is expected to appear in Chelmsford Magistrates' Court in Essex today on charges including "conspiracy to facilitate the commission of a breach of U.K. immigration law," the statement said.

The driver of the truck, Maurice Robinson, 25, also of Northern Ireland, was charged in October with manslaughter, conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and money laundering in connection with the deaths, which police said were the tragic outcome of an international trafficking operation.

Another truck driver from Northern Ireland, Eamonn Harrison, 22, has also been charged in Ireland in the case. He faces counts of manslaughter, human trafficking and immigration offenses but last week challenged attempts to extradite him to Britain.

-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports

photo

AP/Kyodo

“The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral,” Pope Francis said Sunday during his visit to the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan. More photos are available at arkansasonline.com/1125pope/

A Section on 11/25/2019

Upcoming Events