Mes: septiembre 2019

Update: Please see below for responses from Woods’ representatives and the...

(CBS News) At a donors conference in Tokyo over the weekend, $16 billion of aid was pledged to Afghanistan. But the U.S. is putting conditions on that assistance. Taliban claims Afghanistan bombing, which left 6 U.S. troops dead Dollars and diplomacy are Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s new focus for the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, as military engagement comes to an end. In Tokyo, Clinton said that Afghanistan’s security has to be measured by jobs and economic opportunity. On both fronts, Afghanistan is far from success. There were more than 200 coalition force deaths in 2012 and violence is increasing. Afghanistan is only capable of generating a fraction of its financial needs – its main export is still opium. That’s why much of the Tokyo conference was spent discussing how to attract private investors and cut back on corruption. Aid dollars helped educate more than eight million children and build roads and bridges; those are the success stories. Afghan president Hamid Karzai leaves Tokyo with a total of $16 billion in aid pledges to be paid through 2015. The U.S. is still Afghanistan’s top financial supporter. But Clinton says new dollars will have strings attached. She also wants private investors to put money to work in a country that still ranks as the fourth most corrupt, per Transparency International. “That must include fighting corruption, improving governance, strengthening the rule...

Leaders of the Catholic Church in Australia have released its response to a roster of recommendations by a royal commission in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal that has roiled the church. A press release out Friday morning from Australia’s Catholic leaders vows “that the church’s shameful history will never be repeated” and expresses “deep sorrow that vulnerable children were abused, weren’t believed and weren’t supported when seeking justice.” The royal commission — Australia’s highest form of inquiry — laid out 26 recommendations on how the Catholic Church could reform. Leaders say they accept 98 percent of the recommendations, according to the press release. The report was completed after consultation with the Vatican. However, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) — the country’s top Catholic body — isn’t accepting a recommendation that would require priests by law to report abuse to the police when it’s revealed during confession. “The Council … continues to support retention of the civil law protection for the seal of the confessional,” the ACBC said in its response. ACBC president Archbishop Mark Coleridge told reporters Friday the seal of confession was “a non-negotiable element of our religious life and embodies an understanding of the believer and God.”  According to the Reuters news agency, one of Australia’s eight states and a territory have introduced laws making it a crime for priests to fail to report abuse...

(CBS News) LEBANON – The Syrian dictator threatened Monday to use chemical weapons and biological weapons against any aggression from foreign powers. It’s the first time Syria admitted it has weapons of mass destruction. A Syrian government spokesman drew a line, though, saying the dictatorship would not use those weapons against Syrian civilians. President Obama had a warning for Assad on Monday: “Given the regime’s stockpiles of chemical weapons, we will continue to make it clear to Assad and those around him that the world is watching and that they will be held accountable by the international community and the United States should they make the tragic mistake of using those weapons.” Syrian rebels, fighting the 42-year-old Assad dictatorship, have seized the initiative over the last week; a bomb killed Assad’s defense minister and three top officials. More in After the Arab Spring Israel: U.S. discussed collapse of Assad gov’tSyria: Chemical, biological weapons could be used if there is “external aggression”Syria’s biggest cities seeing fighting now The rebels held several Syrian border crossings for a time, and now they’re closing in on Syria’s second most important city, Aleppo. The war has now come to Aleppo. Until a few days ago, Syria’s biggest city had stayed relatively calm. Not anymore. A major opposition offensive is under way to take this vital commercial hub. Syrian Free Army colonel Abdel al-Akaidi made...