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Church heads not vigilant over sex
Queen Elizabeth and Pope Benedict XVI meet schoolchildren outside the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh on Thursday. — AFP
Taliban vow attacks on polling day |
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Pak immigrant charged with funding Times Square bomber
New York, September 16 
Mohammad Younis, an immigrant from Pakistan living in the United States, has been charged for providing money to Faisal Shahzad who has pleaded guilty for trying to blow up part of Times Square in May this year.
Younis, who lives in Long Island, allegedly gave thousands of dollars to Shahzad as part of a “hawala” money transfer from Pakistan, which is an informal banking system but has come under disrepute, in recent years, for being used to funnel money to extremist groups.
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Church heads not vigilant over sex abuse: Pope
Edinburgh, September 16 The German pope was greeted by Queen Elizabeth at the start of his four-day visit, which comes at a time when the Catholic church is struggling with a global child sex-abuse scandal. In some of his clearest remarks on the scandal, he told reporters aboard the plane taking him to Scotland that he was shocked by the revelations. “It is difficult to understand how this perversion of the priestly ministry was possible,” he said. “It is also a great sadness that the authority of the church was not sufficiently vigilant and not sufficiently quick and decisive in taking the necessary measures.” Benedict has a delicate path to tread in England and Scotland in relations with the Anglican church after his offer last October making it easier for disaffected Anglicans, unhappy over the ordination of women and gay bishops, to convert. He told reporters it was not the mission of the Catholic Church to change with the times “to try to be more attractive”, but to declare what it believed to be fundamental truths. The Queen, after holding talks with the pope at her official residence in Scotland, spoke of the common Christian heritage that Anglicans and Catholics shared, and of their common belief that religion should never be allowed to justify violence. The pope told reporters he was not concerned by the prospect of protests against his visit, saying he was certain that Britain’s sense of “respect and tolerance” would prevail. The Vatican played down comments by Cardinal Walter Kasper to a German magazine, in which he compared England to a Third World country and suggested it was home to aggressive atheism. Kasper, who recently retired as head of the Congregation for Christian Unity, the Vatican department that oversees dialogue with Anglicans, had been due to accompany the pope but a Vatican spokesman said he would miss the visit for health reasons. The pope paraded through Edinburgh enclosed in the glass of his “popemobile”, and was due to preside at an open-air mass in nearby Glasgow in the afternoon. — Reuters
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Taliban vow attacks on polling day
Kandahar, September 16
Kabul: Candidates in Afghanistan's parliamentary poll are living in fear of
insurgent attacks, with women at particular risk in the conservative Islamic
country, a leading rights watchdog said on Thursday. Amnesty International said
candidates, campaigners and voters had reported "increasing attacks and
threats from the Taliban and other insurgent groups," ahead of voting day.
"Women candidates are at particular risk and some have told Amnesty
International that local security forces refuse to offer them protection and
even ridicule them when they do report threats or violence against
them." More than 2,500 candidates are contesting the election on Saturday for the 249 seats in the lower house of parliament in the second poll of its kind since the Taliban were ousted from power in a 2001 US-led invasion. "Civilians are not our target because we support local people and we have local support," he said, speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location. "But if people go to polling centers they will get hurt." The militants have already killed three candidates and dozens of election workers in the lead-up to the poll. "We have repeatedly asked civilians and we again ask them to avoid election centers and all the roads leading to polling centers," Mujahid said. "We will also attack the roads between cities and districts since election workers and government workers will be traveling on these roads to get to polling centers," he said. The Taliban in an earlier emailed statement called on Afghans to boycott Saturday's poll. "We call on our Muslim nation to boycott this process and thus foil all foreign processes and drive away the invaders from your country by sticking to jihad and Islamic resistance," it said. The militants issued threats last month saying anyone associated with the vote was a target. Voting is set to take place at more than 5,800 polling centres across Afghanistan, though more than 1,000 will not open because security cannot be guaranteed, according to the Independent Election Commission. Those polling centers are in nine districts that officials have said remain under Taliban control. — AFP
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Pak immigrant charged with funding Times Square bomber
New York, September 16 Younis, who lives in Long Island, allegedly gave thousands of dollars to Shahzad as part of a “hawala” money transfer from Pakistan, which is an informal banking system but has come under disrepute, in recent years, for being used to funnel money to extremist groups. However, 44-year-old Younis was unaware that money would be used in a terror plot, which had been hatched while Shahzad was training with the Taliban in Pakistan, according to the prosecution. Younis, who has been charged for operating an unlicensed money transfer business and conspiracy, pleaded not guilty and could be sentenced up to 10 years in prison if convicted. “These charges remind us how international terrorists use the cover of informal money transfer systems to avoid detection and to inflict catastrophic harm,” Preet Bharara from the US attorney’s office was quoted as saying by the New York Post. Three months go, Shahzad pleaded guilty to trying to detonate a car bomb hidden in a Nissan Pathfinder in a crowded area of Times Square on May 1. The indictment against Shahzad stated that on February 25, he received USD 5,000 in cash in Massachusetts from a “co-conspirator”, who was identified only as “CC-1”. The first round of money was followed by another USD 7,000 that was picked up in Long Island also allegedly from “CC-1”. Younis arranged the money to be paid to Shahzad at the direction of a co-conspirator in Pakistan, the new indictment charged, according to The New York Times, but it does not identify the co-conspirator. The indictment further stated that Shahzad met Younis on Long Island on April 10, who gave him thousands of dollars. — PTI
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COW IN SHEEP’S
CLOTHING: This is an undated Guinness World Records handout photo, made available on Thursday, of Swallow (R) an 11-year-old cow from Yorkshire posing next to Freddie, a bull. The miniscule cow with a taste for contemporary music has been named the world's smallest by the Guinness Book of World Records. Guinness says the sheep-sized bovine from the West Yorkshire region of northern England measures roughly 33 inches (84
centimetres) from hind to foot. — AP/PTI
