A Lion Air plane is seen in the water after it missed the runway in Denpasar, Bali on Saturday. All 108 passengers and crew miraculously survived when the Boeing 737 aircraft of Indonesia's largest privately run carrier skipped the runway on the Indonesian resort island of Bali and landed in shallow water, an airline spokesman and government officials said. — reuters

Pope names group to advise on Vatican reform
Vatican city, April 13
Pope Francis, in his first major decision, on Saturday set up an advisory board of cardinals from around the world to help him govern the Catholic Church and reform its troubled central administration.

Beijing, April 13
The United States and China agreed on Saturday to make a joint effort to push for the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, following weeks of bellicose rhetoric from North Korea and rising tensions in northeast Asia.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met China's top leaders in a bid to persuade them to exert pressure on North Korea, whose main diplomatic supporter is Beijing, to scale back its belligerence and, eventually, return to nuclear talks.

Before travelling to Beijing for the first time as secretary of state, Kerry had made no secret of his desire to see China take a more active stance towards North Korea, which in recent weeks has threatened nuclear war against the United States and South Korea.

Kerry and China's top diplomat, State Councillor Yang Jiechi, said both countries supported the goal of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula.

"We are able, the United States and China, to underscore our joint commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in a peaceful manner," Kerry told reporters, standing next to Yang at a state guesthouse in western Beijing.

"We agreed that this is critically important for the stability of the region and indeed for the world and for all of our nonproliferation efforts."

But North Korea has repeatedly said it will not abandon nuclear weapons which it described on Friday as its "treasured" guarantor of security.

Yang said China's stance on maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula was clear and consistent.

"We maintain that the issue should be handled and resolved peacefully through dialogue and consultation. To properly address the Korea nuclear issue serves the common interests of all parties. It is also the shared responsibility of all parties," he said, speaking through an interpreter.

"China will work with other relevant parties, including the United States, to play a constructive role in promoting the six-party talks and balanced implementation of the goals set out in the September 19 joint statement of 2005."

At a news conference in Seoul on Friday and in a U.S.-South Korean joint statement issued on Saturday, Kerry signaled the U.S. preference for diplomacy to end the tension, but stressed North Korea must take "meaningful" steps on denuclearization.

The United States and its allies believe the North violated the 2005 aid-for-denuclearization deal by conducting a nuclear test in 2006 and pursuing a uranium enrichment program that would give it a second path to a nuclear weapon in addition to its plutonium-based program.

"CONSTRUCTIVE" TALKS: As the North's main trading partner, financial backer and the closest thing it has to a diplomatic ally, China has a unique ability to use its leverage against the impoverished, isolated state, Kerry said in Seoul before leaving for Beijing.

Kerry earlier in the day characterized his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping as "constructive and forward-leaning", though he did not elaborate.

Beijing, which sided with North Korea in the 1950-53 civil war against the U.S.-backed South, has been reluctant to apply pressure on Pyongyang, fearing the instability that could result if the North were to implode and send floods of refugees into China.

It has also looked askance at U.S. military drills in South Korea. — Reuters

Cairo, April 13
The retrial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was aborted on Saturday when the presiding judge withdrew from the case and referred it to another court, causing an indefinite delay that sparked anger in the courtroom.

Lawyers said that while the transfer would give prosecutors more time to draw on new evidence in an unpublished fact-finding commission's report into the repression, it could delay the case by months, increasing the risk that Mubarak, 84, may never be finally convicted and sentenced.

"Egypt cannot close the door on the former regime until there is justice for the martyrs of our revolution," said Mohamed Rashwan, a prosecution attorney and member of the Egyptian Lawyers' Union, which had petitioned to have the judge removed from the case. Two years had passed since Mubarak's fall and justice was taking too long, Rashwan said.

"The people demand the execution of Mubarak!" frustrated relatives of demonstrators killed in the 2011 uprising that overthrew him chanted in court after presiding Judge Mustafa Hassan Abdullah announced the decision at the opening session.

Outside the heavily guarded compound, pro-Mubarak demonstrators outnumbered opponents. The two small groups were kept well apart by a police cordon and there were no incidents.

Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for almost 30 years before being toppled by 18 days of Arab Spring pro-democracy unrest, waved and smiled to supporters from the defendants' cage in the courtroom before the brief hearing began.

He was flown by helicopter from a military hospital where he has been detained to the police academy used as a courthouse, and wheeled from an ambulance into the building lying on a hospital trolley wearing a white tracksuit.

Mubarak, former interior minister Habib al-Adli and four top aides face a retrial for complicity in the murder of more than 800 protesters after the highest appeals court accepted appeals by both the defense and the prosecution in January. Two other senior interior ministry officials face lesser charges. — Reuters

Vatican city, April 13
Pope Francis, in his first major decision, on Saturday set up an advisory board of cardinals from around the world to help him govern the Catholic Church and reform its troubled central administration.

The eight cardinals will help him put into place changes in an administration which has been held responsible for some of the mishaps and scandals that plagued the eight-year reign of Pope Benedict before he resigned in February.

A Vatican statement said the group would "advise him in the governing of the universal Church" as well as in making administrative changes, a sign that Francis wants to consult more widely than Benedict did before making decisions. The eight prelates come from Italy, Chile, India, Germany, Democratic Republic of Congo, the United States, Australia, and Honduras, indicating that Francis intends to take seriously calls by bishops from around the world to have more say in Vatican decisions that affect their areas.

An Italian archbishop will act as secretary of the group, which will hold its first formal meeting in October in Rome.

Francis, who was elected exactly one month ago, has already been in contact with each of them, the statement said. — Reuters