Pope honors Colombia’s ‘slave of slaves’
CARTAGENA, Colombia — Pope Francis wrapped up his Colombia trip with a deeply personal final day Sunday honoring St. Peter Claver, a fellow Jesuit who ministered to hundreds of thousands of African slaves who arrived in the port of Cartagena to be sold during Spanish colonial times.
Francis visited the St. Peter Claver church, where he praised the 17th century missionary for having recognized the inherent dignity of slaves. Francis, known for his own simple and austere style, said Claver was “austere and charitable to the point of heroism.”
Claver, the self-described “slave of the slaves forever,” has been revered by Jesuits, popes and human-rights campaigners for centuries for having insisted on treating slaves as children of God and worthy of love when others considered them mere merchandise to be bought and sold.
In a prayer Sunday in front of Claver’s church, Francis said the legacy of the Spanish priest should serve as a model for the Catholic Church today to “promote the dignity of all our brothers and sisters, particularly the poor and the excluded of society, those who are abandoned, immigrants and those who suffer violence and human trafficking.”
Ex-exec arrested in Brazilian graft probe
SAO PAULO — The former chairman of the world’s largest meatpacker, whose testimony implicated Brazil’s president in corruption, turned himself in to police Sunday after the country’s Supreme Court ordered his arrest.
Joesley Batista has avoided prosecution under a plea bargain deal in which he described how meatpacking giant JBS had bribed dozens of politicians, including President Michel Temer.
Earlier this year, Temer was charged with corruption, accused of orchestrating a scheme in which he would get payouts totaling millions of dollars for helping JBS resolve a business issue.
Temer denies wrongdoing, and Congress voted in August that he would not stand trial on the charge while in office.
But Brazil’s sprawling probe into the large trade in bribes and kickbacks for favors between companies and politicians, known as Operation Car Wash, continues to churn out new allegations on almost a daily basis.
Rodrigo Janot, the country’s chief prosecutor, also has said he plans to file more charges against Temer. To do so, he’ll need to act in the coming days since his terms ends on Sept. 18.
Cyprus, Turkey make smuggling arrests
NICOSIA, Cyprus — Cyprus police arrested a 36-year-old man Sunday accused of driving one of two boats that carried 305 Syrian refugees to the Mediterranean island’s northwestern coast.
Another 29-year-old man was also taken into custody on suspicion of migrant trafficking.
Police spokesman Michalis Ioannou said the 202 men, 30 women and 73 children arrived about midnight in what is thought to be the largest number of migrants to reach Cyprus in a single day. He said they departed from Mer-sin, Turkey, on Saturday.
The passengers reported paying up to $2,000 each to smugglers for the trip. Some with relatives in Cyprus have expressed a desire to remain, while others want to go to Germany or Scandinavia.
In Turkey, the coast guard stopped an unnamed fishing boat carrying 93 Syrians and one Afghan migrant Sunday off the coast of Istanbul on the Black Sea. The authorities also caught a Turk accused of smuggling.
China aims for no gasoline, diesel cars
BEIJING — China is joining France and Britain in announcing plans to end sales of gasoline and diesel cars.
China’s industry ministry is developing a timetable to end production and sale of traditional fuel cars and will promote development of electric technology, state media on Sunday cited a Cabinet official as saying.
The reports gave no possible target date, but Beijing is stepping up pressure on automakers to accelerate development of electrics.
China is the biggest auto market by number of vehicles sold.
A deputy industry minister, Xin Guobin, said at an auto industry forum on Saturday his ministry has begun “research on formulating a timetable to stop production and sales of traditional energy vehicles,” according to the Xinhua News Agency and the Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily.
A Section on 09/11/2017