Pope cuts 2 advisers accused in abuse
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis has removed two cardinals from his informal cabinet after they were implicated in the Catholic Church's sex abuse and cover-up scandal, shedding embarrassing advisers ahead of a high-stakes Vatican summit on abuse early next year.
The Vatican said Wednesday that Francis in October had written to Chilean Cardinal Javier Errazuriz and Australian Cardinal George Pell thanking them for their five years of service on the so-called Group of Nine.
Francis also bid farewell to Congolese Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, who hasn't been implicated in the scandal but at age 79 recently retired as archbishop of Kinshasa.
Errazuriz, 85, has been accused by Chilean abuse survivors of having covered up for predator priests while he was archbishop of Santiago, an accusation he has denied. Pell, 77, took leave from his job as the Vatican's economy minister to stand trial in his native Australia on charges of sex abuse, which he denies.
Their continued presence on the Group of Nine had been a source of scandal for Francis, given the explosion of the abuse and cover-up crisis this year. Francis himself was implicated in the scandal after he strongly defended a Chilean bishop accused of covering for the country's most notorious predator priest -- a position he took apparently on the advice of Errazuriz.
The Vatican made no mention of the accusations against Errazuriz and Pell in explaining their departures, and said for now they wouldn't be replaced.
E. German ID sheds light on Putin's past
LONDON -- Russian President Vladimir Putin's time as a Soviet intelligence agent in East Germany is largely shrouded in secrecy. He has claimed, for example, to have single-handedly dispersed protesters outside the KGB office in Dresden in 1989, in the waning days of the communist government.
Now, German tabloid Bild's publication of a photo ID card issued on the last day of 1985 to a young Putin by the Stasi, East Germany's secret police, pulls back the veil on one part of his tenure in Dresden, raising questions about his presence in the former German Democratic Republic.
The Putin ID card was also released Wednesday by the federal commissioner for the records of the state security service of the former East Germany. Printed on green passport-style paper, the card bears a black-and-white photo of a young intelligence officer identified as Maj. Putin, who would have been 33 at the time.
"This is no proof that he worked for the Stasi," Douglas Selvage, who works for the Stasi archives, said by phone Wednesday.
What the ID proves, said Selvage, who is an expert on the relations between the KGB and the Stasi, is that Putin, like other officers of the Soviet security agency, had access to the Stasi's headquarters in Dresden, most likely for recruiting locals for his intelligence work.
The Kremlin's spokesman, Dimitri Peskov, said Tuesday, "My guess is that in the Soviet era, the KGB and the Stasi were partners, and for this reason one should not rule out they might have exchanged identification papers and passes."
Born after mother shot, Israeli boy dies
JERUSALEM -- A baby born prematurely after his Israeli mother was critically wounded in a shooting at a bus stop outside a West Bank settlement earlier this week died Wednesday.
Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Hospital said the mother remained at the hospital in intensive care.
The baby was delivered by a cesarean section Sunday night, shortly after the drive-by shooting, which wounded seven people.
Security camera footage from the scene showed a vehicle speeding away from the scene after the shooting. The suspects remain at large, despite an Israeli military manhunt.
Speaking to foreign reporters Wednesday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attackers as "the most deviant criminals on earth."
"The security forces are pursuing them and I hope that there will be news soon on this matter," he said.
New Zealanders mourn slain U.K. tourist
WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- More than 1,000 people across New Zealand joined candlelight vigils on Wednesday to commemorate British tourist Grace Millane, who police say was killed earlier this month.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern summed up the national mood this week when she said there was an overwhelming sense of hurt and shame that the 22-year-old's death occurred in New Zealand, a country that prides itself on its hospitality to visitors.
The victim's father, David Millane, who traveled to New Zealand last week after his daughter vanished, said in a statement that although Grace was in the country only a few weeks, in some small way "she will forever be a kiwi."
The man accused of killing Millane made his first court appearance this week and has not yet entered a plea. He will remain in jail until his next court appearance in January. The court has temporarily blocked his name from being published.
A Section on 12/13/2018