U.N. prods Mexico on aid for refugees
MEXICO CITY -- The United Nations' top official for refugees on Wednesday called on Mexico to devote more resources to the country's badly overtaxed refugee aid agency.
The U.N. refugee agency's commissioner, Filippo Grandi, said in a statement that the number of people seeking asylum in Mexico is only expected to grow as the United States makes it more difficult to seek asylum there.
In 2014, Mexico received 2,100 requests for asylum. Through the first eight months of this year it received more than 48,000.
"Mexico faces growing challenges and concerns due to the policy changes in the United States that led to a significant increase in the number of people who decide to seek asylum in Mexico," Grandi said. He described Mexico's asylum system as "already overburdened."
Grandi spent four days visiting shelters and other facilities in the southern border state of Chiapas and northern border state of Coahuila.
Grandi said asylum-seekers in Mexico were still waiting months for documents they need to get access to work and social services.
The U.N. refugee agency has supported Mexico by providing funds to hire more personnel.
Cardinal doubtful on married priests
VATICAN CITY -- A top Vatican cardinal has expressed skepticism about ordaining married men to address the priest shortage in the Amazon, defending the value of priestly celibacy on the eve of a big Vatican meeting where the issue is officially up for debate.
Cardinal Marc Ouellet held a rare news conference Wednesday to introduce his book Friends of the Bridegroom: For a Renewed Vision of Priestly Celibacy, which speaks openly about the challenges facing priests today during a decline in vocations and reputational damage from sex-abuse scandals.
Ouellet, a Canadian who heads the Vatican's bishops' office as well as the Holy See's commission for Latin America, acknowledged that the Amazon region was suffering from a priest shortage and that he was open to debate about how to address it during this month's Amazon synod.
But he said he was skeptical about the proposal to ordain married men, noting that the region doesn't even have enough catechists to teach laypeople about their faith, much less train indigenous deacons or priests.
Ouellet strongly defended the value of the celibate priesthood, noting that the sacrifice of men who give up having families to become priests is in and of itself a powerful and "incomparable" witness of evangelization.
U.S. returns its embassy to Somalia
MOGADISHU, Somalia -- The United States says it has reopened its embassy in Somalia nearly three decades after the country collapsed into civil war and the U.S. military airlifted the ambassador to safety.
Wednesday's statement said the opening reflects recent progress in the Horn of Africa nation that still faces frequent attacks by al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremists.
Al-Shabab on Monday attempted to storm the Belidogle military airstrip in southern Somalia that hosts Somali and U.S. forces and is used to launch drones that attack al-Shabab targets. The U.S. military says it has carried out 54 airstrikes this year against al-Shabab and an Islamic State affiliate.
The U.S. Embassy in Mogadishu had closed in 1991. The U.S. formally recognized Somalia's new federal government in 2013 but had based its diplomatic mission in neighboring Kenya.
French police protest low pay, high risk
PARIS -- Thousands of police officers marched Wednesday through the streets of Paris to protest low wages, long hours and increasing suicides in their ranks.
The so-called anger march was the first mass mobilization by French police officers since 2001. Police unions cited inadequate equipment and repeated exposure to violence during months of weekly yellow-vest movement protests as other concerns that spurred the protest.
Marchers traded their police uniforms for union flags and whistles, and some wore name badges simply reading "angry."
Police forces across France are coping with officer suicides, said David Michaux, a trade union representative for riot police units. In Paris, some of the protesting police lay on the ground surrounded by 51 black cardboard coffins, one for each French police officer to die by suicide since the beginning of the year.
Officers and parliamentary investigators have blamed a lethal combination of the job's intensity, long hours with low pay, and inadequate support services. The situation has worsened in the wake of the 2015 Paris terror attacks, officers say.
The police unions also raised worries about a government pension plan would reduce professional benefits like pension bonuses specific to police officers.
A Section on 10/03/2019