Pope asks parents not to shun LGBT kids
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis urged parents on Wednesday not to condemn their children if they are gay, in his latest gesture of outreach to the gay and transgender community which has long been marginalized by the Catholic hierarchy.
Francis spoke off the cuff during his weekly Wednesday general audience dedicated to the figure of St. Joseph, the father of Jesus. Francis said he was thinking in particular about parents who are confronted with "sad" situations in their children's lives.
Citing parents who have to cope with children who are sick, imprisoned or who get killed in car accidents, Francis added: "Parents who see that their children have different sexual orientations, how they manage that and accompany their children and not hide behind a condemning attitude."
"Never condemn a child," he said.
Official church teaching calls for gay men and lesbians to be respected and loved, but considers homosexual activity "intrinsically disordered." Francis, though, has sought to make the church more welcoming to gays.
Mali's junta tells Danish troops to leave
BAMAKO, Mali --Mali's junta has told Denmark to withdraw its soldiers from the country's north, saying no permission had been given for them to deploy there as part of a European counterterrorism operation, a government spokesman said Wednesday.
The demand for the Danish troop withdrawal comes just a week after a 90-person contingent from Denmark had arrived in the volatile West African nation for a one-year deployment. The Danish contingent includes a surgical team.
The drawdown means Malian troops and their U.N. peacekeeping counterparts now will have more responsibility for fighting the jihadis than before, and some have questioned whether that may further destabilize northern Mali.
Col. Abdoulaye Maiga, spokesman for Mali's military-led government, said in a statement that Denmark has been asked "to immediately withdraw the said contingent from the territory of the Republic of Mali."
A statement from the government in Bamako said that the Danish deployment was done without the Malian government's consent. European partners, though, insist that the deployment of the Danes was discussed beforehand.
Israeli captivity tied to death of man, 78
JERUSALEM -- A 78-year-old Palestinian American man who was found dead after being detained by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank earlier this month suffered a stress-induced heart attack probably brought on by being bound and gagged and held in a cold construction site, according to the results of an autopsy released Wednesday.
Omar Assad was found unresponsive in the early hours of Jan. 12, minutes after Israeli soldiers left him in a courtyard.
The findings of the medical exam released by the Palestinian Ministry of Justice described the cause of death as "stress-induced sudden cardiac arrest due to external violence."
The examination found evidence that Assad had been tightly bound and blindfolded, with abrasions on his wrists and bleeding on the insides of his eyelids. His history of cardiac and lung disease were evident, including markers of chronic emphysema, according to the report.
The Israel Defense Forces, which is conducting an internal investigation of the incident, declined to comment on the autopsy findings. The army has said it would be a breach of regulations for soldiers not to provide aid to a detainee in need of medical care.
"We are continuing with the investigation," Lt. Col. Amnon Shefler, a spokesperson, said in an interview. "If we find any wrongdoing, we will act according to the findings, our protocols and our values."
Emails: Johnson OK'd animal evacuation
Emails released by Britain's Foreign Office on Wednesday appear to show that Prime Minister Boris Johnson did sign off on a controversial evacuation of dogs and cats from Afghanistan in August.
Johnson has denied authorizing the late August airlifting of 200 dogs and cats from Nowzad, a shelter in Afghanistan run by a former British Royal Marine. But accusations that Johnson did have a role in authorizing the flight have continued to follow him.
In December, a senior British opposition lawmaker released a letter sent by a top Johnson aide in late August confirming authorization for the animal evacuation.
In the latest correspondence to surface, an unnamed Foreign Office official in an email dated Aug. 25 wrote that the staff of another animal charity -- whose identity was redacted -- should be considered for evacuation as "the PM has just authorised their [Nowzad] staff and animals to be evacuated."
A second Foreign Office email that day made a similar request, writing that given "the Prime Minister's Nowzad decision, the Foreign Secretary might consider the [details redacted] vets and their dependents should be included."
The emails were released as part of an investigation by a British parliamentary committee of the government's handling of its Afghanistan withdrawal.
Lidia Maksymowicz, a Holocaust survivor who was prisoner in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, left, meets Pope Francis at the end of his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)