Chileans Lose Faith as Vatican Revisits Sex Abuse Charges

To understand why Chile, one of Latin America’s most socially conservative nations, is losing faith in the Roman Catholic Church, visit Providencia, a middle-class area of Santiago coming to terms with a decades-old clergy sex abuse scandal.

Providencia is home to El Bosque, the former parish of priest Fernando Karadima, who was found guilty in a Vatican investigation in 2011 of abusing teenage boys over many years, spurring a chain of events leading to this week’s visit by a Vatican investigator.

A Chilean judge in the same year determined the Vatican’s canonical sentence was valid, but Karadima was not prosecuted by the civil justice system because the statute of limitations had expired.

So many Chileans were shocked in 2015 when Pope Francis appointed as a bishop a clergyman accused of covering up for Karadima, and defended that choice in a visit to Chile last month.

​Socially conservative

Chile remains largely conservative on social issues. It only legalized divorce in 2004, making it one of the last countries in the world to do so. Chile’s ban on abortion, one of the strictest in the world, was lifted in 2017 for special circumstances only. Same-sex marriage remains illegal.

Yet El Bosque, like many other Chilean parishes, no longer has the large crowds attending Mass that it did in the 1970s and 1980s, when Karadima was a pillar of the Providencia community.

“Karadima did a lot of damage to the Catholic Church,” said Ximena Jara Novoa, 65, a hairdresser who lives in a neighboring community but has worked in Providencia for 45 years. She once counted Karadima’s mother and sister as clients.

“If I had been from this neighborhood, I would not let my son go to church anymore,” she said in an interview.

​Empty pews, less trust

A poll by Santiago-based think tank Latinobarometro in January 2017 showed the number of Chileans calling themselves Catholics had fallen to 45 percent, from 74 percent in 1995.

In the same survey, Pope Francis, who hails from neighboring Argentina and is the first Latin American pontiff, was ranked by Chileans asked to evaluate him at 5.3 on a scale of zero to 10, compared to a 6.8 average in Latin America.

The pope surprised many Chileans last month by defending the appointment of Bishop Juan Barros, who considered Karadima his mentor and is accused by several men of covering up sexual abuse of minors committed by the priest.

Barros, of the southern diocese of Osorno, has said he was unaware of any wrongdoing by Karadima.

Just before leaving Chile, the pope testily told a Chilean reporter: “The day I see proof against Bishop Barros, then I will talk. There is not a single piece of evidence against him.

“It is all slander. Is that clear?”

The comments were widely criticized and just days after his return to Rome, Francis made a remarkable U-turn and ordered a Vatican investigation into the accusations.

Challenging the church

Residents of Providencia, once dotted with mansions belonging to the most powerful families in Santiago but now home to largely upscale high-rise apartments, said the abuse of children by the charismatic Karadima was an open secret as far back as the 1970s.

“It was always rumored, everything was talked about. People knew,” Novoa said quietly.

But challenging the powerful church in the once predominately Catholic society was not previously accepted.

That is changing.

The Vatican special envoy sent by the pope is scheduled to hear testimony from more than 20 sex abuse victims before he leaves Santiago.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s most experienced sex abuse investigator, also spent four hours in New York speaking to Juan Carlos Cruz, one of Karadima’s most vocal accusers.

On Thursday, a group of people who say they were sexually abused by members of the Marist Brothers congregation in Santiago asked Vatican officials to investigate their cases, too.

The Vatican’s defense of Barros has been compounded by the perceived lack of punishment of Karadima.

Miguel Angel Lopez, a professor at the University of Chile who grew up in Providencia and met Karadima several times when the priest visited his Catholic school, said the legal loophole that allowed the clergyman to escape punishment had infuriated Chileans.

“The fact that Karadima didn’t go to jail is one of the reasons people don’t trust the church much,” Lopez said. “They were very angry.”

Testy Exchange With Trump Leads Mexico President to Cancel Visit to White House

After a testy exchange this past week over a proposed U.S. border wall, Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto canceled plans to visit the White House, according to a report Saturday by The Washington Post.

Pena Nieto and Trump spoke Tuesday, spending a considerable amount of their nearly hourlong call on discussions of the border wall, according to sources who spoke with the Post.

During his run for president, Trump made it a campaign promise that he would have a wall built along the U.S.-Mexico border to help reduce illegal immigration. He told his enthusiastic crowds that Mexico would pay for it.

In the phone call Tuesday, however, the two men argued over that issue. Pena Nieto wanted the U.S. leader to say publicly that Mexico would not pay for the building of the wall, but Trump refused.

One Mexican official said Trump “lost his temper” during the phone call, but U.S. officials countered that he was instead “frustrated and exasperated,” the newspaper reported.

There had been plans for the Mexican leader to make an official visit to the White House in the coming weeks. A planned visit in 2017 was scrapped after the two men disagreed over the proposed wall and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Colombia Extradites Major Drug Suspect to US

A suspected drug chief known as the “Pablo Escobar of Ecuador” was extradited to the United States on Saturday, Colombia’s chief prosecutor’s office announced.

Washington Edison Prado had tried unsuccessfully to prevent extradition by claiming membership in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a status that would have made him eligible for a type of amnesty under a peace deal.

The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that Prado was escorted by a detail of 50 commandos and agents of various police agencies as he was turned over to U.S. authorities.

U.S. officials accuse Prado, also known by the alias “Gerald,” of shipping more than 250 tons of cocaine to the United States.

Police say he ran the most sophisticated smuggling route on the Pacific coast of South America, and they compared it to Escobar’s Medellin cartel of three decades ago because it sought to dominate the entire cocaine supply chain from production to its distribution in the U.S.

Police say his group sent as many as 10 go-fast boats a week, each carrying around a ton of cocaine.

He allegedly began as a boatman running drugs along Ecuador’s coast and rose to become head of a small army of smugglers spread across five countries.

Prado was arrested in Colombia in April on an indictment by a Florida federal court. 

Brazil Seeks Extradition of Man Arrested in Miami for Alleged Gun Trafficking

Brazil’s government is seeking the extradition of a Brazilian man it said was arrested by U.S. authorities at his Miami home early on Saturday, allegedly for shipping automatic weapons to the South American country.

The arrest of Frederik Barbieri, confirmed by a Brazilian law enforcement officer, comes one week after Brazil resorted to the military to try to control violence and crime in Rio de Janeiro, where heavily armed drug gangs control the city’s slums.

The United States is the largest source of guns entering Brazil that end up in the hands of armed criminals and drug traffickers, according to a Brazilian police report seen by Reuters last month.

Brazil has sought Barbieri’s arrest since 60 automatic riles, including AK-47s and other combat rifles, were found at Rio de Janeiro airport in June hidden in a shipment of pool heaters.

Barbieri denied involvement in gun running at that time, but Brazilian police have suspected his involvement since a container of ammunition was found in his name in 2010 at the port of Salvador in northeastern Brazil.

Fabricio Oliveira, head of the Federal Police’s disarmament unit in Rio, told reporters that Barbieri was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who seized 40 automatic weapons at his Miami home.

Brazil’s Ministry of Justice said it has already asked for his extradition and is waiting for a Brazilian court to approve additional documents requested by U.S. authorities.

U.S. citizen

Barbieri moved to Florida in 2012 and obtained U.S. citizenship, which could rule out his extradition and lead to his prosecution in the United States.

“The US continues to be the largest indirect source of illegal handguns and assault rifles as a result of unrestricted sales in stores and fairs in American cities,” the Brazilian Federal Police report seen by Reuters said.

The December 2017 report said a study of more than 10,000 arms seized by police in Brazil since 2014, mostly in Rio de Janeiro, found that roughly 1,500 guns originated in the United States. The guns often traveled through a third country before arriving in Brazil, with Paraguay being the top intermediary.

Guns from the United States tended to be assault rifles and higher caliber handguns, while guns already circulating in Brazil or arriving from other countries were smaller handguns.

Eight foreign stores were named selling the most high caliber guns that ended up in Brazil, with five located in Florida, although a store in Paraguay was the largest individual seller, the report said.

Venezuela Opens Nominations for Presidential Vote as US Protests

Venezuela is now accepting candidate registrations for its April 22 presidential elections, but opposition politicians and the United States are rejecting the terms of the poll.

Tania D’Amelio, an official of the National Electoral Council (CNE), said nominations would be accepted through Monday. The council will announce which nominations are accepted by Thursday.

Opposition politicians have accused the CNE of being under the thumb of President Nicolas Maduro.

The presidential elections, with Maduro seeking a new term that would keep him in office until 2025, are traditionally held in December. They were moved forward by the ruling Constituent Assembly, which is controlled by the governing party.

Maduro called Wednesday for snap legislative elections for the National Assembly, proposing to bring them forward by nearly two years to coincide with the April 22 poll. And he hit back at the opposition MUD coalition, which had said it would not take part in the early elections without guarantees they would be free and fair.

“We are going to [hold] the elections come rain, shine or lightning, with or without the MUD,” said Maduro.

U.S. rejection

But the United States, which under President Donald Trump has been deeply critical of Maduro’s leadership in crisis-torn and economically suffering Venezuela, on Saturday rejected the call for an early legislative vote.

“We reject ruling party calls to replace the democratically elected National Assembly simultaneously, rather than in 2021, as provided for under the 1999 Constitution,” said a State Department statement. “Deepening the rupture of Venezuela’s constitutional and democratic order will not solve the nation’s crises.”

The statement called for “a free and fair election” involving full participation of all political leaders, the immediate release of all political prisoners, credible international observation and an independent electoral authority.

The opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) said Wednesday that it would not register presidential candidates, believing there were no guarantees of transparency. But it left the door open to taking part if conditions were improved.

Delcy Rodriguez, president of the Constituent Assembly, has said that that body will consider possible dates for the legislative vote when it meets next week.

US Men Win First Olympic Gold Medal in Curling

The American men have won the Olympic gold medal in curling in a decisive upset of Sweden.

 

John Shuster skipped the United States to a 10-7 victory Saturday for the second curling medal in U.S. history. Shuster was part of the other one, too, as the lead thrower on Pete Fenson’s bronze-medal team at the 2006 Turin Games.

 

The Americans received a good luck call from Mr. T before the match. The King of Sweden was there, as was U.S. presidential daughter Ivanka Trump.

They saw Shuster convert a double-takeout for a five-ender in the eighth — an exceedingly rare score that made it 10-5 and essentially clinched the win.

Sweden retained the last-rock advantage known as the hammer for the ninth end, and scored two. 

But that gave the hammer to the Americans for the 10th and final end. Shuster played it safe, throwing away one stone intentionally to keep the target area clear and avoid the traffic that can lead to big scores. The remaining rocks were used to methodically pick off Sweden’s until there weren’t enough left to catch up. 

With two stones apiece left, Swedish skip Niklas Edin pushed off with a spin and a smile, and then conceded defeat. (Although Sweden had two stones in the house, the end does not count in the score).

Sweden is the reigning world champion silver medalist and finished first in pool play with a 7-2 record. The Americans barely squeaked into the playoffs with a 5-4 record after losing four of their first six games to move to the brink of elimination. 

But Shuster, American curling’s only four-time Olympian, guided his team to three straight victories to advance to the playoffs and then a semifinal win over three-time defending gold medalist Canada. No U.S. curling team, men’s or women’s, had ever beaten Canada at the Olympics.

This year’s team — Shuster, Tyler George, Matt Hamilton, John Landsteiner and alternate Joe Polo — did it twice in one week.

 

Sweden took the silver medal. Switzerland beat Canada in the third-place game on Friday for bronze. 

Over 100 Central American Migrants Rescued From Truck

More than 100 Central American migrants, including dozens of minors, were rescued from a truck found abandoned in a violent region of northern Mexico near the U.S. border, authorities said on Friday.

The migrants, from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, were suffering from dehydration and asphyxiation when soldiers came across the truck in Tamaulipas, where migrants often attempt illegal border crossings.

Every year, thousands of Central Americans seeking to flee violence and poverty in their homeland use Mexico as a conduit to the United States, often transported by human traffickers in dangerous conditions that can be fatal.

Mexico’s migration institute INM said soldiers patrolling in the city of Camargo in Tamaulipas heard yells for help from within the truck’s trailer, where they discovered 103 migrants, including 36 minors, who had been crammed together for about 12 hours.

A photo sent by the INM appeared to show some of the migrants’ belongings in the back of the truck, including a small, pink backpack, duffel bags and trash strewn across the floor.

A dozen of the minors were traveling alone and will receive legal aid to apply for refugee status in Mexico, the INM said. It did not specify when the migrants were found.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday urged Mexico to do more to prevent violent illegal immigrants from El Salvador from entering the United States, again pushing his long-proposed border wall but stopping short of his previous claims that Mexico would fund it.

In a Twitter post, Trump said U.S. law enforcement was removing Salvadoran gang members but that they continued to return, adding: “El Salvador just takes our money, and Mexico must help MORE with this problem. We need The Wall!”

More than 800 Central American migrants have been found in truck trailers or safe houses in Mexico so far this year, according to a government document seen by Reuters.

In July, 10 people died after a truck stuffed with more than 100 Guatemalan and Mexican migrants was abandoned in a Texas parking lot.

EU Leaders Draw Up Battle Lines for Post-Brexit Budget

European Union leaders staked out opening positions Friday for a battle over EU budgets that many conceded they are unlikely to resolve before Britain leaves next year, blowing a hole in Brussels’ finances.

At a summit to launch discussion on the size and shape of a seven-year budget package to run from 2021, ex-communist states urged wealthier neighbors to plug a nearly 10 percent annual revenue gap being left by Britain, while the Dutch led a group of small, rich countries refusing to chip in any more to the EU.

Germany and France, the biggest economies and the bloc’s driving duo as Britain prepares to leave in March 2019, renewed offers to increase their own contributions, though both set out conditions for that, including new priorities and less waste.

Underlining that a divide between east and west runs deeper than money, French President Emmanuel Macron criticized what he said were poor countries abusing EU funds designed to narrow the gap in living standards after the Cold War to shore up their own popularity while ignoring EU values on civil rights or to undercut Western economies by slashing tax and labor rules.

Noting the history of EU “cohesion” and other funding for poor regions as a tool of economic “convergence,” Macron told reporters: “I will reject a European budget which is used to finance divergence, on tax, on labor or on values.”

Poland and Hungary, heavyweights among the ex-communist states which joined the EU this century, are run by right-wing governments at daggers drawn with Brussels over their efforts to influence courts, media and other independent institutions.

The European Commission, the executive which will propose a detailed budget in May, has said it will aim to satisfy calls for “conditionality” that will link getting some EU funding to meeting treaty commitments on democratic standards such as properly functioning courts able to settle economic disputes.

But its president, Jean-Claude Juncker, warned on Friday against deepening “the rift between east and west” and some in the poorer nations see complaints about authoritarian tendencies as a convenient excuse to avoid paying in more to Brussels.

At around 140 billion euros ($170 billion) a year, the EU budget represents about 1 percent of economic output in the bloc or some 2 percent of public spending, but for all that it remains one of the bloodiest subjects of debate for members.

Focus on payments

The Commission has suggested that the next package should be increased by about 10 percent, but there was little sign Friday that the governments with cash are willing to pay that.

“When the UK leaves the EU, then that part of the budget should drop out,” said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who leads a group of hawks including Sweden, Denmark and Austria.

“In any case, we do not want our contribution to rise and we want modernization,” he added, saying that meant reconsidering the EU’s major spending on agriculture and regional cohesion in order to do more in defense, research and controlling migration.

On the other side, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said his priorities were “sufficient financing of cohesion policy” a good deal for businesses from the EU’s agricultural subsidies.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there had been broad agreement that new priorities such as in defense, migration and research should get new funding and she called for a “debureaucratization” of traditional EU spending programs.

Summit chair Donald Tusk praised the 27 leaders — Prime Minister Theresa May was not invited as Britain will have left before the new budget round starts — for approaching the issue “with open minds, rather than red lines.” But despite them all wanting to speed up the process, a deal this year was unlikely.

Quick deal unlikely

Although all agree it would be good to avoid a repeat of the 11th-hour wrangling ahead of the 2014-20 package, many sounded doubtful of a quick deal even early next year.

“It could go on for ages,” Rutte said. He added that it would be “nice” to finish by the May 2019 EU election: “But that’s very tight.”

Among the touchiest subjects will be accounting for the mass arrival of asylum-seekers in recent years. Aggrieved that some eastern states refuse to take in mainly Muslim migrants, some in the west have suggested penalizing them via the EU budget.

Merkel has proposed that regions which are taking in and trying to integrate refugees should have that rewarded in the allocation of EU funding — a less obviously penal approach but one which she had to defend on Friday against criticism in the east. It was not meant as a threat, the chancellor insisted.

In other business at a summit which reached no formal legal conclusions, leaders broadly agreed on some issues relating to next year’s elections to the European Parliament and to the accompanying appointment of a new Commission for five years.

They pushed back against efforts, notably from lawmakers, to limit their choice of nominee to succeed Juncker to a candidate who leads one of the pan-EU parties in the May 2019 vote. They approved Parliament’s plan to reallocate some British seats and to cut others altogether and also, barring Hungary, agreed to a Macron proposal to launch “consultations” with their citizens this year on what they want from the EU.

Int’l Donors Pledge More Than $500M for West Africa’s Sahel

The European Union and other international donors pledged more than half-a-billion dollars Friday to support a multi-national military operation in Africa’s vast Sahel region, which has fallen prey to smugglers, human traffickers and terrorists in recent years. 

Speaking after an international meeting on the Sahel in Brussels, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the pledges far exceeded initial expectations. She said they mirrored the strong international support for the so-called G-5 Sahel — a regional development and security initiative headed by five Sahelian nations.

Mogherini said the challenges facing Sahel spill well beyond the region, and demand a collective response — although G-5 countries must define their own strategy and priorities.

Along with African countries, Europe is concerned about the Sahel not only because it is a transit route for tens of thousands of migrants trying to reach its shores, but also because it fears it may become a launching pad for terrorist strikes at home.

Insecurity has deteriorated in the region since 2011, and extremist attacks occur regularly. There are also fears that Islamic State group fighters fleeing Syria and Iraq are heading there.

The United States has about 800 troops in Niger alone, while France has 4,000 forces in the region under its Barkhane anti-terrorism operation.

Niger’s president, Mahamadou Issoufou, noted the money raised will only cover the G-5 operations for this year. Continuous funding was needed, he said. And until security conditions improve in Libya, he added, it will be difficult to stabilize Sahel countries further south.

International support includes billions of dollars in development aid for the region.

French President Emmanuel Macron said in the next few weeks, the first development initiatives will be up and running, including in Mali’s restive central region of Mopti.

Is Turkey Using Infrastructure Projects to Stifle European Criticism?

When the first jet airplane lands Monday at Istanbul’s newest airport, it will mark a milestone in what analysts see as a Turkish drive to accomplish with contracting dollars what it has not been able to achieve with traditional diplomacy.

Long frustrated in its bid to join the European Union, analysts say President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has increasingly stressed trade and investment initiatives during his travels to European capitals, making his country second only to China in large-scale construction projects while muting the criticisms of Turkey’s human rights record that have blocked accession to the E.U.

Istanbul’s third airport, when it officially opens in late October, will be able to handle up to 200 million passengers a year, outstripping most other global transport hubs and establishing Turkey as a crucial gateway linking Europe and Asia.

European investment has been key to many of Turkey’s mega-projects, such as the airport and a multi-billion-dollar wind turbine farm announced this week, and Erdogan is aggressively looking for more.

“Our bilateral trade volume with Italy amounted to nearly $20 billion last year,” he declared ahead of a scheduled visit to meet the pope at the Vatican earlier this month. “However, our potential is much higher than that. We aim to increase our bilateral trade volume to $30 billion in 2020.”

Italian companies have benefited from a number of Turkey’s initiatives, winning several lucrative defense and construction contracts including for one of the world’s tallest and widest suspension spans, Istanbul’s Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, which was completed in 2016.

The deals have been a boon for European companies during a period of austerity across the continent. Analysts say this point has not been lost on Turkey and that it increasingly sees such partnerships as useful tools in its efforts to quiet criticism over human rights and its military incursion into neighboring Syria.

“Ankara is buying anybody and everybody with these infrastructure projects and everybody is happy with it,” said political scientist Cengiz Aktar.

“The Europeans get what they really want; they want to continue trade with Turkey,” he said. “And to get the juicy infrastructural projects — they are very happy with this. This is why they keep appeasing Turkey. And all these laments about what is happening to the rule of law in Turkey, this is just crocodile tears.”

Competition for those contracts in Europe is fierce, according to analysts.

“These mega projects, construction infrastructure, tunnels etc., are incredibly lucrative,” said political analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners.

“The loans taken out by the building consortium are given treasury guarantees,” he said. “The cost is lower than a typical market loan. There is a revenue guarantee in dollar terms, so whether the project is profitable, does not make a difference – the government makes up the difference. It’s like a treasure room, there is no way you can lose money on these.”

Arms deal with Britain

Separately, Britain and Turkey have struck up a deep trade relationship, largely based on weapons sales, with Britain’s BAE developing a military stealth jet for the Turkish armed forces. At the same time, London has voiced little criticism of Turkey over that country’s human rights record or military operations in Syria.

On Wednesday, the deputy chair of Turkey’s ruling AK Party, Mehdi Eker, spoke at a meeting in the British parliament and voiced appreciation for Britain’s stance on Turkey’s ongoing military offensive in Syria against a Kurdish militia.

“New realism”

Ankara has already coined the phrase “new realism” to define its diplomatic strategy with European countries. Analysts suggest Turkish foreign policy is increasingly sidelining its relations with the European Union and instead focusing on bilateral relations with individual European countries, shaped by pragmatism.

“Relations seem to be based on the idea, ‘let’s put our problems aside, not dwell on them, agree to disagree or whatever,'” said political columnist Semih Idiz of the Al Monitor website. “But there are practical issues that have to be addressed.”

“For all the bad vibes at the moment, there are construction and strategic arms deals being signed between Turkey and France and Italy,” he said. “And after, the post-Brexit situation will undoubtedly speed up Turkish-British relations, not only because Turkey needs good allies in Europe, but because Britain needs the alternative markets and alternative partners.”

Idiz went on to say there are “a lot of areas for Turkish diplomacy to move in” as he referred Britain’s pending exit from the European Union.

Critics are increasingly citing the adage, “He who pays the piper calls the tune,” in describing Europe’s relations with Turkey. They say as long as Ankara has the money to dish out lucrative and seemingly endless contracts to European companies, then its “new realism” foreign policy with Europe seems set to continue.

Second Russian Athlete Tests Positive for Doping at Olympics

A second Russian athlete has failed a doping test at the Pyeongchang Games, a day before the International Olympic Committee’s executive board is to decide whether to reinstate the country for Sunday’s closing ceremony.

 

Russian Bobsled Federation president Alexander Zubkov told The Associated Press on Friday that a drug-test sample that pilot Nadezhda Sergeeva gave on Sunday was positive.

 

The Russian delegation at the Pyeongchang Olympics said in a statement that the substance found was trimetazdine, a medication used for angina sufferers that is listed by the World Anti-Doping Agency as a banned substance affecting the metabolism.

 

“She confirms she took no such medication and the team confirms she was not issued any medication,” said Zubkov, a former bobsledder who himself was stripped of two Olympic gold medals for the Russian doping scheme at the 2014 Sochi Games. “Federation representatives at the Olympics” are starting to prepare a defense, he said.

 

Zubkov also said a sample she had given five days earlier was negative.

 

“I can tell you that on the 13th it was clean, but on the 18th it gave a positive result for the heart medication,” he said.

 

The IOC said later Friday it had been informed of the positive test by the Russian delegation.

 

Sergeeva’s crew finished 12th in the women’s bobsled competition on Wednesday, after she had given the sample that later came back positive.

 

The Russian team was barred from the Olympics in December for doping at the Sochi Games, but the IOC invited 168 athletes from the country to compete under the Olympic flag. The IOC set out the criteria for Russia to be reinstated, and the latest doping cases are a setback.

 

“This won’t win us any extra credit,” Russian delegation leader Stanislav Pozdnyakov said in comments reported by Russian media. “Unfortunately this case speaks to negligence by the athlete. She has let us down.”

 

A group of influential anti-doping organizations has called on the IOC not to reinstate Russia in time for the closing ceremony.

 

The Institute of National Anti-Doping Organizations says the IOC “can’t merely ‘wish away’ the most significant fraud in the history of sport,” adding that “by failing to impose a meaningful sanction on the ROC (Russian Olympic Committee), the IOC would be culpable in this effort to defraud clean athletes of the world.”

 

Earlier this month, Sergeeva told the AP that competitors from other countries had warmed to her after she passed IOC vetting for Pyeongchang, which included an examination of her drug-testing history.

 

“I don’t know why, but they’ve started talking to us more than ever before. I feel it. Maybe it’s a sign to them that we’re clean,” Sergeeva said. “There’s a lot of people coming up and saying, ‘We’re happy you’re here.’”

 

At the time, she was training in a T-shirt with the words “I Don’t Do Doping.” Sergeeva used to compete in track and field as a heptathlete before switching sports in 2010.

 

It is the fourth doping case of the games. Russian curler Alexander Krushelnitsky was stripped of his bronze medal Thursday after testing positive for the banned substance meldonium. Slovenian hockey player Ziga Jeglic and Japanese speedskater Kei Saito also left the games after testing positive.

Trimetazidine, the substance found in Sergeeva’s sample, has been detected in previous doping cases. Chinese swimmer Sun Yang, an Olympic gold medalist, was banned for three months in 2014 by his country’s sports authorities after testing positive for the substance.

 

Sun said he had been prescribed the drug for a medical condition and hadn’t known it was banned. The perceived leniency of that three-month ban led to Sun receiving criticism from swimmers from other countries at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where he won another gold medal.

 

Russia’s bobsled program has been in the spotlight for drug use for several years.

 

Zubkov and four other bobsledders were disqualified from the 2014 Sochi Games for doping, though four other bobsledders have been reinstated. Another gold medalist, Dmitry Trunenkov, was banned last year for failing a doping test.

 

Trump: Mexico Must Do More to Combat MS-13 Gang

President Donald Trump called Friday on Mexico to block MS-13 gang members from traveling through their country on the way to the U.S.

 

In a tweet, Trump said that gang members are being removed “by the thousands” by federal law enforcement agents, “but these killers come back in from El Salvador, and through Mexico, like water.”

 

Trump accused El Salvador of just paying lip service to combatting the violent international gang based there and said Mexico “must help MORE with this problem.” He added: “We need The Wall!”

 

The Friday morning tweet comes a day after Trump suggested he may pull the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency out of California to protest so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions, which the administration claims are a magnet for immigrants who commit crimes.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Friday that the threat is merely a negotiating tactic.

 

“The President is a first-rate negotiator,” he told Fox & Friends Friday morning, “and I will suggest to you that that is what is going on.”

 

Perry says Trump is “clearly” sending messages not just to California, “but also to Congress.”

 

Trump Thursday said his administration is making strides against the MS-13 gang but has been “getting no help from the state of California.”

 

‘Sooner, Faster, Now’ — the Companies Surfing the E-Commerce Wave

Amazon’s assault on the retail industry has brought misery to traditional retailers without a strong web presence.

Less well noticed is the patchwork of European companies that are turning the e-commerce revolution to their advantage, supplying online giants with everything from forklift trucks and storage space to cardboard boxes and automated warehouses.

Mainly bricks-and-mortar retailers such as Debenhams, H&M, and Marks & Spencer have faced a torrid few years as stretched consumers increasingly look online for bargains.

Online retail sales are growing at double-digit percentage rates in every western European country, according to consultancy the Centre for Retail Research.

In Britain, a fifth of transactions are now conducted online, a five-fold increase over the last decade.

The world’s dominant online retailer Amazon, whose shares have soared 73 percent in the last year, is outside the remit of most European investors because it is U.S. listed, so they have had to look for other ways of buying into the trend.

One is investing in companies that have benefited from the rise of e-commerce.

On February 16, warehouse owner Segro’s shares hit a decade-high after it said space-hungry clients, many in online retail and logistics, continued to buy up storage.

“There is a bull market in impatience,” said Gary Paulin, head of global equities at broker Northern Trust. “Consumers want things sooner, faster, now.”

He advises clients to buy shares in Kion, a German forklift truck-maker that is automating warehouses for online retailers, speeding up deliveries in the process.

He also flagged a turnaround at online supermarket Ocado. The company has long been targeted by short-sellers betting its share price will fall, but recently it has signed tie-ups with food retailers Casino and Sobeys, and its shares have more-than-doubled since November.

Martin Todd, a fund manager at Hermes Investment Management, owns shares in Kion as well as DS Smith, a cardboard-box maker which supplies Amazon as well as a number of other online retailers.

DS Smith is developing technology to custom-make boxes for Amazon that will help reduce large gaps in packages that increase freight costs.

“You might think it is a pretty unsexy business … [but] it is getting more high tech in what is traditionally a very low tech industry,” Todd said.

The company recently entered Britain’s blue-chip FTSE 100 index for the first time.

Buying some stocks exposed to online retail does not come cheap. Ocado shares are currently trading at more than 800 times forecast earnings, according to Eikon data.

John Bennett, head of European equities at Janus Henderson Investors, said while traditional retailers were “absolutely dying,” stocks such as Kion were too expensive for him to own.

“It became a very popular name, and I tend to shy away [from widely-owned companies],” he said. “I am far too curmudgeonly on the multiples you pay.”

Reporting by Alasdair Pal.

US Embassy in Montenegro Reopens After Bomb Incident

The U.S. embassy in the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica has reopened a day after an ex-Yugoslav soldier hurled a hand grenade into the compound and then killed himself with another one.

 

The embassy said Friday on Twitter it’s “open for business as usual following yesterday’s incident.”

The blast around midnight Wednesday created a crater in the embassy’s yard but injured no one. Police are investigating possible motives and whether the attacker acted alone.

 

The suspect has been identified as Dalibor Jaukovic, who served in the Yugoslav military during the 1999 NATO bombing of Serbia. He was reportedly opposed to Montenegro’s membership in NATO.

 

Montenegro and Serbia were part of Yugoslavia during the NATO bombing. Montenegro split from Serbia in 2006 and joined NATO last year.

 

Haiti Suspends Oxfam’s Operating Right Amid Misconduct Probe

Haiti has temporarily revoked Oxfam Great Britain’s right to operate in the Caribbean country after allegations of sexual misconduct by some of the charity’s staff there, Planning and External Cooperation Minister Aviol Fleurant said on Thursday.

The British aid organization has been rocked by allegations that staff, including a former Haiti country director, used prostitutes during a relief mission after a devastating earthquake hit the island nation in 2010.

Fleurant said the suspension was ordered due to “serious failings” by Oxfam Great Britain between 2010 and 2011, and that a definitive decision on its ability to operate in Haiti would be made in two months following a review of the evidence.

“If during the two month-long investigation I find out there is a link between the aid funds that Oxfam received on behalf of Haiti and the crime that has been committed, we will … declare Oxfam Great Britain persona non grata and they would have to leave the country without further delay,” Fleurant said.

Alain Lemithe, a lawyer representing Oxfam Great Britain, called the decision to suspend the charity “hasty and political”, saying that it was not based on clear evidence of wrongdoing.

“For example, they accused the organization of sexual abuse and use of minors,” Lemithe said. “Those are very serious allegations which until now have never been proven.”

In a separate statement, Fleurant accused Oxfam staff of committing acts of “sexual abuse” and exploitation.

The minister said Oxfam Great Britain had “deliberately omitted” to alert Haitian authorities about the alleged misconduct, thereby allowing perpetrators to escape justice.

Allegations of misconduct surfaced through media investigations and an internal Oxfam report. Fleurant said the revelations had besmirched the “honor and dignity” of Haiti’s people.

The suspension of the charity’s right to operate did not apply to Oxfam Canada, he said.

Top US Diplomat in Venezuela Under Fire After Comments

The head of Venezuela’s government-controlled assembly on Thursday accused the top U.S. diplomat in Caracas of promoting a coup and threatened to take diplomatic measures against him. 

National Constituent Assembly president Delcy Rodriguez’s issued a series of tweets targeting U.S. charge d’affaires Todd Robinson. They follow the release of an interview Robinson gave a local online publication critical of the Venezuelan government. 

Robinson told the publication RunRunes that it is possible Washington could ratchet up sanctions against Venezuela’s critical oil sector, on top of sanctioning dozens of key government officials, such as President Nicolas Maduro.

“Everything is on the table,” Robinson said. “Undoubtedly, the sanctions have been effective so far at identifying members of the regime who are corrupt or those who have played a role against Venezuela’s institutions and Constitution.”

The National Constituent Assembly will evaluate Robinson’s comments before adopting “corresponding diplomatic measures in defense of the sovereignty and dignity Venezuelan’s people.

Rodriguez accused Robinson of violating international law, and she said he’s guilty of being ignorant of Venezuela. She stopped short of announcing that Robinson’s diplomatic credentials will be stripped — action taken in recent dust-ups with key diplomats from Canada, Brazil and Spain. 

In his long diplomatic career has worked in Colombia, Bolivia, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic. As ambassador to Guatemala for three years until September he earned a reputation for speaking out and several times had to face calls for his expulsion. 

Since landing at his new post two months ago, Robinson has been tough on Venezuelan authorities, accusing them of straying from democratic practices and unjustly holding a Utah man in jail. 

He said that Joshua Holt must be set free before a deeper dialogue between the two countries can begin on other important topics. 

Troubled Latvian Bank Faces ECB Deadline to Avoid Closure

The European Central Bank has set a deadline of Friday for Latvia’s third-largest bank to plug a financing hole, the country’s finance minister said, as the Baltic state faced its worst financial difficulties in almost a decade.

Earlier, ABLV said it had asked for a 480 million euro ($591 million) emergency loan from the country’s central bank as part of efforts to reopen for business after being forced to halt all payments in the face of money laundering accusations.

The request for credit comes amid frantic efforts by ABLV’s management to keep the bank afloat after U.S. authorities singled it out for money laundering and moved to block it from doing financial deals in dollars.

ABLV has denied any such wrongdoing. “We want to give an opportunity … for the bank to ensure its short-term liquidity, so that it can continue operating,” the Baltic state’s finance minister, Dana Reizniece-Ozola, told a news website, Delfi.lv.

The ECB has imposed a moratorium stopping savers withdrawing their funds or making payments. It declined to comment about the deadline.

In an interview with Reuters, a senior ABLV executive appealed for the group to be spared closure.

“We believe that the bank has a future, on the basis of a substantially reduced business,” Vadims Reinfelds, deputy chief executive, said.

“What we are looking for here is a medium term or even longer term solution. If that is not possible, then resolution is the alternative,” he said, referring to a possible winding down. “The business can be restructured without resolution,” Reinfelds said, adding the bank was solvent.

He warned the bank was “systemic” — a reference to its significance for the financial system and an indication that its problems could spill over to affect others.

The finance minister, however, played down such concerns.

The crisis at ABLV comes alongside a separate police investigation into whether the head of Latvia’s central bank took a bribe of more than 100,000 euros.

Ilmars Rimsevics has dismissed the allegations and said he is the victim of a smear campaign, while the Ministry of Defense has suggested that disinformation may be to blame.

The ministry did not say who was behind this but drew parallels with campaigns before the U.S. elections in 2016. Russia has denied it was behind those campaigns and says it does not meddle in elections in the West.

The episode has cast a shadow over Latvia, which belongs to the euro zone and whose top officials hold influential posts both at the European Commission and European Central Bank.

Experts have said the events raise questions about the ECB, which is responsible for supervision of ABLV and other banks around the euro zone. The ECB has said it is not its responsibility to police money laundering.

Latvia was one of the hardest hit countries in the global financial crisis, falling into recession as the government sought an international bailout, nationalized Parex Bank and made spending cuts amid a wave of emigration.

($1 = 0.8141 euros)

Reporting by John O’Donnell and Gederts Gelzis.

Turkey Condemns Dutch Parliament Recognition of 1915 Armenian Massacre As Genocide

Turkey’s foreign ministry on Thursday condemned the Dutch parliament’s approval of a motion recognizing as genocide the massacre of as many as 1.5 million Armenians in 1915.

The ministry said in a written statement that the decision was not legally binding or valid, and noted that the Dutch government had said it would not become the official policy of the Netherlands.