QUOTE OF THE DAY “Our volunteers are on standby.We are yet to be provided clearance.” Nwakpa O. Nwakpa, a Red Cross spokesman, as his group awaits the Nigerian government to give it a chance to offer care in a town where 300 homes were burned down over the weekend Article, 2AIsrael, Turkey agree on payment principles
ANKARA, Turkey - In a step toward restoring ties, former allies Turkey and Israel agreed Monday on the “methods and principles” of working out compensation payments for the victims of a deadly 2010 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, Turkey’s deputy prime minister said.
Eight Turks and one Turkish-American were killed and several other pro-Palestinian activists were wounded when Israeli commandos stormed the ship Mavi Marmara while stopping an international flotilla trying to breach a blockade of the Gaza Strip. The raid, which also wounded seven Israeli soldiers, increased tensions between the once-close allies and led to a break in relations.
Last month, U.S. President Barack Obama brokered a rapprochement between the two countries. Israel offered an apology and compensation for the May 31, 2010, raid, and Turkish and Israeli leaders agreed to try to normalize their relationship.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has since warned, however, that the restoration of full-fledged diplomatic ties would come only after compensation is paid to the surviving victims of the flotilla raid and the relatives of the dead, and it would also be dependent on Israel ending all commercial restrictions on the Palestinians.
Romero-sainthood effort called unstuck
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican official spearheading the case to make slain Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador a saint said Monday the process is moving forward under Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, after years of delay under previous popes.
Separately on Monday, an Italian religious-affairs magazine reported that a panel of Vatican-appointed doctors had moved Pope John Paul II a step closer to possible sainthood by signing off on a second miracle attributed to his intercession.
Romero was gunned down in 1980 while celebrating Mass after stridently defending El Salvador’s poor and denouncing the government’s violence. His killing was one of the triggers that set off a civil war that left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing over the next 12 years.
The Italian prelate spearheading Romero’s case, Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, said the process had been “unblocked,” the ANSA news agency and Panorama news magazine reported.
Romero’s beatification cause languished under Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI over the Vatican’s opposition to liberation theology.
Credere, a magazine published by a religious order, said a panel of doctors convened by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints had determined that someone had been inexplicably cured thanks to John Paul’s intercession. No details of the cure were provided.
Government: It won’t charge Musharraf
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s caretaker government told the Supreme Court on Monday that it will not file treason charges against former military ruler Pervez Musharraf but will leave the decision on that to the winner of the coming election.
The petitions before the Supreme Court alleging Musharraf committed treason while in power constitute just one of several legal challenges he is facing after his recent return to Pakistan from self-imposed exile.
The former military strongman was placed under house arrest over the weekend in connection with a different case, which involves his decision to fire senior judges while in power.
Japan-cleanup timeline draws U.N. doubt
TOKYO - A U.N. nuclear watchdog team said Japan might need longer than the projected 40 years to decommission its tsunami-crippled nuclear plant and urged its operator to improve plant stability.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency team, Juan Carlos Lentijo, said Monday that damage at the Fukushima Daiichi plant is so complex that it is impossible to predict how long the cleanup might last.
The government and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. have predicted the cleanup would take as many as 40 years. They still have to develop technology and equipment that can operate under fatally high radiation levels to locate and remove melted fuel. The reactors must be kept cool, and the plant must stay safe and stable, and those efforts to ensure safety could slow the process down.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 04/23/2013