The world in brief

Thursday, January 16, 2014

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The battle will be long and will continue.”

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq, where the army regained control of a town in an area seized by al-Qaida-linked militants Article, this page

Kerry brushes off peace-deal criticism

JERUSALEM - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday played down criticism by Israel’s defense minister of American efforts to broker peace in the Middle East, saying he wouldn’t let “one set of comments” undermine his work.

Kerry has been shuttling between Israel and the Palestinians for months, and is expected back in the region in the coming weeks to deliver his ideas on a framework for peace. He already has submitted a series of proposals for ensuring Israel’s security as part of a future peace deal.

In comments published Tuesday by the Yediot Ahronot newspaper, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon called Kerry “obsessive” and “messianic” and dismissed Kerry’s security plan as worthless. After harsh criticism from Washington, Yaalon issued a late-night apology.

Speaking to reporters in Kuwait, Kerry said he speaks regularly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said they were both “very committed” to moving forward on peace efforts.

“We just can’t let one set of comments undermine that effort, and I don’t intend to,” Kerry said. “I will work with the willing participants who are committed to peace and committed to this process.”

He made no mention of Yaalon’s apology.

S. Sudan aid thefts draw U.N. chief’s ire

UNITED NATIONS - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Kimoon on Wednesday strongly condemned the commandeering of humanitarian vehicles and the theft of food and other aid by government and anti-government forces in violence-torn South Sudan.

The U.N. chief also expressed alarm at the rising number of deaths in the fighting in the world’s newest nation, spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

Fighting between loyalist troops and renegade forces in oil-rich South Sudan since mid-December, largely along ethnic lines, has left nearly 10,000 people dead, according to one estimate by an International Crisis Group analyst.

The secretary-general singled out the reported deaths of 200 civilians fleeing violence in Malakal in Upper Nile state who drowned when their boat sank Saturday in the Nile.

Nesirky said the U.N. mission reported Wednesday that fighting had stopped in Malakal but sporadic gunfire could be heard some distance from the U.N. peacekeeping base there, where some 20,000 civilians are being protected.

The U.N. chief also expressed concern at the rising number of people displaced by the fighting, which surpassed 400,000 this week, Nesirky said.

Pope sacks most Vatican Bank cardinals

ROME - Pope Francis continued shaking up the Vatican on Wednesday as he named a new oversight commission of cardinals for the troubled Vatican Bank, replacing all but one of the appointees made by his predecessor, Benedict XVI.

Since becoming pope less than a year ago, Francis has shifted personnel in important Vatican departments, placing his picks in key positions while signaling that he intends to crack down on the intrigues and disarray that plagued the Vatican bureaucracy under Benedict.

The Vatican Bank, known as the Institute for Works of Religion, has been under scrutiny for years, amid suspicions that some accounts might be fronts for illegal interests. European regulators are pushing the bank to become more transparent and adhere to international banking standards, a process that began under Benedict.

In ’13, piracy down for 3rd-straight year

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - World sea piracy fell for a third-straight year in 2013, as Somali pirates were curbed by international naval patrols and improved ship vigilance, the International Maritime Bureau said Wednesday.

The bureau said global pirate attacks fell to a six-year low of 264, down from 297 in 2012 and 439 in 2011. Pirate attacks have declined since hitting a peak in 2010 with 445 attacks.

Last year, 12 vessels were hijacked, with more than 300 crew members taken hostage and one killed, according to data compiled by the London-based bureau’s piracy reporting center in Malaysia.

The bureau said only 15 attacks were reported off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden, the lowest since 2006. It was also down sharply from 75 cases in 2012 and 237 in 2011.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 01/16/2014