Catholics reject inquiry's finding
CANBERRA, Australia -- The Catholic Church in Australia on Friday rejected a recommendation by a government inquiry that priests be required to report evidence of child sex abuse disclosed in the confessional.
The recommendation that priests be prosecuted for failing to report evidence of pedophilia heard in the confessional was a key finding in December of Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Australia's longest-running royal commission -- which is the country's highest form of inquiry -- had been investigating since 2012 how the Catholic Church and other institutions responded to sexual abuse of children in Australia over 90 years.
Archbishop Mark Coleridge, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said breaking the seal of the confessional would not make children safer.
"Australian priests and the lay faithful are deeply committed to both child safety and the seal of confession, which we hold to be inviolable," Coleridge told reporters.
"This isn't because we regard ourselves as being above the law, or because we don't think the safety of children is supremely important -- we do. But we don't accept that safeguarding and the seal are mutually exclusive," he added.
Amsterdam attack injures 2 people
AMSTERDAM -- Police investigators in Amsterdam included an extremist attack as a possible motive for the stabbings of two people at a busy railway station Friday as authorities in the Dutch capital reported that a suspect shot by police is an Afghan citizen.
The 19-year-old man was questioned about his intent late Friday at the hospital where he was being treated for gunshot wounds while under guard, Amsterdam City Hall said in a statement.
The people stabbed at Central Station in downtown Amsterdam around noon also were being treated in a hospital. Their injuries were serious, but not life-threatening, according to the city's statement. Neither they nor the suspect were identified.
"The victims were not chosen deliberately or with a clear reason," Amsterdam authorities said. "The investigation is still underway, and all scenarios remain open for the investigation team."
The suspect has a German residence permit, and Amsterdam police were in contact with authorities in Germany to find out about his background, according to the city government.
Central Station is a busy entry and exit point for visitors to Amsterdam, with regular trains linking it to the city's Schiphol Airport.
U.K. terror plotter gets life sentence
LONDON -- A supporter of the Islamic State group who plotted to kill British Prime Minister Theresa May received a prison sentence of at least 30 years Friday from a judge who called him "a very dangerous individual."
Naa'imur Zakariyah Rahman was convicted in July in London of planning to bomb the entry gates to the prime minister's residence at 10 Downing St. Prosecutors said he then intended to kill the guards and to attack May with a knife or gun.
Rahman, 21, was arrested in November after collecting a backpack he was led to think contained explosives supplied by fellow Islamic State adherents with whom he communicated. He actually had been talking to undercover intelligence agents.
Before his arrest, Rahman was referred to a government de-radicalization program, but nonetheless plotted his attack over the course of two years, according to prosecutors. They said two of Rahman's uncles had been jailed in Britain for funding terrorism, while another was killed in a drone strike in Syria.
Judge Charles Haddon-Cave sentenced Rahman to life in prison with no chance of parole for 30 years.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 09/01/2018