Mnuchin vows more sanctions for Iran
JERUSALEM -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin pledged Monday to increase sanctions against Iran, saying the Trump administration's "maximum pressure campaign" is halting Iranian aggression in the Middle East.
Mnuchin met Monday in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called on Washington to impose additional sanctions to halt what he called Iran's "plunge for everything" in the region.
Israel considers Iran its greatest threat, citing Iran's support for hostile proxy groups, its development of long-range missiles and its military presence in neighboring Syria. It also accuses Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons -- an allegation that Iran denies. Israel frequently attacks Iranian targets in Syria and is believed to have expanded its strikes into Lebanon and Iraq in recent months.
At a joint news conference, Netanyahu said Iran's ability to project power in the region "is diminished to the extent that you can tighten your sanctions and make the availability of cash more difficult for them."
Later Monday, Netanyahu also claimed that Iran is trying to place precision-guided missiles throughout the region, including Yemen, with the aim of harming Israel.
Mnuchin said American sanctions seek to counter the threats Iran poses in the region, adding that the U.S. administration "will continue to ramp up more, more, more." \
Mexico DNA-testing altar's 42 skulls
MEXICO CITY -- Mexico City authorities are running DNA tests to determine the identities and origins of 42 human skulls found at an altar in a drug gang hideout.
The mound of skulls was piled around what appeared to be an altar of an Afro-Caribbean religion.
Mexico City prosecutors said Monday that another 40 jawbones found in the jumbled pile around the altar do not appear to belong to the 42 complete skulls. In addition, 31 "long" bones, probably from arms or legs, were also found.
Practitioners of at least one Afro-Caribbean religion have been charged in the past with using human bones in their rituals, but Mexico's own pre-Hispanic religion featured public displays of skulls hanging on wooden racks. Mexico's present-day "Santa Muerte" cult also worships a skeleton figure.
A raid by hundreds of police on a Mexico City slum complex last week yielded the skulls, two methamphetamine labs, guns, grenades and about 2½ tons of marijuana.
Pope strikes 'secret' from archive name
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis has declared that the Vatican Secret Archive isn't so secret after all.
Francis on Monday officially changed the name of the Holy See archive to remove what he said were the "negative" connotations of having "secret" in its name.
From now on, the vast trove of documents, manuscripts and papyrus of popes past will be officially known as the "Vatican Apostolic Archive."
In a new law, Francis noted that the archive has long been open to scholars and that he himself has decreed that the archives of World War II-era Pope Pius XII, accused by some of not speaking out enough about the Holocaust, would open to researchers ahead of schedule on March 2.
He said the name change better reflects the archive's reality and "its service to the church and the world of culture."
The archive contains the documentation on the life of the universal Catholic Church dating from the eighth century to the present. It contains 600 different collections that are organized across 50 miles of shelving.
Pope Leon VIII opened the archive's doors to researchers in 1881, and currently an estimated 1,500 a year are allowed inside.
Afghan-Pakistani clashes enter 2nd day
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghan and Pakistani forces engaged in cross-border clashes for a second day, hours after Pakistani mortar and rocket fire into Afghanistan killed three women in eastern Kunar province, Afghan officials said Monday.
The fighting first broke out Sunday afternoon when Afghan forces and local militiamen tried to stop Pakistani forces from establishing a military installation along the disputed border, said Abdul Ghani Musamem, spokesman for the governor of Afghanistan's Kunar province.
He said the shooting lasted over three hours and also wounded four civilians in the remote Nari district, which lies along the border. He said communication with the area was difficult because of the isolated location.
Pakistani forces were again firing mortar shells down on villages inside Afghanistan after fighting resumed Monday morning, said Gen. Mohammad Ayub Hussainkhail, an Afghan commander for forces on the eastern border.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 10/29/2019