Pope warns against unfair Mideast deals
ROME -- Pope Francis has cautioned against "unfair" solutions aimed at ending the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
In a speech Sunday during a visit to the Italian southern port city of Bari to reflect on peace in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, Francis lamented the many areas of war and conflict, including in the Middle East and Northern Africa.
Francis spoke of "the still unresolved conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, with the danger of not fair solutions, and, thus, presaging new crises."
The pope didn't cite any specific proposals.
A new U.S. peace plan would let Israel annex all of its settlements along with the strategic Jordan Valley. It would give the Palestinians limited autonomy in several chunks of territory with a capital on the outskirts of Jerusalem, but only if they meet stringent conditions.
In the same speech, Francis took a swipe at populist politics. "It scares me when I hear some speeches by some leaders of the new forms of populism," he said. He also lamented that waves of refugees fleeing conflicts, climate change consequences and other adversity are "depicted as an invasion."
Among the prelates gathered for his speech in Bari's Pontifical Basilica of St. Nicholas were churchmen from the Balkans, Jerusalem and Algeria.
Germans take rain check on parade day
BERLIN -- Several cities in western Germany canceled their traditional Carnival parades at short notice Sunday, citing severe weather conditions including gusty winds and heavy rains.
In Cologne, the famous school and neighborhood parades were abandoned and in nearby Duesseldorf the Carnival celebrations on the city's glitzy Koenigsallee boulevard were also called off.
"In order to protect all participants along the route, the parades cannot take place," Cologne city officials said in a statement.
Some of the parades' participants were already on the way to the celebrations when parts of their costumes were blown away by the wind, the city statement said, explaining its last-minute decision to cancel the parades. About 8,000 people were supposed to participate in the Cologne parades, not including tens of thousands of spectators.
Other cities across Germany also called off their Carnival activities because of the storm, including Emmerich, Essen and Salzkotten in the west as well as Heiligenstadt in Thuringia in central Germany. In Fulda in central Germany, the traditional children's parade with around 1,000 participants and up to 30,000 spectators was also canceled.
In the Netherlands, the gusty winds also led to dozens of parade cancellations.
For today, meteorologists are predicting calmer weather conditions and most of the big street parades with dozens of huge floats, brass and samba bands, dancers and candy-throwing "Carnivalists" and hundreds of thousands of visitors are expected to take place.
N. Macedonia gas blast kills 3 children
SKOPJE, North Macedonia -- Three children were killed and seven other members of the same family were seriously injured when a gas tank exploded Sunday in their home in northern Macedonia, authorities said.
Police said that the three children, ages 8, 9 and 11, died instantly when the gas tank exploded in the living room of a family house in the village of Romanovce. Firefighters later extinguished the blaze.
Health authorities said that the seven injured, including four women -- one of whom is pregnant -- and another child, were taken to a clinic in the capital, Skopje, with serious burns.
Health Minister Venko Filipce said three of the women, ranging in age from 40 to 45, were transferred to intensive care with severe burns and were in life-threatening condition.
Shots fired at Haitan police-pay protest
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Off-duty police officers exchanged fire on Sunday with members of the newly reconstituted Haitian army in front of the national palace in a dangerous escalation of protests over police pay and working conditions.
Associated Press journalists saw dozens of men who said they were off-duty officers march with hundreds of supporters toward the palace in the latest in days of demonstrations demanding better pay for Haitian law-enforcement officers.
The protest stopped outside a military outpost facing the palace.
Associated Press journalists then saw several soldiers at the outpost fire into the air. Shortly afterward, an exchange of fire broke out between the soldiers and police. It was not clear which side began firing at the other first.
The army was disbanded in 1995 after the fall of a dictatorship that used soldiers to repress domestic opponents. President Jovenel Moise reformed the army in 2017, promising that the military would patrol Haiti's borders, assist in natural disasters and avoid domestic affairs.
-- COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS
A Section on 02/24/2020