Sunday, December 23, 2012
hPope pardons former butler
VATICAN CITY
Pope Benedict XVI granted his former butler a Christmas pardon Saturday, forgiving him in person during a jailhouse meeting for stealing and leaking his private papers in one of the gravest Vatican security breaches in recent times.
After the 15-minute meeting, Paolo Gabriele was freed and returned to his Vatican City apartment where he lives with his wife and three children. The Vatican said he couldn’t continue living or working in the Vatican, but said it would find him housing and a job elsewhere soon.
“This is a paternal gesture toward someone with whom the pope for many years shared daily life,” according to a statement from the Vatican secretariat of state.
Bombing at rally kills 9 in Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan
A suicide bomber in Pakistan killed nine people including a provincial government official at a political rally Saturday by a party that has opposed the Taliban, officials said.
The rally in Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was held by the Awami National Party, whose members have been repeatedly targeted by the Taliban.
Among the dead was Bashir Bilour, the second-most senior member of the provincial Cabinet, said Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, the politician’s brother and federal railways minister.
More than 20 others were wounded by the blast, said local police officer Sabir Khan.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the bombing in a statement, reiterating the United Nations’ support for Pakistani efforts “to combat the scourge of terrorism.”
Bombing kills 4, wounds 11 in Iraq
BAGHDAD
An explosion at a shop selling CDs killed four people in a town northeast of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on Saturday.
Police officials say a bomb hidden in a plastic bag exploded near the shop Saturday afternoon in the town of Qazaniyah. Eleven people were wounded in the attack, and the shop was completely destroyed. Qazaniyah is 110 miles northeast of Baghdad.
A medic in a nearby hospital confirmed the death toll. All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief reporters.
Violence has ebbed in Iraq, but insurgent attacks are still frequent.
The attack comes in the midst of growing political uncertainty.
Motive sought in slayings of 3 in Pa.
HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa.
The shooting of a man who went on a rampage in central Pennsylvania, killing two neighbors and a third person before wounding three state troopers during a gunbattle, was a justifiable homicide, authorities ruled Saturday.
Investigators still are trying to figure out what set off the gunman, identified as 44-year-old Jeffrey Lee Michael of Geeseytown, a tiny village about 70 miles west of Harrisburg, the state capital.
Associated Press