Hurricane Marty drifts toward coast
Hurricane Marty drifts toward coast
MIAMI
Hurricane Marty is drifting toward Mexico’s coast in the Pacific and a hurricane warning has been issued for part of the coast.
Marty is centered about 145 miles west of Acapulco. A hurricane warning is in effect from Tecpan de Galeana to Lazaro Cardenas. Tropical storm warnings and watches also are in effect.
Forecasters say Marty is moving northeast and has maximum sustained winds of 80 mph.
Pope: Bishops covered up pedophile priests
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE
Catholic Church hierarchies shielded the crimes of pedophile priests, Pope Francis admitted Monday, hours after meeting people who were abused in their youth by members of the clergy.
Speaking to reporters on the return flight from Philadelphia to Rome, at the end of his visit to Cuba and the U.S., Francis said molesting children is “almost a sacrilege” for a priest and a betrayal of his vocation.
“And those who have covered up these things are also guilty,” the pontiff said. “Even some bishops [who] have covered [this] up. It is a very bad thing.”
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a U.S.-based support group for victims of sexual abuse by clergy, said the pope’s admission comes “after 30 years of public scandal in the U.S. over predator priests and complicit bishops.”
Senate advances bill to avoid shutdown
WASHINGTON
The Senate on Monday delivered a strong vote of confidence to a bipartisan spending bill that’s needed to head off a government shutdown at midnight Wednesday.
The 77-19 vote powers the measure past a filibuster by some of the chamber’s most-ardent conservatives, who were angered that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., stripped a provision that would cancel federal funding of Planned Parenthood in exchange for keeping the government open.
The Senate is expected to approve the bill today and send it to the House.
Key Afghan city falls to Taliban in setback
KABUL, Afghanistan
The Taliban captured the strategic northern Afghan city of Kunduz on Monday in a multipronged attack involving hundreds of fighters, the first time the insurgents have seized a major urban area since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.
The fast-moving assault took military and intelligence agencies by surprise as the insurgents descended on the city, one of Afghanistan’s richest and the target of repeated Taliban offensives as the militants spread their fight across the country after the withdrawal last year of U.S. and NATO combat troops.
More than 600 prisoners, including 140 Taliban fighters, were released from the city’s jail, and many people were trying to reach the airport to flee the city.
Walker’s daughter sues over fatal crash
LOS ANGELES
Paul Walker’s daughter sued Porsche for wrongful death Monday, claiming the sports car that her father was in when he was killed suffered from numerous design defects.
The lawsuit filed by Meadow Rain Walker seeks unspecified damages for defects that her lawyers claim kept the actor trapped in the Porsche Carrera GT when it crashed and burst into flames in November 2013.
Walker was on a break from filming the seventh film in the “Fast & Furious” franchise when he was killed. He was riding in the Carrera GT driven by friend and business associate Roger Rodas when the car spun out of control, struck three trees and burst into flames on a street in Santa Clarita, Calif.
Combined dispatches