AFP, Vatican City
The Vatican said Saturday it has renewed its anti-paedophile panel as Pope Francis acts to quell the global scandal over the sexual abuse of children by priests.
The panel had come under fire from two high-profile members, former sex abuse victims who quit at what they saw as a lack of reform and obstruction at the highest level of the Catholic Church.
Mexico copter crash kills 13
Reuters, Santiago Jamiltepec
At least 13 people on the ground, including three children, were killed when a Mexican military helicopter carrying top officials surveying damage from an earthquake crashed in a small town in the southern state of Oaxaca, authorities said on Saturday.
The helicopter, which was carrying Mexico’s interior minister and the state governor, crashed on top of two vans in an open field while trying to land at night in Santiago Jamiltepec after a tour of damage from Friday’s powerful quake.
Israeli fire kills 2 Palestinians
AFP, Gaza City
Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, Gaza medical sources said Sunday, after four soldiers were wounded in an apparent bomb attack on the border with the Palestinian enclave.
The Saturday explosion and ensuing Israeli air strikes marked one of the most serious escalations in the Hamas-ruled enclave since the Islamist movement and Israel fought a war in 2014. Israel’s army said it attacked “18 terror targets belonging to the Hamas terror organisation” in two waves of air strikes following the blast.
Mexican Presidential race to kick off
AFP, Mexico City
The top three contenders to be Mexico’s next president start the race in earnest Sunday when their parties and coalitions officially nominate them as their candidates for the July 1 election.
It is still a wide-open race to succeed President Enrique Pena Nieto, who is deeply unpopular heading into the final stretch of his six-year term in a Mexico beset by endless corruption scandals and record levels of violent crime.
The leader of the pack is Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, or AMLO, a fiery leftist who has tried to present a mellower image this time around.
