Australian Catholic leaders reject key calls by child abuse inquiry
Updated 0816 GMT (1616 HKT) December 15, 2017
Senior leaders in Australia's Catholic church have rejected calls by a wide-reaching investigation into child abuse to end mandatory celibacy for priests and break the secrecy of confession.
The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse report estimates tens of thousands of children have been abused in Australian institutions, in what the commission described as a "national tragedy."
The landmark report, which concluded Thursday after five years of work, made a total of 189 new recommendations to address what it described as a "serious failure" by Australia's institutions to protect its most vulnerable citizens.
'Slow-moving crisis' as Beijing bolsters South China Sea war platform
US thinktank reveals satellite images showing new munitions depots, radar systems and fighter jet deployments to disputed region in 2017
China has created military facilities about four times the size of Buckingham palace on contested islands in the South China Sea, a new report has said, calling the build-up a “slow-moving crisis” in one of the world’s most dangerous flashpoints.
China built about 29 hectares (290,000 square metres) of new facilities on contested islands in 2017, including munitions depots, sensor arrays, radar systems and missile shelters, according to an analysis by US thinktank the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
NASA FINDS SOLAR SYSTEM FILLED WITH AS MANY PLANETS AS OUR OWN
Nasa has found an entire solar system with as many planets as our own.
The discovery of a new planet around the Kepler-90 star, which looks like our own sun, means the distant solar system has a total of eight known planets. And those planets look like those in our own neighbourhood: rocky planets orbit close to the star, with gas giants further away.
The star and its family of planets were already known about, having been detected by the Kepler space telescope. But the breakthrough came when astronomers found the new world, which was done using Google’s artificial intelligence technology.
'Islamic State' is fighting with weapons made in the EU: study
More than a third of the weapons used by "Islamic State" in Iraq and Syria came from European Union states — including Germany, a new report has found. The data shows that deadly arms can often end up in the wrong hands.
A significant proportion of the guns and ammunition in "Islamic State's" (IS) cache were manufactured in the European Union, according to the study published Thursday by Conflict Armament Research (CAR).
In its 200-page investigation, the weapons tracking organization claimed that more than 30 percent of the arms used by IS extremists on battlefields in Syria and Iraq originally came from factories in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Germany.
Russia and China produced more than half of the weapons held by the terror group, the report added.
Bosnian Muslims: 'How did we deserve this?'
by Kyle S Mackie
Eldin Elezovic dreamed of becoming a football star while growing up in Stolac, in what was then the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and part of Yugoslavia. In June 1993, he remembers spending a hot summer's day playing football with friends. It would be his last day of freedom for the next nine months.
"We were learning about Auschwitz and Nazi camps in high school," said Elezovic, speaking in Queens, New York, where he has lived since 1997. "We never thought that would happen to us. But it did."
Japan expands unilateral sanctions against North Korea
Japan has imposed fresh sanctions against North Korea as it seeks to ramp up pressure on Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programmes.
Chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga said the assets of another 19 entities and individuals would be frozen.
More than 210 organisations and people from countries including China and Russia will now be targeted.
Businesses on the blacklist include banks, coal and minerals traders, and transport firms.
The widening of sanctions comes ahead of a meeting of the UN Security Council to be held on Friday.
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