Manufacturer demands return of drug to be used in Virginia execution

 
A drug manufacturer has demanded that Virginia return one of the drugs to be used in this week’s execution of a death row inmate.
Documents obtained by the Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request show that Virginia plans to use rocuronium bromide manufactured by Mylan to execute Alfredo Prieto on Thursday. It is one of three drugs the state plans to use in the 49-year-old’s execution.
A Mylan spokeswoman said on Wednesday that Virginia purchased the drugs from a wholesaler. She said the company sent several letters to Virginia officials when it learned about the drug’s possible use in the execution and then demanded that the state return the product when it received no response.
Another drug in the state’s execution cocktail, pentobarbital, was donated to Virginia by the Texas department of criminal justice last week, and Prieto’s lawyers are mounting legal challenges to those drugs in court. States have had difficulty securing execution drugs in the wake of a boycott by their European-based manufacturers.
A department of corrections spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prieto’s is the third of six executions scheduled over a nine-day period in the US, including those of Kelly Gissendaner in Georgia early on Wednesday morning and Richard Glossip in Oklahoma on Wednesday afternoon.
Prieto is due to be executed at 9pm on Thursday for the 1988 killings of Rachael Raver and her boyfriend, Warren Fulton III. He was on death row in California for raping and murdering a 15-year-old girl when DNA evidence linked him to the 1988 slaying of the Virginia couple.
The Democratic governor, Terry McAuliffe, rejected the El Salvador native’s attempt to delay his death sentence this week.
Federal public defender Hilary Potashner in California asked the supreme court on Tuesday to stay Prieto’s execution so that he can continue to fight his death sentence in California on the grounds that he is intellectually disabled.
In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday, Prieto’s Virginia attorneys asked the US district court for the eastern district of Virginia to stay the execution until officials disclose more information about the pentobarbital it intends to use – including the name of the supplier, tests confirming its sterility and potency and documents showing that the drugs were properly handled, transported and stored.
Texas allows prison officials to shield where they get execution drugs and Prieto’s attorneys say Virginia officials have not provided that information.
The Associated Press filed a public records request for the names of the manufacturers and the suppliers of the drugs, but the documents show only that they were provided by the Texas department of criminal justice.
A Texas prisons spokesman, Jason Clark, told the AP last week that the three vials of pentobarbital given to Virginia were legally purchased from a compounding pharmacy, which he declined to name.
Prieto’s attorneys, Rob Lee and Elizabeth Peiffer, said the lack of information about the drugs puts the state at risk of carrying out a cruel and painful execution.
It is unknown whether Virginia or Texas “know any pertinent information about the compounding pharmacy, including its ability to make a sterile injectable drug, its track record with regard to faulty drugs and adverse incidents, or even the source of the raw ingredients it uses”, they said in a statement. If Virginia does possess this information, “it is keeping it secret. This lack of transparency prevents the courts from assessing the constitutionality of VDOC’s execution procedure.”
Pentobarbital is the first of three drugs that the state intends to use in Pieto’s execution.

Mahmoud Abbas: Palestinians 'no longer bound' by Oslo accord with Israel

 
Mahmoud Abbas, has said Palestinians would “no longer continue to be bound” by the 20-year-old Oslo peace agreements, unless they receive “international protection” from Israel
Speaking at the United Nations general assembly in New York, the Palestinian president said the agreements remained one sided and needed updating. .
Watched by a stony-faced Israeli UN delegation, led by its ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, Abbas called for the international community to recognise Palestine as a “state under occupation”, in the same way countries were occupied in the second world war.
Abbas also accused Israel of risking turning a “political conflict” into a religious one over the fraught issue of the al-Aqsa mosque – the focus of recent clashes.
Although Abbas went further than many had anticipated it remained unclear whether his threats over the Oslo accords, which Palestinians argue Israel has comprehensively breached, should be taken as a warning or an indication of more imminent moves.
Abbas said: “We cannot continue to be bound by these signed agreements with Israel, and Israel must assume fully its responsibilities of an occupying power, because the status quo cannot continue.
“We will start the implementation of this declaration by all peaceful and legal means. Either the Palestinian National Authority will be the conduit of the Palestinian people from occupation to independence, or Israel, the occupying power, must bear all of its responsibilities.”
In September, Abbas warned he intended to deliver a bombshell in his UN speech – delivered a day ahead of Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu’s. Ahead of his speech Abbas’s aides had circulated to diplomats a document comparing the Oslo accords against claimed Israeli violations.
Significantly however, Abbas did not announce the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority or the cancelling of security co-operation with Israel as some had speculated he would.

Abbas had gone to New York hoping to secure commitments from US secretary of state, John Kerry, that Washington would breathe life into the moribund peace process – guarantees he failed to secure from a US administration distracted elsewhere in the region.
It was Abbas’s most serious warning yet to that he might walk away from engagement with Israel and dissolve the Palestinian Authority, although he stopped short of accompanying his threat with a deadline.
On Wednesday, he said that Israel’s refusal to commit to agreements signed “render us an authority without real powers”.
He said: “As long as Israel refuses to cease settlement activities and to the release of the fourth group of Palestinian prisoners in accordance with our agreements, they leave us no choice but to insist that we will not remain the only ones committed to the implementation of these agreements, while Israel continuously violates them.”
Abbas’s tough talk could be an attempt to mask his political weakness. Hopes of setting up a Palestinian state have been derailed, and there are calls for the leader to resign and dissolve the PA. Without a specific deadline for taking those steps, Abbas left himself room for diplomatic manoeuvres to refocus the attention of the international community on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He accused Israel of “repeated, systematic incursions upon al-Aqsa mosque, aimed at imposing a new reality,” warning that such actions create an explosive situation.
“It is no longer useful to waste time in negotiations for the sake of negotiations; what is required is to mobilise international efforts to oversee an end to the occupation in line with the resolutions of international legitimacy,” he said. “Until then, I call upon the United Nations to provide international protection for the Palestinian people in accordance with international humanitarian law.”
In a harshly worded essay ahead of his Wednesday address to the United Nations, Abbas said a new multilateral approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is needed since direct negotiations with Israel have repeatedly failed.
Abbas said the model should be based instead on the type of negotiations that took place in the Balkans, Libya and Iran. Several rounds of talks, often with American mediation, have failed reach a peace accord and Abbas shunned renewing them.
There was no immediate comment from Israel.

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Vic O comes for the Headies Award in explicit Twitter rant...

How dare they not nominate him? A whole superstar? Nah. They must truly be Sanctioned. Lol! The Nigerian Rapper (that's his category yeah?) slams HipTv for not nominating him for the Headies 2015 Award in a rant on twitter minutes ago. Another tweet after the cut...

Jada Pinkett Smith stuns in a form-fitting black and & pencil dress

Will Smith's 44 year old wife, Jada Pinkett Smith displayed her enviable figure in a form-fitting black and gold pencil dress to Guy Laroche's Paris Fashion Week Show for his Spring/Summer 2016 collection. More photos after the cut...

enate president Saraki finally receives Ministerial list (photos)

He just tweeted this an shared photos of receiving the list from Chief of Staff to President Buhari

I have no regrets describing Fulani herdsmen as Tse tse flies - FFK

Hours after Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Chidi Odinkalu, rated his article on Fulani herdsmen as a hate speech (read here), Femi Fani-Kayode has released another statement saying he does not regret describing fulani herdsmen as tsetse flies. See the rest after the cut

Senate passes stopgap government funding bill just before deadline

 
The Senate voted overwhelmingly to pass a measure to fund the government past the 30 September deadline on Wednesday morning.
The vote, which passed 78-20, is on a continuing resolution which would extend government funding to 11 December. It now passes to the House of Representatives for an afternoon vote.

Meanwhile, John Boehner, the current speaker of the House who announced on Friday that he would be stepping down at the end of October, told the New York Times on Wednesday that an election to pick his replacement would be held on Thursday 8 October.
Congressional Democrats are relieved that Boehner will still be shepherding the continuing resolution through the House – he has pledged that there would be no government shutdown over this spending bill. But the right wing of the Republican party does not share their enthusiasm for the outgoing speaker and the funding bill, which they object to because it funds Planned Parenthood.
The Senate “no” votes included the Texas senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz, who spoke angrily on Monday night against the measure, which had the support of the Senate Republican leadership, saying to reporters outside the Capitol that it had “abdicated its responsibility to fight for conservative principles”.
Two senators, both of them prospective Republican presidential candidates, did not vote – Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Marco Rubio of Florida.
The New York Democratic senator Chuck Schumer told the Guardian that Congress’s reliance on such continuing resolutions, which push government funding down the road by no more than a few months at a time, meant “that Republicans are tied in a knot and incapable of governing”.
On whether things could change, Schumer said “No.”
“It’s hard to think of a scenario where Boehner’s leaving makes it better,” he added.

Hurricane Joaquin expected to pass near US east coast next week

 
The hurricane was expected to pass near the islands of San Salvador, Cat Island, Eleuthera and Rum Cay late Thursday and early Friday, close enough that it could bring tropical-storm-force winds, coastal flooding and 5-10 inches (13-25cm) of rain, said Geoffrey Greene, a senior forecaster with the Bahamas meteorology department.
“We would be very concerned about them,” Greene said of the small, lightly populated islands in the far east of the Bahamas.
The center of the storm was expected to be closest to land in the Bahamas about 2pm on Thursday, passing east of San Salvador, Greene said.
Forecasters expected the storm to drop about 3-5in (8-13cm) in the central Bahamas, including Long Island and Exuma. The effects are projected to be minimal on New Providence, which includes the capital of Nassau, with scattered showers and thunderstorms.
The US National Hurricane Center long-term forecast showed the storm could near the east coast above North Carolina early next week, but it said the complexity of the weather environment means “it is too soon to say what impacts, if any, Joaquin will have on the United States”.
Joaquin strengthened to a hurricane on Wednesday morning, with maximum sustained winds near 75mph (120kph). The Hurricane Center said additional strengthening is expected over the next two days.
The center of the storm early on Wednesday was about 245 miles (395km) east-north-east of the central Bahamas and moving toward the south-west at 6mph (9kmh).
The Bahamas was bracing on Wednesday for a brush with hurricane Joaquin, which was on a projected track that would take it near the east coast of the US early next week.
The hurricane was expected to pass near the islands of San Salvador, Cat Island, Eleuthera and Rum Cay late Thursday and early Friday, close enough that it could bring tropical-storm-force winds, coastal flooding and 5-10 inches (13-25cm) of rain, said Geoffrey Greene, a senior forecaster with the Bahamas meteorology department.
“We would be very concerned about them,” Greene said of the small, lightly populated islands in the far east of the Bahamas.
The center of the storm was expected to be closest to land in the Bahamas about 2pm on Thursday, passing east of San Salvador, Greene said.
Forecasters expected the storm to drop about 3-5in (8-13cm) in the central Bahamas, including Long Island and Exuma. The effects are projected to be minimal on New Providence, which includes the capital of Nassau, with scattered showers and thunderstorms.
The US National Hurricane Center long-term forecast showed the storm could near the east coast above North Carolina early next week, but it said the complexity of the weather environment means “it is too soon to say what impacts, if any, Joaquin will have on the United States”.
Joaquin strengthened to a hurricane on Wednesday morning, with maximum sustained winds near 75mph (120kph). The Hurricane Center said additional strengthening is expected over the next two days.
The center of the storm early on Wednesday was about 245 miles (395km) east-north-east of the central Bahamas and moving toward the south-west at 6mph (9kmh).

D'banj grabs his balls in new sexy pic...

The music star shared this photo and wrote "All I got in this World is my word and my balls. Ain't breaking Any for no One ... I Only Trust in God

Jay Z declares his music streaming business Tidal a success

Jay Z took to twitter yesterday to announce that his music streaming service Tidal is a success, claiming that more than 1 million people have signed up for it!

Wendy throws major shade at Erica Mena. Says "she's a snack not the main course with a ring"

In the latest episode of her talk-show, Wendy Williams threw major shade at Erica Mena who recently parted ways with Bow Wow after she shared on social media how she suffered a miscarriage. Wendy used words like "ratchet" and "hooker" to describe the Love and Hip Hop star. Erica of course clapped back at her on Twitter. First, below is what the outspoken host said:

"She’s really only known for being on that ratchet show Love & Hip Hop. A very lovely girl from what I know, I don’t really know her but very good-looking woman. But when Bow Wow got engaged to her after only dating for a few months, I was gagging. Are you serious? Bow Wow, your mum is going to flip.
I know guys like girls like that but they normally don’t bring them home. And they definitely don’t engage them with a ring. Sorry Erica. Well, they got engaged but you know I said that they would never actually get married. I mean she’s pretty for a hooker." She added: "She’s a snack not the main course with a ring."

Erica took to twitter to clapback at Wendy. She wrote: "Wendy loves to discuss everyones relationship but her own very abusive one"

Do not abuse or insult Buhari - PDP tells Nigerians

PDP has called on all Nigerians to show some respect to the office of the President. In their independence message to Nigerians, the party said

"The PDP urges all citizens to have full respect for the office and person of the symbol of the leadership of our great country, the President. The President can be constructively criticized, but under no circumstance should he be abused or insulted in any way and under any guise whatsoever. On this note therefore, we expect those around our dear President to be cautious and desist from actions and utterances that tend to set him up for public ridicule”

Full text of their independence message signed by Olisa Metuh after the cut ...

 The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) charges Nigerians to use the occasion of the nation’s 55th Independence Anniversary to rekindle the spirit of patriotism, while exhibiting actions that promote democratic ideals and peaceful co-existence at all levels in the country. The party said the occasion reminds of Nigeria’s common root and destiny as well as her resilience and determination to succeed in all spheres of life as a strong, united and prosperous nation, irrespective of her challenges. The PDP, in a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh on Wednesday, congratulated the citizens for keeping faith in the Nigerian project and working together in building a strong nation and one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The party however urged Nigerians to use the anniversary to recommit to respecting their leaders at the local government, state and national levels, while paying adequate reverence to national symbols and institutions.

“In this regard, the PDP urges all citizens to have full respect for the office and person of the symbol of the leadership of our great country, the President. The President can be constructively criticized, but under no circumstance should he be abused or insulted in any way and under any guise whatsoever. “On this note therefore, we expect those around our dear President to be cautious and desist from actions and utterances that tend to set him up for public ridicule”, the party stressed. The party congratulated the nation for giants strides achieved since independence, especially within the 16 years under the PDP led-administration, during which enviable milestones were recorded in critical sectors of the polity. It assured that even in opposition, it would continue to ensure that the country is not dragged back to the dark years of dictatorship by firmly defending the tenets of democracy and provisions of the constitution.

The party insisted that the feat achieved through the successful conduct of 2015 general elections and the smooth transition, all resulting from the democratic disposition of PDP leaders, must be sustained, as the country cannot afford to degenerate from its globally acclaimed democratic credentials. It also commended the military for the success recorded in the fight against insurgency in the country even as it commiserated with all those affected by the senseless acts of terrorism and violence. It also charged those behind the bloodletting to have a rethink and understand that their actions cannot be justified under any guise. The leadership of the PDP prayed for abiding peace in the country and wished the government and people of Nigeria, happy independence celebrations.

Signed: Chief Olisa Metuh National Publicity Secretary

Photos from the Senates plenary session today

The senate resumed its plenary session today September 29th after weeks of vacation. After its deliberation today, the senate adjourned sitting till tomorrow September 30th by 10am.

Woman posted selfie of her boyfriend pointing a gun on social media hours before he allegedly shot her dead

According to the police, 21-year-old Stephanie Hernandez posted one picture of a gun and ammo in her Little Rock home and also sent a Snapchat photo showing her smiling at the camera while her boyfriend, Rafael Gonzalez, holds a gun behind her head. "Strap Chat," the caption said, punning a slang term for carrying a gun. A few hours later, she died by the same gun...

That night, the mother of a 3-year-old and an 8-month-old daughter, was found dead from a gunshot wound in her house. Police found the home ransacked, with blood all over a floor. Gonzalez, 20, was arrested the next day and and charged for first-degree murder, police said.

It’s unclear what led to Gonzalez allegedly shooting his girlfriend. Hernandez’s daughters were with relatives when the shooting happened, her friends said. Hernandez’s family members were horrified to see the pictures she had taken, not knowing they would be her last...

      "I guess they were loaded. In her back — it is just mind-blowing. I don’t understand how anybody could do that." Hernandez's uncle Rey Hernadez told KATV.

 

Now they’re left to explain to Hernandez’s little girls what happened.

      "My nieces have been crying all night," Hernandez’s sister Camryn Startz told KATV. "I haven't told my 3-year-old niece anything yet. She knows something is wrong because she wants her mom."

Relatives said Hernandez had just moved into a new home weeks ago and was supposed to start a job Monday morning. One friend, Jaquinlan Davis, told KATV Hernandez’s boyfriend was “a bad influence” and the two had a rocky, on-and-off relationship.

Source: Daily News

Ukraine president accuses Russia of using UN veto as 'licence to kill'

 
Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko, has accused Russia of using its veto on the United Nations security council as a “licence to kill” and continue Moscow’s “hybrid war” against his country.
The Russian delegation walked out of the general assembly hall as Poroshenko accused Moscow of a “brutal violation” of the UN charter with what he said was its invasion of Ukrainian territory.
In a speech laced with sarcasm and contempt, he accused Moscow of a campaign of “fake news, blatant lies” in an attempt to portray separatist movements in Ukraine as an internal rebellion and hide Russian’s involvement.
“I would like to stress it is neither a civil war nor an internal conflict,” he said. “There is no doubt that this is an aggressive war against my country, against Ukraine.”
He also condemned Russia’s veto of an international tribunal to hold to account those who shot down Malaysian airlines flight MH17 over rebel-held territory in Ukraine, saying that “everyone in this hall understands Russia’s real motive”.
“The use of its veto right as a licence to kill is absolutely unacceptable,” said Poroshenko. “Veto power should not be used as an act of grace and pardon for crimes.”
Poroshenko accused Russia of a “military reckless game” by invading Ukraine’s Donbass region.
“Here we are forced to fight proper fully armed troops of the Russian federation,” he said.
He accused Moscow of trying to force Ukraine to turn its back on the west and move into Russia’s orbit. It is, Poroshenko said, part of a strategy by Russia to “deliberately create around itself a belt of instability” with violent upheaval in nations on its borders.
“What and who is next?” he asked. The Ukrainian leader said all of this is driven by Russia’s longing to revive its former imperial glory, calling it “a desperate attempt to obtain self-affirmation at others’ expense”.
Poreshenko appealed for the international community to maintain pressure, including sanctions, on Russia even as western attention has flagged since a rickety and frequently breached ceasefire was agreed in February and with other crises, including Greece’s economy and the Syrian migrants, veering on to the scene.
Poroshenko derided the recent attempt by the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, to try to restore relations with the west with a call for an international coalition against terrorism.”
How can you urge an anti-terrorist coalition if you inspire terrorism right inside your door?” he said. “How can you speak of freedom of nations if you punish your neighbour for this choice?
Poroshenko expressed incredulity that the aggression against Ukraine is being perpetrated by a country which is supposed to be a guarantor of international peace and security as a permanent member of the UN security council.
The Ukrainian leader said that Russia abused its position by using its veto to block a resolution on what he described as the “fake referendum” of residents of Crimea which Moscow used to justify the forceful annexation of the territory from Ukraine.

NFL may investigate referee's 'not old enough' call on Cam Newton

Referee Ed Hochuli is adamant he did not tell Cam Newton he “wasn’t old enough” to be awarded a personal foul call during the Carolina Panthers’ victory over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday but the official may face an NFL investigation over the matter.
The Panthers quarterback questioned why he wasn’t given the call on Sunday afternoon and was bemused by the answer. “’Cam you’re not old enough to get that call.’ I didn’t think you had to have seniority to get a personal foul or anything like that,” Newton said after the game. Newton is in his fifth season in the league.
But on Monday the NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino said Hochuli denied using those words before defending the official’s decision. “Cam was outside the pocket and he threw the ball on the run,” he told NFL Network. “There’s different protections for a quarterback that is running outside the pocket versus inside the pocket. Outside the pocket, you don’t get the two step protection. When you look at the play, Cam threw on the run. There was some contact; it wasn’t late and it wasn’t a foul.”
Blandino did say, however, that the NFL could launch an investigation if Newton’s allegations were proved. “We would do an investigation, see if anybody was miked in the area, and we’ve had situations in the past where an official said something inappropriate to a player and we’ve disciplined them,” he said. “So there is a process in place, and we would have to go through that process to see if we could pick up what was actually said.”
Newton’s grievance seemed to be with the explanation he says he received rather than the call itself. “If he would have said he missed the call, that is one thing,” Newton said. “But for his response to be what it was and I’m not old enough to get that call ... Geez! So heaven forbid he gets any rookies or they’re gonna have a long day, man.”
Newton’s play seemed unaffected by the controversy. He threw for two touchdowns and rushed for another in what was his best game of the season so far. 

Ice Prince at Global Citizens Day event in Central Park NY (photos)

Ice Prince pictured with Ed Sheeran at the Global Citizens Day event. More pics after the cut...

Photos: Buhari holds bilateral talks with UK Prime Minister Cameron

President Buhari pictured above in a bilateral meeting with UK Prime Minister David Cameron at UN building during the 70th UN general Assembly today September 27th .. more when you continue

Army clarifies statement on the accusation of Borno leaders working for the elongation of insurgency in the North East

The Nigerian Army in a new statement says though it maintains some people in the North East are working for the elongation of insurgency in the North East region, it however did not categorically accuse the Borno Elders Leaders of Thought (BELT). The clarification statement below...

The attention of the Nigerian Army has been drawn to observations and concerns by well meaning Nigerians especially the Borno Elders Leaders of Thought (BELT) about the misinterpretations of the warning. Therefore, it becomes necessary to clarify to the effect that the statement released yesterday does not refer to the leaders of BELT or majority of the good people and law abiding prominent citizens of Borno State.
I neither mention any organization's or individual's name. However, the warning was to inform a specific group of people whose activities are imminical to our collective quest for peace as enumerated in the release. At this point, it is important to observe that what is required at this crucial period is for everyone to rally round the Federal Government to bring to a speedy end the wanton destruction of lives and properties by the Boko Haram insurgency. We believe that the Borno Elders and Leaders of Thought cannot hold any clandestine meetings and therefore as a responsible organisation the Nigerian Army holds them in high esteem. We however wish to reiterate unequivocally that the Nigerian Army has credible information that certain individuals and groups are losing out of the successes being achieved and therefore want to discredit the renewed fight against Boko Haram. We would not tolerate nor allow them to actualize their nefarious intents.

Thank you for your usual cooperation. Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman

Pope Francis’s words on clergy sex abuse ring hollow for some survivors

When Pope Francis ended his half-hour meeting on Sunday with victims who had been sexually abused by clergy when they were children, he reiterated his commitment that they would be treated with justice.
Then, as the meeting at the seminary wrapped up, he blessed them.
It was one of many encounters the pope has had in his first visit to the US through which he sought to show his compassion for those who struggle, suffer and live at the peripheries of society, including prison inmates, poor immigrants and the homeless.
But for many victims of sexual abuse, who have lived through years of cover-ups and denials by the church, the pope’s meeting and apology was a hollow gesture. Even independent Vatican experts suggest that the sex abuse scandal –which has severely tarnished its reputation and cost $3bn in settlements in the US –is a “weak spot” for a pope otherwise seen as a moral voice for the world.
“The pope said [on Sunday] that “God weeps for the victims” but we believe that there would be many less victims to weep over if Pope Francis and other church officials would take action to protect the children,” says Barbara Blaine, who was sexually abused by a local priest in Ohio and founded an outspoken advocacy group called Snap (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests).
When Francis spoke before hundreds of US bishops this week, saying they had shown “courage” in handling the crisis and congratulated them on selling church assets to settle cases, Blaine says it felt like a “slap in the face to real victims”.
“It is baffling. Several victims assumed that the reports of this were either a joke or a mistake. This same pope who seems so compassionate to the prisoners, the poor, the refugees and the sick, seems incredibly hardened against victims and stalwart in continuing to leave children and vulnerable adults at risk,” she told the Guardian.
Given the sensitivity of the abuse and cover-up scandals, which often involved accused clergy being moved from diocese to diocese to avoid being found out –Francis’s comments could appear, at best, tone deaf, and, at worst, playing down a scandal that rocked the church to its core.
The pope has apologized for the actions of the church in the past and has taken steps to try to address the issue. In 2014 he condemned the church’s handling of abuse, saying that the failure to respond to reports of abuse by paedophile priests –there was a systematic cover-up of abuse in which some priests were moved to other diocese following accusations of wrongdoing – had caused “even greater suffering” to victims. He created a committee – which included two adult victims of abuse – to address the issue and set up a new but untested tribunal to investigate bishops who are accused of covering up sex crimes.
A former Vatican ambassador, Józef Wesołowski, died before he was due to go on trial for paedophilia at the Vatican. Wesolowski had been given access to a computer and allegedly watched child pornography even after he was recalled to Rome.
But Blaine and others are largely dismissive of the steps the Vatican has taken under Francis.
Some point to the case of Bishop Juan Barros in Chile, who has been accused of ignoring reports of abuse by a now notorious pedophile priest who was found guilty of molestation in Chile. Barros has denied the allegations and the Vatican has said he has the church’s support.
To truly end the “devastation” endured by so many – one group estimates that there are about 17,000 victims in the US – Blaine says there are concrete steps Francis could take now: fire all the credibly accused perpetrators and punish the bishops who have covered up crimes; open records to the public that are held in the Vatican regarding sex crimes and turn them over to police and urge local parishes to do the same; and reward whistleblowers who have been fired from jobs in the church.
Andrew Chesnut, a Catholic studies professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, says he does not believe that the pope’s weakness on the issue reflects a lack of understanding of the scale of the problem, especially since it is potentially an even bigger issue in Latin America, where a recent year-long investigation by the news organization GlobalPost concluded that the church was allowing allegedly abusive priests to continue working in remote and poor communities in South America.
“He promised to implement a zero tolerance policy, but the church continues to spend millions of dollars litigating cases and refuses to divulge records of priests who have been accused,” says Chesnut.
Nor is the criticism of Francis new. According to papal biographer and journalist Jimmy Burns, Francis was not as outspoken or proactive in dealing with sex abuse as campaigners wanted him to be even when he was an archbishop in Argentina.
But Burns argues that Francis has accomplished some change: having moved by decree to break the cover-up mentality, he says that accused bishops and priests will find it more difficult to escape justice.
He adds that, despite the controversial comments before the US bishops – which Burns says were meant to boost their morale – Francis has made an effort to offer his support to victims.
“He has reassured them that the days when they felt the institutional church considered them adversaries and enemies are over,” Burns says. Furthermore, he says it is unfair to blame Francis for not devoting his trip to the issue, given that there were other pressing matter that the pope needed to address on this visit, from the environment to diplomatic issues, poverty and the refugee crisis.
But there is another issue that some activists find deeply insulting: the insinuation that the sex abuse crisis is essentially over, and that the church has cleaned house.
“It is misleading to portray the crisis as though it were “history.” We know it is on-going,” says Blaine, pointing to an investigation by UN human rights experts.
According to a 2014 report by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the committee was “gravely concerned” that the Holy See had not acknowledged the full extent of the crimes committed, nor taken necessary measures to address cases of child abuse. Among its primary concerns, the committee found that “dozens of child sexual offenders are reported to be still in contact with children”.
Andrew Chesnut, the expert at VCU, agrees that the meeting alone will change little, unless Francis follows up with some changes in Vatican policies.

UN’s 70th general assembly: the greatest political show on earth

In geopolitics, this is the greatest show on earth. For the best part of a week, the world’s leaders – more than 150 of them – will mingle, bargain and argue over the state of the world at the UN general assembly in New York.
For much of the proceedings, “show” is the operative word. When the presidents and prime ministers mount the green marble podium, there will be a strong element of theatre. They will be playing to different galleries, declaiming their positions to their peers in the chamber, but also to domestic audiences.
The drama will be greater than ever this year, at the 70^th session of the UN general assembly, known inside the institution by its acronym Unga (rhyming with hunger). Within the space of two hours on Monday morning, Presidents Barack Obama, Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Hassan Rouhani and François Hollande will take their turn to speak. Each will try to anticipate and respond to the other, seeking rhetorical advantage and one-upmanship in their claims to global leadership. The global balance of power will be laid out in the open.
The leaders will huddle on Sunday to discuss climate change and global development goals. They will discuss the future of UN peacekeeping on Monday, with several countries pledging troops to the task, and on Tuesday, debate strategies of defeating the Islamic State and other violent extremists.
The greatest wild card this year will be Putin. It will be the first time he has shown up to talk at Unga for a decade, and he flies to New York at a critical time. While he has eased the pressure on Ukraine, dialling down Russia’s covert military campaign alongside the separatists in the east, Putin at the same time has raised his country’s stakes in Syria in support of Bashar al-Assad, setting up an air base in Latakia and consolidating Russia’s hold on a naval base at Tartus. 


In so doing, he has backed up by force of arms the argument he has been trying to win since the war started more than four years, and 250,000 lives, ago: that the only road to peace is through support for Assad and a concerted campaign against Isis.
The US, its western allies, and most human rights advocates see the continuing slaughter through an inverse lens. In their view, Isis and other extremist groups are the symptoms of the chaos wrought by the Assad regime through the daily barrel bombing of civilians in rebel areas.
It sounds like a fundamentally different view but it has been based on a bluff that Putin has called. Neither the US nor its European allies are prepared to risk military action to try to remove Assad. They can agree to bomb Isis because it advertises its atrocities online and explicitly threatens the West.
Obama will be co-hosting a summit meeting on countering Isis starting on Tuesday morning. Putin is not expected to attend, as he seeking to claim his own leadership of the anti-Isis campaign.
That iwill be the state of play when Obama meets Putin on Monday afternoon, at what is likely to be the most critical summit of the week. The president will be seeking assurances of Russian agreement to a relatively brisk abdication by Assad (months rather than years) in return for legitimising the Russian boots-on-the-ground campaign in Syria. But right now, those are assurances Putin seems in no mood to give.
Over much of the previous decade, in Putin’s absence, the central drama at Unga has been provided by the Iranian state and its volatile relationship with the US – from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s baiting of his American houses to the tentative rapprochement of his successor, Hassan Rouhani.

The symbolic highlight of the Unga in 2013 was a phone conversation between Obama and Rouhani as the latter was in his car heading to the airport. Two years on, US-Iranian exchanges are now routine. A deal on the future of Iran’s nuclear programme was finally clinched in July, and in getting there the US secretary of state, John Kerry, and his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, spent more time in each other’s company than any other two foreign ministers on earth.
On Monday, Zarif will be meeting ministers from the six nations who negotiated the nuclear agreement, in order to discuss its implementation. But the White House has said there is still no meeting expected between Obama and Rouhani this year. Rouhani told National Public Radio that Iran was ready to start discussing Syria with the US “right now” but a personal encounter has not been approved by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. The nuclear agreement has yet to have a diplomatic domino effect. Iran and the US remain far apart on each other’s role in the Middle East. Iran has reportedly not been invited to Rouhani Obama’s summit on countering Isis.
The White House says, however, that the president will have a brief meeting with Raùl Castro, who will be addressing the general assembly for the first time on Monday afternoon. Obama met the Cuban leader at the Summit of the Americas in Panama in April, and Kerry went to Havana to reopen the US embassy in August, ending a 54-year break in relations. A follow-up Obama-Castro handshake is intended to underline the normalisation in relations, and be another showcase for the benefits of diplomacy. The challenge this year, though, will be making progress in the deeply troubled relationship with Putin, particularly on Syria and Ukraine, and that will be a tougher nut to crack.