After abuse scandal, Pope appoints new head of Irish church

Pope Benedict on Friday appointed the new head of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland to succeed Cardinal Sean Brady, whose tenure has been plagued by scandal over the sexual abuse of children on the predominantly Roman Catholic island.

The Vatican said Monsignor Eamon Martin, 51, had been named "coadjutor" archbishop of Armagh, meaning he will automatically succeed Brady when he retires next year.

Brady, who will remain primate until his retirement, has resisted calls by three of the four main parties in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland's deputy first minister to resign over the sexual abuse scandal.

The Vatican's move was seen as an attempt to give him a soft exit. While it spared him the embarrassment of stepping down before his scheduled retirement, he will effectively be sidestepped as Martin takes over the running of the diocese.

Armagh, which is in Northern Ireland, is a particularly significant diocese because its archbishop has the title "Primate of All Ireland," the senior Church position on the divided island.

Ukraine prosecutor accuses Tymoshenko of murder

Ukraine's chief prosecutor accused jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko of ordering the killing of a business rival 16 years ago, dealing a new blow to the ex-prime minister who the West says is the victim of a political vendetta.
The announcement came on Friday after a court adjourned a second trial against Tymoshenko for tax evasion and her defense counsel warned her health had declined to a "critical" level.
Tymoshenko is already serving a seven-year jail sentence for abuse of office, meted out in October 2011.
She and Western governments say she is the victim of a witch-hunt by the leadership of President Viktor Yanukovich who narrowly beat her in a run-off for the presidency in February 2010.
Political enemies of the 52-year-old politician have indicated for a year that an additional case was building against her over the killing of Yevhen Shcherban, a deputy and businessman who died in a hail of bullets in 1996 as he stepped from a plane.
But the announcement by state prosecutor Viktor Pshonka that Tymoshenko, a powerful gas trader in the 1990s, had conspired with a former prime minister, Pavlo Lazarenko, in ordering a $2.8 million "hit" against Shcherban came as a surprise.

Top diplomats of Colombia, Venezuela meet for talks focused on ties, Colombian peace talks

Venezuelan's newly appointed foreign minister is meeting with the top diplomat of neighboring Colombia in talks that are expected to touch on peace negotiations between the Colombian government and leftist rebels.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua has said he hopes to deepen relations with Colombia's government during Friday's meeting with Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin.

Jaua also told the Colombian radio station Blu Radio on Thursday that Venezuela will continue to support the peace talks between Colombia's government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The talks have resumed in Havana this week after a holiday break.

Venezuela's vice president active in Chavez's absence, inaugurating public housing, schools

Venezuela's vice president has inaugurated new public housing and a public school as he fills in for ailing President Hugo Chavez.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro and other Cabinet ministers are maintaining a steady presence at televised events this week while Chavez remains out of sight in Cuba more than five weeks after cancer surgery.
Maduro attended the opening of a housing project in Caracas on Thursday, and on Friday opened a school in Chavez's home state of Barinas alongside the president's elder brother, Adan.
Those and other appearances by government officials appeared aimed at projecting an image of a government in action even without the presence of a president who usually presides over such events.
Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez told reporters that the government "hasn't stopped, not one minute."

Got sugar? Venezuela faces shortages of staple foods

The increased difficulty in finding basic consumer goods in Venezuela is raising concerns about the viability of Chávez's socialist economic policies at a time when the country is already on edge due to his prolonged absence.While President Hugo Chávez convalesces in Cuba following his fourth cancer operation, Venezuelans face a struggle of a different kind in the midst of shortages of basic food products. Consumers are having to scour markets for staples such as sugar, milk, chicken, and harina pan, a corn flour used to make arepas – corncakes that predominate the Venezuelan diet.

"We're replacing one product with another," says Rosa Garcia, a real estate agent who was on a three-day hunt for meat across various Caracas neighborhoods. "First there was no beef, now no chicken. Last night I made eggs for my family's dinner." Grocery shopping in Venezuela is rarely an easy task, with consumers often forced to deal with long lines and sporadic shortages at their local markets. But the increased difficulty in finding basic consumer goods in recent weeks is raising concerns about the viability of Mr. Chávez's socialist economic policies at a time when the country is already on edge due to his prolonged absence and the uncertainty of Venezuela's political future. Chávez has not been seen or heard from since early December.

Former New Orleans mayor Nagin charged with corruption

A federal grand jury on Friday charged Ray Nagin, the former New Orleans mayor who denounced the federal government response to Hurricane Katrina, with 21 counts of public corruption including receiving thousands of dollars in kickbacks for city services.

The charges include six counts of bribery, nine counts of wire fraud, four counts of filing false tax returns and one count each of conspiracy and money laundering.

"Nagin used his public office and his official capacity to provide favorable treatment that benefited the business and financial interests of individuals providing him with bribery or kickback payoffs in the form of checks, cash, granite inventory, wire transfers, personal services and free travel," the indictment said.

In one case he received $72,500 in bribes, and $50,000 in another, according to the indictment. Nagin and his sons, Jeremy Nagin and Jarin Nagin, owned a countertop company called Stone Age LLC that provided granite for projects such as kitchen remodeling. In several instances, he received wire transfers and granite as bribes, the indictment said.

U.S. Air Force finds pornography, "offensive" material in inspections

The U.S. Air Force, reeling from a scandal over sexual abuse of female recruits, said on Friday a search of its facilities across the globe turned up tens of thousands of items it considered to be "offensive, inappropriate or pornographic."

The inspections of public areas on Air Force facilities over 12 days in December were aimed at heightening awareness among personnel about sexual violence and professionalism in the workplace, said Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh.

"I talked with airmen across the force and believe that some units were not meeting those standards," he said. "Every airman deserves to be treated with respect. They also deserve to work in a professional environment."

The Air Force was rocked last year by revelations that female recruits were sexually abused at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. Eleven instructors at the base, the home of all Air Force basic military training, have been charged with offenses ranging from inappropriate behavior to sexual assault.

The Air Force has said that 48 women have come forward with what investigators consider credible stories of sexual misconduct.

Algeria prisoner swap shows how Al Qaeda won't leave US alone

As Al Qaeda-affiliated group proposed exchanging two US hostages in Algeria for two Islamist extremists jailed in the US, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged stepped-up US support for counterterror efforts in North Africa.The United States has proceeded cautiously – and behind the scenes – toward France’s Mali intervention, hoping to deny radical Islamists the West-versus-Islam recruiting message that an overt American role in the effort to oust militant Islamists from northern Mali would offer. But reports Friday that the Al Qaeda-affiliated group that carried out the Algeria hostage taking wants to exchange two American hostages for two Islamist extremists and convicted terrorists jailed in the US suggests that America can’t help but be at the center of the global battle with Al Qaeda and associated Islamist radicals.

Commenting Friday on the still-unfolding Algeria hostage crisis, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pledged stepped-up US support for counterterror efforts in North Africa.The proposed exchange from the “Signers of Blood,” an offshoot of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), was relayed through a Mauritanian news service and underscores how radical Islamist groups have learned a cardinal lesson of Al Qaeda’s masterminds: that it serves the organization’s purposes to provoke the US and make it part of the anti-Western fight.

The group proposed exchanging its American hostages for the release of Egyptian Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, serving a sentence in North Carolina for plotting to bomb New York landmarks; and Pakistani Aafia Siddiqui, who is serving a life sentence in federal prison for attempted murder of US soldiers in Afghanistan.

Algeria Attack Shows The Arab Spring Morphing Into The War On Terror

Taken together, the attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya, the Islamist attacks on Mali, and now this Algerian offense, all point to north Africa as the geopolitical hotspot of 2013 — where the Arab Spring has morphed into the War On Terror.

Dozens of hostages and militants have died in the attack on Algeria‘s Ain Amenas natural gas plant, 60 miles from the Libyan border. The companies operating the plant, including BP and Norway‘s Statoil, have evacuated hundreds of workers from the country. At least one of the remaining hostages is said to be from Houston, Texas.

So far world oil and gas prices have barely reacted to the events. Clearly the market has reassured itself that this is just a one-off event rather than the beginning of an era of further oil and gas supply disruption in north Africa. Let’s hope the market is right.Mokhtar Belmokhtar’s group, which launched the attack on the gas plant, has reportedly claimed that it will continue operations against the Algerian government. The militants who launched this week’s attack were reportedly carrying heavy weapons, machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades that were used by the Libyan  army during Khadafi’s rule.

Algeria can’t afford that. Algeria’s 1.1 million barrels of daily oil exports bring in more than $50 billion a year to Algeria, cash that goes straight into government coffers, supply the lion’s share of the government budget. According to an IMF report, Algeria’s national balance sheet has deteriorated in recent years. Having ramped up social spending when oil output peaked in 2008, Algeria now needs oil prices north of $100 a barrel to balance its budget. That breakeven number could quickly ratchet up, as oil companies quash plans to invest in Algeria in favor of friendlier territories like Texas.

The Algerian government’s forceful reaction to the attack — strafing the facility with helicopter gunships, and possibly killing hostages in the crossfire — shows that it is serious about stopping attacks by Islamist militants. The government is hunting militants who have escaped, presumably with the full cooperation of the United States. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said yesterday, “Terrorists should be on notice that they will find no sanctuary or refuge; not in Algeria, not in North Africa, not anywhere. Those who will want only to attack will have no place to hide.”

Is Mali the next Afghanistan?

The war rages about cities with names such as Goa and Timbuktu, in a sparsely populated, mostly flat, dusty and landlocked country in northwest Africa.
The combatants include a nomadic Berber people known as Tuareg, the French Foreign Legion and a coalition of al Qaida affiliates who identify themselves with the Maghreb, the desert region of Northwestern Africa.
It sounds as if it could be the plot for a new Indiana Jones adventure. But those who study international terrorism say it would be a mistake for Americans to think of this conflict as anything but deadly serious. The war in Mali is the new front in the war on international terrorism.
Some U.S. officials have downplayed the threat, noting in congressional testimony that those involved in Mali don’t appear capable of striking outside West and North Africa.
But in some ways, what’s happening in Mali reminds experts of events in another little-known, faraway land in the latter half of the 1990s: Afghanistan. Back then, a fledgling al Qaida, though already a known threat, was using remote terrain to train a generation of elite terrorist fighters. The threat of those fighters was that once trained, they were disappearing to await plans and opportunities to strike at the hated West.
“When we look back at Afghanistan, we wonder if we could have stopped what was to come,” said Daniel Byman, a national security and terrorism expert at Georgetown University who served as a staff member of the 9/11Commission.
J. Peter Pham, a terrorism expert at the Atlantic Council research center, with particular emphasis on central Africa, notes that despite the continued focus of much of the resources of America’s anti-terrorism efforts on central Asia, the potential threat in Mali should look familiar.
“Jihadists aren’t wedded to any one place over another,” he said. “They go to where the fight is. For the past year, northern Mali has been the place.”
The Islamists rolled over their opposition. Mali’s U.S.-trained army, which staged a coup in March to protest a lack of government support in the fight to regain control of the north, was almost wholly ineffective. An international force of regional African troops approved by the United Nations – but not funded – existed in resolutions only.