LOS ANGELES (BNO NEWS) -- The Archdiocese of Los Angeles on Wednesday announced that one of its Catholic bishops has resigned after acknowledging he fathered two children in the past.
Gabino Zavala, 60, resigned under the code of canon law which allows bishops to retire earlier than the standard age of 75 if they are sick or unfit for office. He served as the auxiliary bishop for the San Gabriel Pastoral Region, which covers East Los Angeles through the San Gabriel and Pomona valleys.
"I have some sad and difficult information to share with you," the Archbishop of Los Angeles, Jose Gomez, said in a letter. "Bishop Gabino Zavala informed me in early December that he is the father of two minor teenage children, who live with their mother in another state."
Gomez added: "Bishop Zavala also told me that he submitted his resignation to the Holy Father in Rome, which was accepted. Since that time, he has not been in ministry and will be living privately."
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles said it has reached out to the mother and the children to provide spiritual care as well as funding to assist the children with college costs. "The family's identity is not known to the public, and I wish to respect their right to privacy," Gomez said. "Let us pray for all those impacted by this situation and for each other as we reflect on this letter."
Roman Catholic priests must take a vow of celibacy when they are ordained. The celibacy requirement often discourages many men from priesthood.
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SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA (BNO NEWS) -- Internet giant Yahoo!, Inc. on Wednesday named former PayPal President Scott Thompson as the company's new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Thompson's new position will become effective as of next Monday, at which time Tim Morse will resume his role as Chief Financial Officer. Morse had been working as the company's interim CEO.
"Scott brings to Yahoo! a proven record of building on a solid foundation of existing assets and resources to reignite innovation and drive growth, precisely the formula we need at Yahoo!," said Roy Bostock, Chairman of the Yahoo! Board.
"His deep understanding of online businesses combined with his team building and operational capabilities will restore the energy, focus, and momentum necessary to grow the core business and deliver increased value for our shareholders," he added.
Thompson was also appointed to the company's Board of Directors, which in September fired former CEO Carol Bartz. Pressured by the success of social media giant Facebook and internet rival Google, Bartz was unable to increase Yahoo!'s revenue and was eventually let go.
"Yahoo! is an industry icon and I am very excited about the prospect of working with one of the great teams in the online world to deliver Yahoo!'s next era of success," Thompson said, noting that he will be "diving deeply" into the company's products and services to learn more about the more than 700 million users' interests.
Last November, Yahoo!, Microsoft Corp. and AOL announced joint advertisement agreements to boost the process of buying and selling premium online display inventory in an effort to counterbalance Google's dominant internet presence.
Thompson served most recently as President of PayPal, a division of eBay, which under his leadership expanded its user base from 50 million to more than 104 million active users in 190 countries worldwide, increasing the number of merchant partners to more than 8 million globally, and growing revenues from $1.8 billion to more than $4 billion in 2011.
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TEHRAN (BNO NEWS) -- The Iranian Navy on Sunday test fired a medium range missile which is designed to evade radars, state-run media reported. It comes a day after Iran test fired long range missiles.
The missile tests, which were announced earlier this week, are part of a 10-day naval exercise which began on December 24. The war games are reportedly being held in an attempt by the Iranian government to prove its ability to respond to any foreign attack.
During Sunday's games, described as the 'power phase', the Iranian Navy test fired what it said is its first domestically-built, medium-range anti-radar missile. Few details about the test were provided, but state-run media said the surface-to-air missile was launched in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Rear Admiral Mahmoud Mousavi, the spokesman for the war games which were dubbed 'Velayat 90', told Iran's Press TV that the missile launched on Sunday was designed and manufactured by Iranian experts. He said it is equipped with modern technology and a system which enables it to target radio emission sources and thwart jammes.
On Saturday, the Iranian Navy test fired long-range missiles in the Sea of Oman. More missiles are expected to be launched on Monday as the war games continue.
On Tuesday, Iran said the missiles would be tested in order to prepare for possibly having to confront an enemy in a war situation. They said they would test short-range, mid-range and long-range missiles, as well as torpedoes before the end of the games.
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MOSCOW (BNO NEWS) -- Russian police arrested at least 60 people in the capital of Moscow on Saturday during anti-government protests, the country's RIA Novosti news agency reported on Sunday.
Around 300 people, including protesters and journalists, gathered at Moscow's Triumfalnaya Square to participate in the opposition demonstration, which had not been authorized. Police later said "approximately 60" people were detained.
According to reports, police detained anyone who was carrying a placard or giving an interview to media correspondents. Firebrand writer and activist Eduard Limonov, the leader of the Other Russia movement, was one of those detained on Saturday.
About an hour before the protests, police parked about 40 buses and trucks around the square and closed off pedestrian access. Triumfalnaya is the regular venue for unsanctioned Strategy-31 protests held on the 31st of the month to highlight Article 31 of the Russian Constitution, which guarantees freedom of assembly.
Sixty-eight people were detained at last year's protest in Moscow, including opposition leaders Boris Nemtsov and Ilya Yashin.
Throughout December, huge demonstrations have taken place across the country to criticize the recent elections which they claim were rigged in favor of Vladimir Putin's governing United Russia party. Some of the demonstrations have been the largest since the fall of the Soviet Union.
On December 4, Russia held parliamentary elections which many Russian voters and international observers said were marred by large-scale fraud. The ruling United Russia party won more votes than any of the other three parties, but it still suffered a significant drop from the two-thirds constitutional majority it has enjoyed for the past four years.
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ANKARA (BNO NEWS) -- A group of angry Kurds on Saturday attacked a Turkish government official in the Uludere district of Sirnak province where 35 civilians were killed in an airstrike earlier this week, the Hurriyet Daily News reported on Sunday.
A group of people wielding sticks attacked and hurled stones at the deputy governor of Uludere, Naif Yavuz, who was traveling to Gülyazı village to offer condolences over the killings. The 35 civilians were mistakenly killed when Turkish warplanes carried out an airstrike in Uludere on Wednesday night after receiving information that Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) members were preparing to cross into Sirnak.
Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputy Hasip Kaplan has warned against any visits from state officials to the village of Uludere. "The people do not want to see them [state officials] right now," Kaplan said, as quoted by the newspaper. "If they come here, we would not be able to control the young people."
"Everyone will be armed," Kaplan said and added that any state visit to the village would act as a provocation.
The Turkish government on Friday said it regretted the airstrike along the Turkey-Iraq border. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) had noticed that nearly 40 people were moving in a region where the main camps of the armed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) are situated.
"Naturally it is not possible for unmanned aerial vehicles to identify the group exactly. In a further identification, it is revealed that the group was comprised of cigarette and diesel oil smugglers," Erdogan added.
A mass funeral for the victims took place on Friday afternoon in Uludere. Thousands of Kurds gathered to mourn the victims and condemn the attack.
The PKK, which has been labeled as a terrorist organizations by the United States, Turkey and the European Union, was established in 1984 in its efforts to establish the eastern and southeastern regions of Turkey as an autonomous Kurdish state. Over 40,000 soldiers and civilians have been killed in violent clashes since the group took arms. The PKK maintains its military bases across the Iraqi border.
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MEXICO CITY (BNO NEWS) -- More than a thousand kidnapping victims have been rescued by Mexican authorities over the past five years, the country's Public Security Ministry said in a report on Sunday.
According to the federal police, a total of 1,587 kidnapping victims have been rescued, including 704 who were rescued in 2011 alone. Meanwhile, 1,756 people accused of belonging to gangs of kidnappers have been arrested over the five-year period, the report said.
The report also showed that three out of ten people arrested by the federal police, accused of belonging to gangs of kidnappers, are directly related to criminal groups engaged in drug trafficking. Of the 527 people accused of kidnapping and having links to organized crime, more than half belong to Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel.
The vast majority of suspects are men between 25 and 35 years old, although 8.1 percent were women. The report also reveals that organized crime groups prefer to recruit minors for kidnapping activities.
According to government figures, a total of 15,273 drug-related crimes were reported to authorities in Mexico in 2010. More than 30,000 people have died in drug-related violence since Mexican President Felipe Calderón began his campaign to fight organized crime in December 2006, although some estimates put that number at more than 45,000.
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CAIRO, EGYPT (BNO NEWS) -- The international community expressed alarm on Friday and Saturday after seventeen non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were raided by Egyptian authorities on Thursday for allegedly receiving 'illegal foreign funding.'
Several NGO offices in Cairo, the capital of Egypt, were raided by security forces who forced their way in, blocking entrances and exits, and seizing computers and paperwork. Reports also said that some employees had their mobiles phones confiscated as well.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the United States is deeply concerned that Egyptian judicial and police officials raided these NGO offices, which included the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute.
"This action is inconsistent with the bilateral cooperation we have had over many years," Nuland said, adding that Ambassador Anne Patterson had been in touch with the Egyptian prime minister on this matter. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Feltman has also been in contact with the Egyptian ambassador to the U.S.
"We call on the Egyptian Government to immediately end the harassment of NGOs, NGO staff, return all property, and resolve this issue immediately," Nuland added.
Frej Fenniche, Middle Eastern and North Africa chief of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) at the United Nations (UN), said it was the first time his office had heard of a similar raid being carried out against NGOs in Egypt, noting that such events had not occurred even under the regime of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
"Such behavior on the part of the authorities appears to be clearly designed to intimidate human rights defenders who have long been critical of human rights violations in Egypt, including under the previous regime," said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for OHCHR.
"The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights calls on the Government to cease the use of such unnecessarily heavy-handed measures and to ensure that civil society organisations can carry out their important work without undue interference," she added.
British Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne also said his government is very concerned about the reports from Cairo. "We urge the Egyptian authorities to avoid taking any action that would make the democratic process less inclusive or inhibit the positive work of these and similar organisations," Browne urged.
Noting that a number of Egyptian and foreign NGOs have been supporting the transition to democracy in Egypt, Browne said the "civil society has a vitally important role to play in that transition and should be encouraged and supported rather than impeded."
Egyptian authorities have repeatedly blamed foreign-funded groups, including NGOs, for some of the political unrest which has rippled through Cairo and other cities since the ousting of Mubarak in February.
The raids on Thursday came after the Egyptian Justice Ministry said its inquiries have shown that several NGOs operating in Egypt have allegedly received illicit, unregistered funding from abroad. Local human rights activists fear the move may be part of a wider government crackdown targeting critics of violations committed by the ruling military council.
In September, the Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information noted a 'sharp decline' in freedom of opinion and expression in Egypt following the ouster of Mubarak.
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NEW YORK (BNO NEWS) -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Antonio Guterres, on Saturday condemned the recent killing of a Somali community leader in the Dadaab refugee complex in northern Kenya.
Guterres, voiced his deep regrets about the 'senseless' killing of the refugee leader, who was the chairman of the Community Peace and Security Team in Hagadera camp. He was shot several times as he entered his compound on Thursday evening.
The man, whose name has not yet been released, was rushed to a camp hospital but died while being evacuated to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, for further treatment. The gunmen reportedly escaped from the camp, UNHCR said.
Guterres said the refugee-run Community Peace and Security teams are instrumental in helping maintain security at the camps. Dadaab is the world's largest refugee settlement and shelters more than 460,000 people.
On December 22, the United Nations voiced alarm after a series of bomb blasts killed three policemen near the refugee settlements in the Dadaab area. Insecurity has grown consistently since October 2011, when two expatriate aid workers were abducted.
According to the UNHCR, conflict, violence against civilians, drought and famine have forced an estimated 295,000 people to flee Somalia this year. More than half of that number have found shelter at the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya, while others sought refuge in Ethiopia, Yemen and Djibouti.
The UNHCR said Somalia remains one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, with more than 950,000 Somalis living as refugees in neighboring countries, while another 1.46 million are internally displaced.
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KIEV (BNO NEWS) -- Ukrainian opposition leader and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko was transferred to a prison on Friday to serve her seven-year jail term, an official said on Saturday.
Tymoshenko, who was convicted of abuse of power, was moved from a detention center in the capital of Kiev, where she has been held since early August, to a prison in the eastern city of Kharkiv.
"Yulia Volodymyrivna [Tymoshenko] arrived half an hour ago in accordance with the order issued by the State Penitentiary Service. She is currently in a temporary detention facility," the head of Kachanivska penal colony in Kharkiv told reporters on Friday..
The transfer comes a week after Tymoshenko lost an appeal against the verdict. Representatives of Ukraine's intellectual circles, including social activists and writers, expressed outrage and signed a statement rejecting the court's decision, the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency reported.
"The authorities took a sadistic decision to transfer Yulia Tymoshenko from Lukyanivka detention center to a penal colony, which is even more defiant taking into account the fact that it was done on New Year's Eve," prominent Ukrainian writer Lina Kostenko and other intellectuals said in the statement, according to Interfax-Ukraine.
"It looks like they are cynically counting on the fact that people in their pre-holiday worries will forget about a person who knows how to be principled and consistent in saying 'no' to the mockery of the state and who has to pay for it today through being sent by Tsarist-Stalinist rule to a penal colony," they added.
Tymoshenko is serving a seven-year term for abuse of power in connection with a 2009 gas deal with Russia. She was accused of illegally forcing state energy company Naftogaz to sign a gas supply contract with Russian gas company Gazprom in 2009, which the state says required approval of the Cabinet of Ministers.
Tymoshenko has claimed her trial is politically motivated and an attempt by President Viktor Yanukovych, who narrowly beat her in the presidential election in February 2010, to bar her from future elections. The international community has largely condemned her trial.
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QUETTA, PAKISTAN (BNO NEWS) -- The death toll following a car bomb attack near the home of a politician in western Pakistan on Friday has risen to at least 16, police said on Saturday. Dozens more were injured.
The attack happened near the residence of former federal minister Naseer Mengal in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan province which borders with Afghanistan. Authorities believe Naseer Mengal's son, Shafiq Mengal, was the target although he was not injured.
The powerful explosion was heard up to several miles (kilometers) away and destroyed several homes nearby, leaving sixteen people killed and 35 others injured. The death toll initially stood at nine, but authorities recovered seven more bodies from the scene on Saturday.
Investigators who examined the scene on Saturday said approximately 70 kilograms (154 pounds) of explosives were used in the blast, which left a crater of about four feet (1.2 meter) deep. It was not immediately clear if it was a suicide attack or a bomb which was planted in the vehicle.
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