VATICAN CITY

Pope denounces priests who question celibacy rule

Pope Benedict XVI denounced priests who have questioned church teaching on celibacy and ordaining women, saying Thursday they were disobeying his authority to try to impose their own ideas on the church. Benedict made the rare and explicit criticism from the altar of St. Peter’s Basilica in his homily on Holy Thursday.

In 2006, a group of Austrian priests launched the Pfarrer Initiative, or pastor initiative, a call to disobedience aimed at abolishing priestly celibacy and opening up the clergy to women to relieve the shortages of priests.

MEXICO CITY

Inexperienced oil company plans to drill deep Gulf well

Two years after the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, Mexico’s state oil company is about to test its hand at drilling at extraordinary depths in the Gulf of Mexico.

Petroleos de Mexico, known as Pemex, plans to deploy two state-of-the-art drilling platforms in May to an area just south of the maritime boundary with the United States.

Pemex has no experience drilling at such depths. Mexico’s oil regulator says the huge state oil concern is unprepared for a serious deepwater accident or spill. Critics say the company has sharply cut corners on insurance.

SAO PAULO

U.N. refugee agency blasts ruling on sex with teen

The United Nations refugee agency said Thursday it was deplorable that Brazil’s top appeals court ruled that sex with a 12-year-old does not necessarily constitute statutory rape.

Amerigo Incalcaterra, head of the UNCHR’s regional office for South America, said in a statement that last week’s decision by Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice creates a dangerous precedent and discriminates against victims.

The court ruled that a man accused of having sex with three 12-year-olds couldn’t be convicted of rape because of extenuating circumstances, including the fact that the girls had previously worked as prostitutes.

SANAA, Yemen

Government troops kill over 100 al-Qaida fighters

Yemeni government troops have killed more than 100 al-Qaida fighters in the past two days in an offensive against militant hideouts in the country’s south, the interior ministry said Thursday.

The military has been waging intense battles in the southern Abyan and Lahj provinces to rout the militants. The area has seen heavy fighting in the past week after two subsequent militant attacks on Yemeni army bases.

DUBLIN

‘Banjo’ McKenna, last of The Dubliners, dies at 72

“Banjo” Barney McKenna, the last original member of the Irish folk band The Dubliners, died Thursday while having a morning cup of tea with a friend. He was 72 and had just marked his 50th year with the troupe.

McKenna was considered the most influential banjo player in Irish folk music. He spent a half-century performing, recording and touring with the band ever since its 1962 creation in the Dublin pub O’Donoghue’s. The other three founders – Ronnie Drew, Ciaran Bourke and Luke Kelly – died in 2008, 1988 and 1984.

 

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