Pope Benedict XVI said Tuesday he was “deeply ashamed” of the clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church and will work to keep pedophiles out of the priesthood, addressing the toughest issue facing the American church as he began his first papal trip to the United States. Benedict spoke in English on a special Alitalia flight from Rome to Washington, answering questions submitted in advance. “It is a great suffering for the Church in the United States and for the church in general and for me personally that this could happen,” Benedict said. “It is difficult for me to understand how it was possible that priests betray in this way their mission ... to these children.”
Car bombs and a suicide attacker struck crowded areas in Baghdad and former insurgent strongholds to the north and west of the capital Tuesday, killing nearly 60 people and breaking a recent lull in violence in the predominantly Sunni areas. The attacks were a deadly reminder of the threat posed by suspected Sunni insurgents even as clashes between Shiite militia fighters and U.S.-Iraqi forces continued elsewhere. The U.S. military condemned the bombings and said they appeared to have been carried out by\nal-Qaida in Iraq.\nOil prices rose to new heights Tuesday, surging to almost $114 a barrel after the U.S. dollar fell and worries mounted about the global oil supply. A report from the International Energy Agency said Russian oil production dropped this year for the first time in a decade. Crude oil shipments along one U.S. pipeline were said to be moving below capacity. And Italy’s ENI oil company reported a 5,000 barrel per day reduction in production at one of its facilities in Nigeria.
President Vladimir Putin accepted the leadership of the dominant United Russia party Tuesday, securing his grip on power after he leaves the Kremlin and becomes prime minister next month. He was quickly approved as leader in a unanimous vote during a party congress that mixed promises of a bright Russian future with traditions from the Soviet past. Putin’s decision to lead United Russia, announced just three weeks before he cedes the presidency to his hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, left little doubt that he intends to remain at the forefront for years to come.
A Congolese jetliner carrying about 85 people failed to take off Tuesday from an airport in the eastern town of Goma, crashing at high speed into a busy market neighborhood at the end of the runway, officials said. Government officials initially said there were only six known survivors but later in the day an airline official said 60 people had survived. Local officials said dozens of bodies were pulled from the wreckage, though it was unclear if they had been passengers.
The State Department is warning U.S. diplomats they might be forced to serve in Iraq next year and the department says it will soon start identifying prime candidates for jobs at the Baghdad embassy and outlying provinces, according to a cable The Associated Press obtained Tuesday. A similar call-up notice last year caused an uproar among foreign service officers, some of whom objected to compulsory work in a war zone, although in the end, the State Department found enough volunteers to fill the jobs.
Texas state officials Tuesday defended their decision to suddenly separate mothers from many of the children taken in a raid on a polygamist ranch in the western part of the state. Texas Children’s Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said the separation was made Monday after they decided that children are more truthful in interviews about possible abuse if their parents are not around. When state troopers and child welfare officials seized 416 children from the compound, 139 women accompanied them on their own and had been allowed to stay with the children until Monday, when they were driven back to the compound.
