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Pope Francis declares John XXIII, John Paul II saints as Benedict looks on in day of 4 popes
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis declared his two predecessors John XXIII and John Paul II saints on Sunday before hundreds of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square, an unprecedented ceremony made even more historic by the presence of retired Pope Benedict XVI.
Never before has a reigning and retired pope celebrated Mass together in public, much less at an event honoring two of their most famous predecessors.
Benedict's presence was a reflection of the balancing act that Francis envisioned when he decided to canonize John and John Paul together, showing the unity of the Catholic Church by honoring popes beloved to conservatives and progressives alike.
Francis took a deep breath and paused for a moment before reciting the saint-making formula in Latin, as if moved by the history he was about to make.
He said that after deliberating, consulting and praying for divine assistance "we declare and define Blessed John XXIII and John Paul II be saints and we enroll them among the saints, decreeing that they are to be venerated as such by the whole church."
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Years after death, the Poles applaud Pope John Paul II again as he achieves sainthood
KRAKOW, Poland (AP) — Nine years after his death, the Poles once again applauded their beloved countryman, Pope John Paul II, on Sunday, as he was declared a saint in an unprecedented Vatican ceremony.
Bells tolled across Poland and the crowds applauded, in unison with those gathered in St. Peter's Square in Rome, when Pope Francis declared the pontiff from Poland a saint.
"This is a great day for Poland, this is a great day for me," said emotional Maria Jurek from Katowice. "He changed Poland and he changed us with his teaching and with his visits here."
Jurek got up at 4.30 a.m. to join a pilgrimage organized by her parish church — complete with papal yellow and white flags, portable canvas stool and own food — to watch the Vatican ceremony live on giant screens at the new John Paul II sanctuary in Krakow that is competing for pilgrims with the neighboring God's Mercy sanctuary.
Some 20,000 pilgrims from around Poland gathered in the two centers.
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In rare acknowledgment, Abbas calls Holocaust 'most heinous crime' of modern history
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday called the Holocaust "the most heinous crime" of modern history and expressed his sympathy for the victims, a rare acknowledgment by an Arab leader of Jewish suffering during the Nazi genocide.
Abbas' comments appeared, in part, aimed at reaching out to Israeli public opinion at a time of deep crisis in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. The remarks were published by the Palestinian official news agency WAFA just hours before the start of Israel's annual Holocaust commemoration.
The decades-old conflict has been accompanied by mutual mistrust among Israelis and Palestinians about the other side's intentions.
Many Israelis fear that the Palestinians aren't truly ready to accept a Jewish presence in the Holy Land, and that widespread ignorance or even denial of the Holocaust among Palestinians is an expression of that attitude.
Denials or attempts to minimize the Holocaust, which saw the systematic killing of 6 million Jews in World War II, are widespread in the Arab world.
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SKorean PM resigns over ferry sinking, blames 'deep-rooted evils' in society
JINDO, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's president accepted her prime minister's resignation Sunday over the government's handling of a deadly ferry sinking, although she didn't set a last day in office. In an extraordinary resignation statement to reporters, the prime minister blamed "deep-rooted evils" in society for a tragedy that has left more than 300 people dead or missing and led to widespread shame, fury and finger-pointing.
The resignation comes amid rising indignation over claims by the victims' relatives that the government didn't do enough to rescue or protect their loved ones. Most of the missing and dead were high school students on a school trip. Officials have taken into custody all 15 people involved in navigating the ferry that sank April 16, and a prosecutor revealed that investigators are also looking into communications made as the ferry sank between a crew member and the company that owns the ship.
South Korean executive power is largely concentrated in the president, Park Geun-hye, so the resignation by Prime Minister Chung Hong-won appears to be symbolic. Min Kyung-wook, a presidential spokesman, told reporters that Park would accept the resignation but didn't say when Chung would leave.
Chung was heckled by relatives and his car was blocked when he visited a shelter on an island near the site of the sinking a week ago. On Sunday, he gave his reasoning for the resignation offer to reporters in Seoul.
"As I saw grieving families suffering with the pain of losing their loved ones and the sadness and resentment of the public, I thought I should take all responsibility as prime minister," Chung said. "There have been so many varieties of irregularities that have continued in every corner of our society and practices that have gone wrong. I hope these deep-rooted evils get corrected this time and this kind of accident never happens again."
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APNewsBreak: US, Philippines reach 10-year deal on larger US military presence
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The United States and the Philippines have reached a 10-year pact that would allow a larger U.S. military presence in this Southeast Asian nation as it grapples with increasingly tense territorial disputes with China, according to two Philippine officials and a confidential government primer seen by The Associated Press on Sunday.
The Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which would give American forces temporary access to selected military camps and allow them to preposition fighter jets and ships, is due to be signed Monday at the Department of Defense in the Philippine capital, Manila, shortly before the arrival of President Barack Obama, the officials said. Obama's visit is the last leg of a four-country Asian tour that also took him to Japan, South Korea and Malaysia.
The two officials spoke with the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the pact ahead of its signing.
A Philippine government primer on the defense accord did not indicate how many additional U.S. troops would be deployed "on temporary and rotational basis," but it said that the number would depend on the scale of joint military activities to be held in Philippine camps.
Hundreds of American military personnel have already been deployed in the southern Philippines since 2002 to provide counterterrorism training and as advisers to Filipino soldiers, who have been battling Muslim militants for decades.
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Obama raises human rights issues in Malaysia; defends refusal to meet top opposition figure
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — President Barack Obama said Sunday that he had raised the need for improved human rights in Malaysia with the country's prime minister, but pushed back against suggestions that his failure to meet with a top opposition leader means he is not concerned.
Human rights groups have been urging Obama to meet with opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim while Obama is in the country as part of his four-nation Asia tour. Instead, Obama is sending national security adviser Susan Rice to meet Anwar on Monday.
Obama cited freedom of the press, human rights and civil liberties as issues that he said are always on the agenda when he travels the world. He downplayed the fact that a meeting with Anwar wasn't on his schedule.
"The fact that I haven't met Mr. Anwar in and of itself is not indicative of our lack of concern, given the fact that there are a lot of people I don't meet with and opposition leaders that I don't meet with," he said at a joint news conference with Prime Minister Najib Razak after the two met privately. "That doesn't mean I'm not concerned about them."
Obama, who met with Najib during a historic, two-day visit to Malaysia, defended the government's handling of the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. He also said Russia will soon be hit with new sanctions because President Vladimir Putin's government has "not lifted a finger" to help diffuse tensions in Ukraine.
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NBA investigating recording said to be of Clippers owner Donald Sterling making racial remarks
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Anger, frustration and calls for action echoed around the NBA on Saturday after an audio recording surfaced of a man identified as Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling telling his girlfriend not to bring black people to games.
Everybody except for the embattled Clippers owner, who has a decades-long history of alleged discrimination and offensive behavior, seemed to have a response.
The league said it was investigating the recording posted on TMZ's website, calling the comments "disturbing and offensive."
President Barack Obama, asked to respond at a news conference with Malaysia's prime minister during Obama's visit to the country Sunday, called the reported remarks "incredibly offensive racist statements."
"I don't think I have to interpret those statements for you, they kind of speak for themselves," Obama said. "When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don't really have to do anything. You just let them talk. And that's what happened here."
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Name recognition doesn't guarantee singer Clay Aiken, a Democrat, a seat in Congress from NC
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Singer-songwriter Clay Aiken doesn't have a problem with name recognition. But that doesn't mean voters in North Carolina's 2nd Congressional District will send the "American Idol" star to Washington to represent them in Congress.
Republican Rep. Renee Ellmers has represented the district for two terms and would like to make it three. The tea party favorite has a good shot at doing so.
The GOP-controlled state legislature gave Republicans the advantage when they redrew congressional districts in 2011. A veteran House Democrat who barely survived in 2012 opted to retire at the end of his term, while others in President Barack Obama's party face an uphill battle — even a well-known personality like Aiken.
North Carolina offers clues as to why Democrats have little chance to retake control of the House from Republicans in the 2014 elections. An unpopular president in his sixth year in office combined with a divisive health care law are a drag on Democrats and energize core Republican voters in what are traditionally low-turnout midterm elections.
Ellmers, a 50-year-old nurse first elected in the tea party wave of 2010, captured 56 percent of the 2012 GOP primary and the general election vote in her district. That year, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney won nearly 6 in 10 votes in the district and defeated Obama statewide by 17 percentage points.
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Robot submarine to extend Indian Ocean seabed search area as no clue of Malaysian plane found
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A robotic submarine scanning the Indian Ocean floor for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet will extend the area of its current search, which will end soon with no clues of the Boeing 777 found yet, authorities said Sunday.
The U.S. Navy's Bluefin 21 has been creating a three-dimensional sonar map of the ocean floor for more than two weeks near where signals consistent with airplane black boxes were heard on April 8.
The search area is a circle with a 10-kilometer (6-mile) radius, 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles) deep off the west Australian coast.
The sub was expected to complete the focused underwater search area and continue examining the areas adjacent to it, the search coordination center said in a statement. The sub spends four hours traveling to and from the sea bed, and 16 hours searching the ocean floor. It takes another four hours to download data from each search.
Australian Defense Minister David Johnston said last week that an announcement was likely this week on the next phase of the search for the jetliner that vanished with 239 passengers and crew — mostly Chinese — on board on March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
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'Bollywood Oscars' sail into Tampa with pirate-themed opening number and lots of star power
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The Indian film industry's top award show sailed into Tampa Saturday with a pirate-themed opening musical number and celebrities ranging from "Slumdog Millionaire" star Anil Kapoor to John Travolta and Kevin Spacey.
Before a crowd of some 20,000, the International Indian Film Academy awards started with the entrance of actors aboard a float built like a pirate ship — a nod to Tampa's love of pirate-themed parties. The show informally known as the "Bollywood Oscars" are being held in the United States for the first time.
The show was recorded and will be broadcast in June. IIFA says some 800 million people worldwide are expected to watch the event.
Co-hosts Shahid Kapoor and Farhan Akhtar, dressed in swashbuckling outfits, demanded the key to Tampa from Mayor Bob Buckhorn, who was sitting in the front row at the city's NFL stadium.
"I will give you this key if and only if you entertain us," said Mayor Buckhorn, after which Kapoor and Akhtar climbed onstage and proceeded to have a mock sword fight.
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