World news

Napolitano steps down as Italian president

Italy’s president, Giorgio Napolitano, 89, stepped down Wednesday after almost nine years in office. Napolitano said two weeks ago that his advanced age had made it increasingly difficult for him to perform the duties of his office, Reuters reported. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has said he wants to quickly reach an agreement with both his own party and political rivals to choose a successor in an office which has wide, but only loosely defined powers.

10 Turks arrested in China for supplying fake passports to Uighurs

Shanghai police have arrested 10 Turkish nationals, accusing them of supplying fake passports to ethnic Uighurs from the western region of Xinjiang, described as terror suspects by state media, Reuters said. Another 11 people, including nine Xinjiang “terror suspects,” were also detained in November. They were trying to leave China after paying $9,700 for altered Turkish passports, the Global Times newspaper reported.

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Pope Francis canonizes first Sri Lankan saint as model for national unity

Pope Francis on Wednesday canonized Sri Lanka’s first saint as an example to promote national unity in the country, AP reported. The Rev. Joseph Vaz was a 17th century Indian missionary who revived the Catholic faith in Sri Lanka during a time of anti-Catholic persecution by Dutch colonists, who were Protestant Calvinists. The capital’s seafront park was attended by more than 500,000 people. Francis then headed to the northern city of Madhu to pray at the Our Lady of Madhu shrine, a Catholic pilgrimage site that is also a destination for people of other faiths. The visit is the first by a pope to the northern Tamil territory that was devastated by a 25-year civil war, and Francis is expected to call again for reconciliation between Sinhalese and Tamils.

Mexican ex-mayor charged with kidnapping 43 students

The former mayor of the southwestern city of Iguala has been charged with last year’s kidnapping of 43 students, Reuters quoted a senior Mexican security official as saying. Prosecutors obtained an arrest warrant for former mayor Jose Luis Abarca and 44 others on charges of kidnapping the 43 students, who are feared to have been killed, according to Tomas Zeron, director of criminal investigations at the federal Attorney General’s office. These are the first charges filed against Abarca that are directly related to the students’ disappearance. Authorities have said since October that the mayor and his wife masterminded the kidnappings.

Indonesia begins examining AirAsia black box flight recorders

Indonesian investigators began examining on Wednesday the black box flight recorders from an AirAsia passenger jet that crashed more than two weeks ago, Reuters reported. They hope to get clues to the crash within days. The recorders, in relatively good condition, were recovered from the bottom of the Java Sea and sent to the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, for analysis. “In one week, I think we will be getting a reading,” said Mardjono Siswosuwarno, chief investigator for the National Transportation Safety Committee.