Friday, April 2, 2021

https://www.sunstar.com.ph/

https://www.sunstar.com.ph/

Archbishop: Harry, Meghan didn't wed before Windsor service

Posted: 02 Apr 2021 12:21 AM PDT

LONDON -- The archbishop of Canterbury has confirmed that he legally married Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle in May 2018, despite the couple's claim that they had another, private, ceremony three days earlier.

During an interview with Oprah Winfrey earlier this month, Meghan said that "three days before our wedding, we got married."

"We called the archbishop and we just said, look, this thing, this spectacle is for the world, but we want our union between us," she said. "So the vows that we have framed in our room are just the two of us in our backyard with the archbishop of Canterbury."

Justin Welby said the couple were legally married at the castle on May 19, 2018 but would not disclose what occurred at private meetings before that.

"I signed the wedding certificate, which is a legal document, and I would have committed a serious criminal offence if I signed it knowing it was false," said Welby, who is head of the church of England.

Welby told Italian newspaper La Repubblica that "I won't say what happened at any other meetings." He said he'd had "a number of private and pastoral meetings with the duke and duchess before the wedding."

In the interview with Winfrey, Meghan claimed that she had experienced racism and callous treatment from the royal household and the press during her time as a working member of the royal family.

In early 2020, Meghan and Harry announced they were quitting royal duties and moving to North America, citing what they said were the unbearable intrusions and racist attitudes of the British media. (AP)

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Christians mark Good Friday as holy sites gradually reopen

Posted: 02 Apr 2021 12:12 AM PDT

JERUSALEM -- Christians in the Holy Land are marking Good Friday this year amid signs the coronavirus crisis is winding down, with religious sites open to limited numbers of faithful but none of the mass pilgrimages usually seen in the Holy Week leading up to Easter.

Last year, Jerusalem was under a strict lockdown, with sacred rites observed by small groups of priests, often behind closed doors. It was a stark departure from past years, when tens of thousands of pilgrims would descend on the city's holy sites.

This year, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, died and rose from the dead, is open to visitors and expecting a few dozen. After the morning prayer service, they will retrace Jesus' final steps along the Via Dolorosa.

At the Vatican, Holy Week events are being celebrated before limited numbers of masked faithful to respect Covid-19 health and social distancing norms.

"Things are open, but cautiously and gradually," said Wadie Abunassar, an adviser to church leaders in the Holy Land. "In regular years we urge people to come out. Last year we told people to stay at home... This year we are somehow silent."

Israel has launched one of the world's most successful vaccination campaigns, allowing it to reopen restaurants, hotels and religious sites. But air travel is still limited by quarantine and other restrictions, keeping away the foreign pilgrims who usually throng Jerusalem during the holy week.

The main holy sites are in the Old City in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured along with the West Bank in the 1967 war. Israel annexed east Jerusalem and considers the entire city its unified capital, while the Palestinians want both territories for their future state.

Israel included Palestinian residents of Jerusalem in its vaccination campaign, but has only provided a small number of vaccines to those in the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority has imported tens of thousands of doses for a population of more than 2.5 million.

Israeli authorities said up to 5,000 Christian Palestinians from the West Bank would be permitted to enter for Easter celebrations. Abunassar said he was not aware of any large tour groups from the West Bank planning to enter, as in years past, likely reflecting concerns about the virus.

Abunassar said most Christians in the region celebrate Holy Week in their local parishes. The Good Friday services in the Old City are only expected to draw a small number of people, mainly priests and foreigners who reside in the Holy Land. (AP)

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A ghostly set of images, and a glimpse of border danger

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 10:33 PM PDT

PHOENIX -- A border wall. Smugglers. Small children being dropped into America in the darkness.

A grainy video released Wednesday by authorities — its figures visible only in ghostly white outline, its stark storyline dramatic and obvious — captures, in mere seconds, the dangers for migrant children at the southern US border.

A man straddling a 14-foot barrier near Santa Teresa, New Mexico, lowers a toddler while holding onto one arm. With the child dangling, he lets go. She lands on her feet, then falls forward face first into the dirt.

The smuggler does the same thing with a slightly larger child, who falls on her feet and then her bottom. Then the smuggler and another man run off into the desert, deeper into Mexico.

The simple scene caught by a remote camera is an extreme case. But it embodies so much of the saga playing out on the border amid a spike in migrant arrivals, particularly children.

There is implied desperation — a family willing to subject their children to such risks in hopes of changing their future. There is the callousness of the smugglers handling kids like rag dolls.

And there is that barrier over which so many have fought — a symbol of American strength for some, a decidedly un-American thing altogether for others. A fence that, despite its height, is relatively easily overcome.

For immigrant advocates, scenes like this underscore why immigration laws need to be overhauled with a focus on unifying families and making legal immigration easier. For many opponents of such reform, scenes like this are confirmation that the nation's rule of law isn't being respected, that a reform of immigration policies could never even be contemplated while such things are happening. And Americans of all political stripes may debate what circumstances, if any, justify parents taking such actions.

While such debates happen, thousands of migrants from Mexico, Central America, and countries further south are arriving every day to the Mexico-US border. Many are fleeing violence or other hardships in their home countries. Others are simply looking for better economic opportunities. They arrive by boat or wade through the Rio Grande River in Texas, or come on land into California, Arizona and New Mexico.

Many are children traveling alone. Border authorities encountered more than 9,000 children without a parent in February, the highest single month since May 2019, when more than 11,000 unaccompanied minors came to the border.

Unlike their parents in many situations, all unaccompanied minors are allowed to stay in the US. That dynamic has prompted many parents to either send kids on the journey to America alone, or get to the border and let them go the rest of the way. Most end up at least temporarily in shelters that are currently way beyond capacity.

Border authorities said the children caught on video were sisters, ages 3 and 5, and from Ecuador. They were found alert, taken to a hospital and cleared or any physical injuries. As of Thursday, they remained at a Border Patrol temporary holding facility pending placement by the US Health and Human Services Department.

The girls' mother is in the United States and authorities are in contact with her, Roger Maier, a spokesman for US Customs and Border Protection, told The Associated Press on Thursday. Maier couldn't provide more details.

Many children arriving alone have relatives in the United States. If they are too young to remember names or phone numbers, as these girls likely were, they may come with contact information written down on paper or directly on their bodies. After being processed by the Border Patrol, they are transferred to Health and Human Services. Eventually, they will be released to a sponsor, usually a parent or close relative.

The hope of those who send the children is that they will eventually be reunited with family in the US. But the risks to get to that point are enormous.

They can come from traveling without parents. They can come from the actual crossing, whether by river, crammed into a vehicle or on foot through the desert and traversing a wall; last year, a woman died after falling from a barrier in the Santa Teresa area where the girls were found. Finally, the risks can come from unscrupulous smugglers.

"People considering using the services of smugglers need to know that smugglers don't have the kids' best interest at heart. It's entirely too dangerous," said Maier, who added this about the girls being dropped: "Had it not been an area that was monitored, these children would have been fending for themselves." (AP)

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Train crashes in eastern Taiwan, killing 36, injuring dozensozens

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 09:45 PM PDT

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- A passenger train smashed into a vehicle on its tracks and partially derailed outside a rail tunnel in Taiwan on Friday, April 2, killing at least 36 people and injuring dozens.

Survivors climbed out windows and onto roofs to reach safety in Taiwan's deadliest railway disaster.

Officials in Hualien county said rescue efforts were continuing on the train reportedly carrying 350 passengers. The crash occurred early on a public weekend, and Taiwan's extensive rail system is popular with people avoiding treacherous mountainous roads.

Most other people on the train have been rescued though rescuers are searching wrecked cars for "several people" who may be stuck in awkward places, railways news officer Weng Hui-ping said. He said the 36 confirmed dead was Taiwan's worst-ever in terms of death toll.

Weng said a construction site truck operated by the railway administration slid onto the track from a work site on the hillside above. The truck was off duty at the time. He said the speed of the train was uncertain when it crashed into the vehicle at 9:28 a.m. near the Toroko Gorge scenic area.

The train had only partially emerged from the tunnel, and with much of it still inside, escaping passengers were forced to scale doors, windows and roofs to reach safety.

Television footage and photos posted by people at the scene on the website of the official Central News Agency showed people climbing out the open door of a railcar just outside the entrance to the tunnel. The inside of one car was pushed all the way into the adjacent seat.

In a tweet, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said emergency services "have been fully mobilized to rescue and assist the passengers & railway staff affected. We will continue to do everything we can to ensure their safety in the wake of this heartbreaking incident."

The accident came on the first day of the four-day Tomb Sweeping Festival, an annual religious festival when people travel to their hometowns for family gatherings and to worship at the graves of their ancestors.

Taiwanese Premier Su Tseng-chang said the Railways Administration would be required to immediately conduct checks along other track line to "prevent this from happening again."

Taiwan's last major rail crash was in October 2018 when an express train derailed while rounding a tight corner on the northeast coast, killing at least 18 people and injuring nearly 200.

In 1991, a collision in western Taiwan killed 30 people and another accident a decade earlier had also killed 30. Those were said to the worst previous crashes on the railway system that dates from the late 19th century.

Taiwan is a mountainous island where most of its 24 million people are squeezed onto flatlands along the northern and western coasts that is home to most of the island's farmland, biggest cities and high-tech industries. The lightly populated east is popular with tourists, many of whom arrive along the coastal railway lines to avoid treacherous mountain roads.

Taiwan's extensive rail system has undergone substantial upgrades in recent years, particularly with the addition of a high-speed line connecting the capital Taipei with west coast cities to the south.

The train involved in Friday's accident, the Toroko No. 408 is one of Taiwan's newer models and requires tickets to be reserved in advance with no standing allowed. (AP)

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China foreign minister in talks with SE Asian counterparts

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 09:38 PM PDT

BEIJING -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is meeting with counterparts from four Southeast Asian countries this week as Beijing seeks to expand its influence in the region amid a sharp downturn in relations with Washington.

Talks with Singapore's Vivian Balakrishnan, Malaysia's Hishammuddin Hussein, Indonesian's Retno Marsudi and Teodoro Locsin of the Philippines are being held over three days in the southern city of Nanping in Fujian province.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Thursday, April 1, that Wang told Balakrishnan that China wants to strengthen strategic communication and make joint efforts to maintain regional peace and stability.

The two countries should work together to oppose vaccine nationalism, Xinhua quoted Wang as saying.

He also referred to the ongoing turmoil in Myanmar, telling Balakrishnan that China supports the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in upholding the principle of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs and in helping to restore stability in Myanmar in the Asean way, Xinhua said.

China has sought to prevent the Asean bloc from taking a unified stand on China's claims to virtually the entire South China Sea, where it has territorial disputes with several Southeast Asian countries.

The Philippines demanded Wednesday the removal of more than 250 Chinese boats it has spotted near six islands and reefs in the disputed waters.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying responded Thursday that Whitsun Reef, where the vessels were first spotted more than a week ago, has long been a place for Chinese fishing boats to shelter from rough waters, and that it is normal for them to do so.

"We know that there are some forces that keep trying to drive a wedge between China and the Philippines by all means," she said. "We hope the Philippines will be able to tell right from wrong and not be misled."

After wrapping up his meetings with his Southeast Asian counterparts on Friday, Wang is to meet South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong in the southern port of Xiamen on Saturday amid tensions over North Korea, which relies on Chinese economic and political support. (AP)

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