Canada to reduce staff at Cuba embassy after another diplomat falls ill

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada has decided to cut the number of diplomatic staff in Cuba by up to half after another person fell ill, Ottawa said on Wednesday, bringing the total to 14 Canadians suffering mysterious symptoms since 2017. Canadian and U.S. diplomats in Havana first began complaining of dizziness, headaches and nausea in the spring of 2017. The United States reduced embassy staffing in Cuba to a maximum of 18 from more than 50 after more than two dozen personnel developed unusual illnesses. Canada’s diplomatic staff in Cuba will drop to eight from 16, a Canadian government source said. “A further reduction in the (Canadian embassy) footprint is deemed to be the appropriate response,” another Canadian government official told reporters.

The November incident was the first new Canadian case reported in months, leading to the decision to reduce the remaining staff. Spouses and dependents left last year. The Cuban ambassador to Canada, Josefina Vidal, said in a statement that Havana considered Ottawa’s decision “incomprehensible,” given it would not help solve the mystery of the health incidents and would hurt bilateral relations.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-cuba/canada-to-reduce-staff-at-cuba-embassy-after-another-diplomat-falls-ill-idUSKCN1PO2OH

>>4973157

Of course nothing to see here.

Vatican official resigns following abuse accusation from ex-nun

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Vatican official resigns following abuse accusation from ex-nun

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A senior Vatican official has resigned after a former nun accused him of making sexual advances during confession, The Associated Press reported Tuesday. Share to Twitter

Vatican official resigns following abuse accusation from ex-nun

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A senior Vatican official has resigned after a former nun accused him of making sexual advances during confession, The Associated Press reported Tuesday. The Vatican said the Rev. Hermann Geissler has denied allegations made by Doris Wagner and noted that he has the right to file a civil suit.

Geissler said he was resigning “to limit the damage already done” to the Vatican, but noted he wants an investigation to be conducted into the woman’s allegations. Geissler had previously worked as the chief of staff for the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which oversees sexual abuse cases.

Wagner, a former nun in Geissler’s German order, went public with her accusation in November at a conference on women and clergy sexual abuse, referring to Geissler by his position rather than his name. The allegation stems from a 2009 incident. Several women in the Catholic Church have come out to denounce sexual abuse and harassment by members of the clergy, according to the AP, following the "Me Too" movement. Pope Francis has convened a meeting set to take place next month with the presidents of all the Catholic bishops’ conferences to discuss sexual abuse within the church.

U.S. congregations were rocked with sexual abuse scandals last year, with several dioceses in Pennsylvania alone becoming the subject of a Department of Justice investigation into child abuse. The Catholic Church considers soliciting sex during confession a particularly serious offense as the penitent is in a vulnerable state and participating in a Catholic sacrament.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/427611-vatican-official-resigns-following-abuse-accusation-from-ex-nun

Judge Denies Request to Unseal Assange Criminal Complaint Saying There is No Proof it Exists

Judge Leonie Brinkema has denied an application from the Reporters’ Committee for Freedom of the Press to unseal the U.S. government’s complaint against WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange.

A U.S. federal judge has ruled against a petition to unseal a criminal complaint against WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, arguing that there is no proof that it exists. Judge Leonie Brinkema of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia decided on Wednesday to turn down the request by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to make public details of the complaint, the existence of which was made known inadvertently last year. “The Government opposes the Committee’s application on the ground that it has neither confirmed nor denied whether charges have been filed against Assange and cannot be required to disclose that information before an arrest is made,” Brinkema wrote in her 10-page ruling. Assange’s named appeared in a totally unrelated criminal complaint, apparently from a copy and paste mistake. The government called it an “unintentional error.” Brinkema ruled that despite the government’s admission of the error, “The Government has not acknowledged whether formal charges have been filed against Assange and the Committee has not cited any authority supporting the notion that the public has a right to require the Government to confirm or deny that it has charged someone.”

The Reporters Committee argued in a motion that the “case against Assange is already a matter of public knowledge” and that the government cannot “put the genie back” in the bottle. But the government argued in a court hearing in November that the only conclusion that can be drawn from its admission is that a mistake was made and “anything else is speculation.”

Brinkema came down on the side of the government. “The Committee has not demonstrated with sufficient certainty that Assange has been charged,” she wrote.

The judge ruled:

“Until there is a sufficiently certain disclosure that charges have in fact been filed, the Committee’s common law and First Amendment claims are premature. To hold otherwise would mean that any member of the public or press-by demanding access to judicial records based on little more than speculation-could effectively force the Government to admit or deny that charges had been filed.”

https://consortiumnews.com/2019/01/31/judge-denies-request-to-unseal-assange-criminal-complaint-sayng-there-is-no-proof-it-exists/