Pope Francis on Saturday encouraged Brazil’s young people, who have protested against corruption in their country, to continue their efforts to change society by fighting apathy and offering “a Christian response.”

The 76-year-old pope spoke to a crowd estimated by the Vatican to be more than 2 million people gathered on Rio’s famed Copacabana beach for an evening rally where he also urged young people to shun fleeting fads and be “athletes of Christ.”

Francis, nearly concluding his first overseas trip, received yet another rapturous welcome when he arrived at the crescent-shaped beach. He stopped his popemobile several times to kiss babies and an Argentine flag that was waved at the car.

Most participants planned to spend the night on the sand and adjacent pavement to hold their places for Sunday’s closing Mass on the same spot, making the place a giant campsite.

Brazil, Latin America’s largest nation, was rocked by massive protests against corruption, the misuse of public money and the high cost of living. Most of the protesters were young.

Francis told the gathering he knew that young people had taken to the streets in Brazil and elsewhere “to express their desire for a society that is more just and fraternal.”

Speaking from a giant white stage, he encouraged them to fight apathy and be “protagonists of change” and offer “a Christian response to the social and political concerns arising in many parts of the world.”

In his prepared text, he had added that they should do it in an “an orderly, peaceful and responsible way” but he improvised and did not read that part of his address.

The Vatican says that when the pope departs from his prepared text and omits phrases, his thoughts are considered valid nonetheless.

Francis has dedicated much attention in his speeches to the problems, the prospects and the power of young people.

On Friday night he urged them to change a world where food is discarded while millions go hungry, where racism and violence still affront human dignity, and where politics is more associated with corruption than service.

The day before, during a visit to a Rio slum, he urged them to not lose trust and to not allow their hopes to be extinguished. Many young people in Brazil saw this as his support for peaceful demonstrations to bring about change.

Strange beach fellows

The Copacabana events were to have taken place on a pasture on the outskirts of Rio, but days of unseasonable rain turned the area into a field of mud.

Before Saturday’s event, young people in jeans and nuns in their habits shared the beach with Rio residents who had streamed out of their homes to welcome back the sun after days of clouds and downpours.

The nuns wet their feet in the surf next to women playing volleyball in bikinis. Young people carrying flags from dozens of nations sat in the sand in groups to pray and play music.

In his address to the young, the pope asked them to hone and perfect their faith like athletes who train for a match.

“Jesus offers us something bigger than the World Cup,” he told them, saying they could have a “fulfilled and fruitful life” if they followed him and not “momentary fashions and fads.”

He asked them to be “true athletes of Christ.”

Earlier in the day, a group of feminists bared their breasts on the beach in a protest against the Church’s restrictive views on female sexuality and abortion.

But most Rio residents were happy to have a visit by the pope, who leaves for Rome on Sunday night.

“The Brazilians have welcomed us so warmly. The only hiccup has been the crammed public transport,” said Father Martin O’Reilly who led a group of 60 young people from the Diocese of Clogher in Ireland.

With hundreds of buses still arriving in Rio bringing more pilgrims, security officials said they expected the crowd to peak at 1.5 million people during Sunday morning Mass.

Police and soldiers were deployed on waterfront streets while warships patrolled off shore.

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Muslim Brotherhood's Libya offices attacked by protesters

Protesters attacked the Muslim Brotherhood’s offices in Libya on Saturday, one day after prominent political activist and Brotherhood critic Abdelsalam al-Mosmary was assassinated in the eastern city of Benghazi while exiting a mosque.

By News Wires (text)

 

Protesters attacked offices of Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood and the headquarters of a liberal coalition on Saturday after demonstrations sparked by assassinations in the eastern city of Benghazi turned violent, witnesses said.

PRISON BREAK IN BENGHAZI More than 1,000 inmates, mostly common law offenders, escaped during a prison riot and attack on Saturday in the restive Libyan city of Benghazi, a security official told AFP. “There was a riot inside Al-Kuifiya prison, as well as an attack from outside. More then 1,000 prisoners escaped. Special forces called in as reinforcements were given orders not to fire at the prisoners,” he said, asking not to be named. The official said most of the escapees were common law detainees, including nationals of other African states. “But some of them were detainees in cases linked to the former regime of Moamer Kadhafi,” he said. Several were recaptured shortly after the breakout. Prime Minister Ali Zeidan confirmed the incident, without giving the number of fugitives. “Residents of the area carried out the attack because they don’t want the prison near their homes,” he said, adding that border posts had been alerted and given a list of names to apprehend the escapees. Zeidan earlier announced that border posts with Egypt had been closed to prevent the escape of the killers of a prominent activist in the eastern Libyan city on Friday. (AFP)

Hundreds took to the streets overnight to denounce the killing of a prominent political activist and critic of the Brotherhood, Abdelsalam al-Mosmary, who was shot dead on Friday after leaving a mosque.

Mosmary was an outspoken opponent of the Brotherhood, whose Islamist political wing is the second biggest party in the national congress. Two military officials were also killed in Benghazi on Friday.

Libya’s government is struggling to assert its authority over armed groups that helped topple veteran leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, part of the wave of Arab Spring uprisings that also felled autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen.

Protesters in Benghazi set fire to two buildings - one belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood and another to its political wing, the Justice and Construction Party (JCP), witnesses said.

“They shouted ‘Gather your belongings. Benghazi wants you out’,” Benghazi resident Rami al-Shahibi said.

In Tripoli, a crowd stormed JCP headquarters before heading on to ransack the headquarters of the liberal National Forces Alliance (NFA), the country’s biggest political party founded by wartime rebel prime minister Mahmoud Jibril.

There has been rising opposition to the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has links to several government ministers. It has struggled to convince Libyans wary of foreign interference that it has no financial or administrative links to its namesake in neighbouring Egypt, whose Islamist president Mohamed Mursi was overthrown by the military on July 3.

Tensions are also high between secularists and the ruling Islamists in Tunisia, where the funeral of an assassinated secular politician was taking place on Saturday.

'The state has failed'

Many of the Libyan protesters accused the Brotherhood of being behind the killings in Benghazi, cradle of the 2011 revolution - a charge rejected by Abdulrahman al-Dibani, a JCP member in congress.

“We have strongly condemned the assassination of Mosmary and all the Libyan people should hear this and not openly blame us,” he said.

Reached by phone, Bashir el-Kubti, head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya, declined to comment on the attacks on the movement’s offices.

Libyans are growing increasingly frustrated as they witness continuous political squabbling and lawlessness across the north African country, a major oil producer.

“The people were in the streets because they are fed up of all political parties and how the state has failed,” said Hisham Idris, who had demonstrated in Tripoli’s Martyrs Square.

“Maybe the growing opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood is because they are trying to achieve their political ambitions using religion as a cover for their agenda.”

The Tripoli protesters waved Libyan flags and shouted anti- Brotherhood slogans. A group of youths then descended on the JCP offices, smashing its windows, climbing on desks, grabbing documents and throwing them in the streets.

Graffiti reading “Go shave your beards hypocrites, Libya does not need you” was sprayed on the building.

Calm later returned to Tripoli and Benghazi but residents did not rule out more protests after Mosmary’s funeral later in the day.

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Egypt unrest: More than 60 supporters of Mohamed Morsi killed by security services in Cairo

Egyptian security forces shot dead dozens of supporters of the ousted president Mohamed Morsi shortly after the army chief called for a popular mandate to wipe out “violence and terrorism”. Men in helmets and black police fatigues fired on crowds gathered before dawn on the fringes of a round-the-clock sit-in near a mosque in north-east Cairo, a stronghold of the Muslim Brotherhood.

A Brotherhood spokesman, Ahmed Aref, said 66 people had been killed and another 61 were "brain dead" on life-support machines. Egypt's department of health said the official figure was 65 dead. More than 4,000 were treated for the effects of tear gas and gunshot or birdshot wounds, Mr Aref said. "Innocent blood was spilled," he said. "We have gone back 10 years."

Doctors working in nearby hospitals where the dead and wounded were taken described the shootings as a "catastrophe". Ahmed Fawzy, a cardiologist who was working at the field hospital in eastern Cairo, described it as a "crime against humanity."

By early morning there were 28 corpses lined up around the walls of the makeshift morgue. Some had been shot by single bullets to the head, said doctors; others perished after live rounds passed through their necks or chest. More bodies were hauled in later, as supporters of Mr Morsi continued to clash with Egypt's central security services in the streets outside.

Doctors at the scene said they believed more than 100 people may have been killed. If initial estimates prove to be accurate, the massacre ranks as one of the worst single incidents of violence since the fall of Hosni Mubarak. Reports on al-Jazeera said that as many as 120 people may have been killed – a tally that chimes with testimony given to The Independent on Sunday from doctors at the scene.

Egypt's Interior Minister, Mohamed Ibrahim, later accused the Brotherhood of exaggerating the death toll for political ends and denied that police had opened fire. He said local residents living close to the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque vigil had clashed with protesters in the early hours after they had blocked off a major bridge road, and that police had used tear gas to try to break up the fighting.

It was only three weeks ago that more than 50 supporters of Mr Morsi were shot dead by the military close to where the killings unfolded. Mr Ibrahim now appears to threaten a renewed assault on protesters, saying that, "God willing, soon" they will be "dealt with".

Clashes were continuing as police squared up against thousands of protesters close to the sit-in in Rabaa al-Adawiya, a suburb of eastern Cairo. Members of the central security forces fired sustained bursts of gunfire at protesters massing in the open road.

Supporters of Mr Morsi – who are demanding the Egyptian former leader be reinstated following a coup just over three weeks ago – cowered behind makeshift brick barricades as bullets fizzed overhead. Others ducked behind cars or ran for cover as live rounds ricocheted off walls.

In the field clinic, patients who had been shot with live rounds lay on the grubby, blood-stained floor as medics tried to treat their wounds. Eventually staff had to close the clinic when medical supplies dried up.

"I blame General al-Sisi," said one doctor, referring to Egypt's army chief and the man behind this month's popular coup. "They were killing us on his orders."

It is still unclear exactly how the fighting erupted. According to Gehad el-Haddad, a spokesman for the Brotherhood's political wing, it began on the fringes of the sit-in before dawn. Reports suggested that Mr Morsi's supporters had attempted to move beyond the rally's confines towards a nearby bridge, but were then beaten back by the central security services. One video uploaded on to YouTube seemed to verify that account, appearing to show a largely unprovoked line of police opening fire on demonstrators using tear gas.

تابع القراءة Résumé abuiyad

77 dead in worst Spanish train crash in decades

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain, July 25, 2013 (AFP)

A train hurtled off the tracks in northwest Spain killing at least 77 passengers and injuring more than 140, an official said Thursday, with the driver reportedly going at twice the speed limit.

Carriages piled into each other and overturned in the smash late Wednesday, smoke billowing from the wreckage, as bodies were lain out under blankets along the tracks in the country’s deadliest rail disaster in more than 40 years.

Several media outlets said the train was speeding at the time of the accident but a spokesman for state railway company Renfe said it was too soon to say what caused the accident.

“There is an investigation underway and we have to wait. We will know what the speed is very soon when we consult the train’s black box,” a Renfe spokesman said.

The driver became trapped in one of the carriages and he told railway officials by radio that he took the bend at 190 kilometres (118 miles) per hour in an urban zone with a speed limit of 80 kph, daily El Pais reported.

“I was going at 190! I hope no one died because it will weigh on my conscience,” he said, according to the online edition of the newspaper which cited unidentified investigation sources.

The accident happened at 8:42 pm (1842 GMT) on Wednesday as the train carrying 218 passengers and four staff was about to enter Santiago de Compostela station in the northwestern region of Galicia.

The train derailed on a stretch of high-speed track about four kilometres (2.5 miles) from the train station in the city, the destination of the famous El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage which has been followed by Christians since the Middle Ages.

The train was the Alvia model which is able to adapt between high-speed and normal tracks.

It had left Madrid and was heading for the ship-building coastal town of Ferrol as the Galicia region was preparing celebrations in honour of its patron saint James.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, a native of Santiago de Compostela, arrived at the scene of the accident and was also due to visit victims in hospital later on Thursday.

Spain’s King Juan Carlos and Crown Prince Felipe called off their public engagements out of respect for the victims while Spain declared seven days of mourning in Galicia.

Several witnesses spoke of a loud explosion at the time of the accident.

“I was at home and I heard something like a clap of thunder, It was very loud and there was lots of smoke,” said 62-year-old Maria Teresa Ramos, who lived just metres from where the accident happened.

“It’s a disaster, people are crying out. Nobody has ever seen anything like this,” she added.

Rescue workers recovered 73 bodies from the train’s wreckage and four more victims died later in hospital, a spokesman for the Galicia high court said.

A total of 143 people were said to have various injuries.

It marks the worst rail accident in Spain since 77 people were killed in 1972 in a derailment in Andalusia in the south.

In 1944, hundreds were killed in a crash also between Madrid and Galicia.

Renfe said the train had no technical problems and had just passed an inspection.

Francisco Otero, 39, who was inside his parents’ home just beside the section of the track where the accident happened, said he “heard a huge bang”.

“The first thing I saw was the body of a woman. I had never seen a corpse before. But above all what caught my attention was that there was a lot of silence, some smoke and a small fire,” he told AFP.

“My neighbours tried to pull out people who were trapped inside the carriages with the help of pickaxes and sledgehammers and they eventually got them out with a hand saw. It was unreal.”

Emergency services workers in red jackets tended to injured passengers lying on a patch of grass as ambulance sirens wailed in the background.

“There are bodies laying on the railway track. It’s a Dante-esque scene,” Alberto Nunez Feijoo, president of the regional government, told news radio Cadena Ser.

Pope Francis called for prayers for the victims.

The town hall of Santiago de Compostela called off concerts and firework displays that had been planned as part of the festivities in honour of its patron saint.

The accident in Spain marks the third large rail disaster this month after six people died in a passenger train derailment near Paris on July 12, and 47 were killed when an oil train derailed and exploded in Canada on July 6.

French President Francois Hollande expressed his “complete solidarity with Spain after the horrifying rail catastrophe”, saying in a statement that he shared in the grief of the victims’ families.

تابع القراءة Résumé abuiyad