The Wall Street Journal - 07.04.2020

(coco) #1

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ** Tuesday, April 7, 2020 |A


A forest fire burned Sunday near the village of Volodymyrivka in the exclusion zone around the
Chernobyl nuclear-power plant. Police say a 27-year-old man is suspected of starting the blaze.


YAROSLAV YEMELIANENKO/ASSOCIATED PRESS

WORLD WATCH


UKRAINE

Forest Fire Rages
Near Chernobyl

Emergency teams in Ukraine
on Monday continued to battle a
forest fire in the contaminated
area around the Chernobyl nu-
clear-power plant that has raised
radiation fears.
Police said they tracked down
a person suspected of starting
the blaze by setting dry grass
on fire in the area. The 27-year-
old man said he burned grass
“for fun” and then failed to ex-
tinguish the fire when the wind
caused it to expand quickly.
Two blazes erupted Saturday
in the zone around Chernobyl
that was sealed after the explo-
sion at the plant. The 1,000-
square-mile Chernobyl Exclusion
Zone was established after the
April 1986 disaster at the plant
that sent a cloud of radioactive
fallout over much of Europe. The
zone is largely unpopulated, al-
though about 200 people have
remained despite orders to leave.
Firefighters said they man-
aged Monday to put out the
smaller of the two fires, which
engulfed about 12 acres, but a
50-acre fire continued burning.
—Associated Press

UNITED KINGDOM

Consumer Sentiment
Dives in Lockdown

U.K. consumer confidence
plummeted in the last two
weeks of March, the biggest
drop yet recorded, as the nation
entered a state of lockdown in
an attempt to slow the rapid
spread of the coronavirus.
An index of consumer confi-
dence gathered by market re-
search firm GfK fell by 25 points
to minus 34. It was the index’s
lowest reading since February
2009 and the biggest single
drop since the index started in
1974.
Consumer sentiment nose-
dived as Britons feared a sharp
decline in their financial situation
and the economy.
A subindex gauging consum-
ers’ expectations about their
personal finances in the next 12
months fell 20 points to minus
17 and another, on their views
about the state of the economy
in the year ahead, fell 29 points
to minus 56.
In a worrying sign for retail-
ers, a gauge of consumers’ likeli-
hood to make major purchases
slumped 50 points to minus 52.
—William Horner

AFGHANISTAN

Taliban Say Deal
With U.S. Faltering

The Taliban said their peace
deal with the U.S. was nearing a
breaking point, accusing Wash-
ington of violations that in-
cluded drone attacks on civil-
ians, while also chastising the
Afghan government for delaying
the release of 5,000 Taliban
prisoners promised in the agree-
ment.
The Taliban said they had re-
stricted attacks against Afghan
security forces to rural out-
posts, had not attacked interna-
tional forces and had not at-
tacked Afghan forces in cities or
military installations. The Tali-
ban said these limits on their
attacks hadn’t been specifically
laid out in the agreement with
the U.S. signed in February.
The Taliban’s statement is-
sued Sunday warned of more
violence if the U.S. and the Af-
ghan government continue al-
leged violations of the deal.
U.S. military spokesman Col.
Sonny Leggett denied the Tali-
ban allegation, saying the U.S.
forces in Afghanistan were up-
holding the terms of the deal.
—Associated Press

WORLD NEWS


delivered to a nearly empty
courtroom because of corona-
virus restrictions.
“The jury, acting rationally
on the whole of the evidence,
ought to have entertained a
doubt as to the applicant’s guilt
with respect to each of the of-
fenses for which he was con-
victed,” the High Court judges
said in a statement. They or-
dered that the convictions be
quashed and that verdicts of ac-
quittal be entered in their place.
Cardinal Pell has maintained
his innocence. In a statement
Tuesday, released by the Arch-
diocese of Sydney, he said he
had suffered a “serious injus-
tice” that was now remedied
by the unanimous High Court
decision.
He was convicted by a

unanimous verdict in Decem-
ber 2018 after a jury in an ear-
lier trial was deadlocked. Last
August, a panel of appellate
judges in Victoria state ruled

2-1 to uphold his conviction.
Tuesday’s decision by a
panel of seven judges in Aus-
tralia’s highest court was
unanimous, and followed a
two-day appeal hearing in
Canberra last month.

Cardinal Pell has said pri-
vately that he wants to remain
in Australia, near friends and
family members, following his
release from prison. But as the
clerical abuse crisis’ most
prominent symbol in Austra-
lia, his continued presence in
the country may make it
harder for church leaders to
move beyond the scandals.
On the other hand, his pres-
ence in Rome would be inconve-
nient to the pope, raising the
possibility that he would be en-
couraged to move to a third
country such as the U.S. Cardi-
nal Pell has the right to vote in
a conclave to elect a future
pope, if one should take place
before he turns 80 in June 2021.
The Vatican couldn’t be
reached for comment.

The prosecution’s case re-
lied on the evidence of one of
the former choirboys, now in
his 30s with a young family.
He reported the alleged abuses
to the police in 2015, after the
other former choirboy died of
an accidental drug overdose.
The other choirboy never pub-
licly made accusations against
Cardinal Pell.
The accuser’s lawyer said
they would make a statement
Wednesday after reading and
considering the High Court de-
cision.
Police in Victoria, the
southern state where the car-
dinal was charged and tried,
said they respect the High
Court decision and will con-
tinue to provide support for
the complainants.

“Victoria Police remains
committed to investigating
sexual assault offences and
providing justice for victims
no matter how many years
have passed,” police said in a
statement. They also acknowl-
edged the work on the case by
investigators over many years.
Born in a gold-mining town
west of Melbourne, Cardinal
Pell has been a dominant force
in the Catholic Church in Aus-
tralia for decades, befriending
powerful figures, including
prime ministers. An Oxford
scholar, he rose through the
ranks to become first Arch-
bishop of Melbourne, then of
Sydney, before heading to
Rome and taking up one of the
Vatican’s highest posts as
Pope Francis’ finance chief.

Australia’s highest court on
Tuesday acquitted former Vat-
ican finance chief Cardinal
George Pell of child sex-abuse
charges, overturning a convic-
tion that has bitterly divided
Australian society and Roman
Catholics around the world.
The 78-year-old prelate had
been the highest-ranking Cath-
olic official convicted of child
sex crimes. He served more
than 12 months of a six-year
prison sentence after a jury
found him guilty of assaulting
two 13-year-old choirboys in a
Melbourne cathedral while he
was the city’s archbishop in the
1990s. He left prison after
Tuesday’s ruling, which was


BYRACHELPANNETT
ANDFRANCISX.ROCCA


Cardinal’s Abuse Conviction Overturned


Australia’s High
Court found the jury
‘ought to have
entertained a doubt.’

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