A once-confidential letter says child sexual abuser might implicate senior church officials if allowed near ‘the legal arena’ upon his release from jail Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Lawyers from a leading law firm for the Marist Brothers have been subpoenaed to explain a once-confidential document showing they advised the Catholic order to keep a serial offender out of “the legal arena”, suggesting he was too honest and might implicate senior church officials. The offender was “regrettably up front” about his interactions with senior leadership, and could not be trusted to heed “suggestions” about “not dumping on others excessively”, the document says. Continue reading...
Lawyers for Marist Brothers face questions over advice to keep serial offender out of ‘legal arena’
Source: The Guardian
Original reporting
The Guardian: read the full reportRelated stories
NPR
Greetings from Baghdad, where Agatha Christie's old home presents its own mystery
The English writer visited Iraq multiple times in the first half of the 20th century and set some of her mystery novels there. The house in Baghdad where she once lived now sits abandoned and crumbling.
The Guardian
Finland launches criminal investigation into Google’s clearing of forest for datacentre site
Authorities allege company may have breached Finnish environmental laws by forgoing required impact assessment ‘Pure arrogance’: anger in Finland as Google illegally fells 250,000 trees for datacentre Finnish police have launched a criminal investigation into possible breaches of the country’s environmental laws at the site of a planned Google datacentre in rural northern Finland. Authorities allege that Tuike Finland, a Google subsidiary, cleared and drained 330 hectares (815 acres) of forest at the planned site in Muhos before environmental impact assessments required by Finnish law had been completed. Continue reading...
BBC News
Watch: VHS tapes and computers handed to police as Thomas Markle is investigated
The BBC's Jonathan Head is in Cebu, reporting from outside the home where Markle resided.
The Guardian
How did the Spain train crash happen and what will investigators be asking?
Audio file appears to point finger at control centre, but there are questions around signalling and technical issues At least 69 people died when a high-speed train from Madrid to Seville hit another train on the same track from behind near Toledo on Wednesday morning. Both trains had been brought to a halt earlier when the signalling system failed. The driver of the state-owned Spanish train, a Renfe AVE service, was told by controllers to restart the journey, but crashed into the train in front, run by the private operator Iryo. The front carriages of the AVE train and rear of the Iryo train were destroyed and others derailed. Continue reading...
Al Jazeera
As US midterms approach, farmers decide what to plant and how to vote
In Arkansas, rising costs spurred farmer Hallie Shoffner’s long-shot Senate campaign. Will farmers back her?
BBC News
Russian drone attack on Ukrainian train station kills at least 14, officials say
At least 14 others were wounded in the attack in the central city of Dnipro, including an 11-year-old boy.