Briefly: World news
Papal visit to Ireland, N. Ireland in works
Dublin, Ireland Pope John Paul II has accepted “in principle” an invitation to visit both parts of Ireland, although a trip this year appears unlikely, Catholic leaders announced Friday.
Catholic bishops last month invited the pope to come to Ireland to mark the 25th anniversary of his first visit to the country in 1979. Unlike that trip, this visit would include the British territory of Northern Ireland.
“Our invitation request has been placed before the Holy Father and a reply has been received from the Vatican’s secretariat of state indicating that the proposed visit has, in principle, been accepted,” said Archbishop Sean Brady, primate for Ireland’s 4 million Catholics.
“We are delighted with this response and hope that this visit will take place,” he said.
Letter carrier charged with failing to deliver
London A letter carrier is charged with stealing more than 130,000 undelivered letters and leaflets over the past five years, the Royal Mail said Saturday.
Nick Fryer, 31, was supposed to be delivering the mail around north Staffordshire, in central England.
Supervisors at the Kidsgrove delivery said an investigation turned up 17,000 undelivered letters and 116,000 leaflets.
Fryer is scheduled for a hearing at North Staffordshire Magistrates Court on July 27 to face charges of theft and false accounting.
The false accounting charge relates to the leaflets. Letter carriers who agree to deliver them on top of their usual loads receive extra money, and Fryer allegedly falsified records to claim he had distributed the pages.
Austrian stamp honors Gov. Schwarzenegger
Vienna, Austria California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is getting a birthday gift in his home country: a stamp in his honor.
The Austrian post office announced on its Web site that the $1.25 stamp will be released on the actor-turned-politician’s birthday, July 30. Schwarzenegger, who will be 57, was born in the village of Thal near the southern city of Graz.
The stamp – which shows Schwarzenegger in a suit and tie with the American and Austrian flags in the background – is part of a collectors’ series called “Austrians living abroad,” the post office said.
Schwarzenegger moved to the United States in 1968 to pursue a career as a bodybuilder and movie star. He made his first visit to Austria as California governor last weekend, when he represented the United States at the state funeral of President Thomas Klestil.
Schwarzenegger also met privately with Simon Wiesenthal, the Austrian Holocaust survivor famous for his hunt of Nazi war criminals.
Wiesenthal, 95, has an office in Vienna, but the center named after him is in Los Angeles. The center helped Schwarzenegger research the past of his father, who was a Nazi storm trooper.
Dock protest greets those on gay cruise
Nassau, Bahamas Passengers on a gay cruise were greeted by more than 100 protesters as they stepped off their chartered ship Friday in the Bahamas.
The protesters, led by Christian pastors, gathered in a square in front of the cruise terminal and chanted, “Gay Ways are Not God’s Ways!”
Cruise organizers said former talk show host Rosie O’Donnell, who promoted the voyage, was aboard the Norwegian Cruise Line ship Norwegian Dawn. But she wasn’t seen among those who disembarked.
Gregg Kominsky, a founder of cruise organizer R Family Vacations, said the passengers – 1,150 adults and 450 children – had come to have fun and that on previous trips he found most Bahamians friendly and welcoming. “We are not really here to make a statement,” he said.
As the first passengers stepped out, shouting protesters pressed to within a few feet of them. Police stepped in to move demonstrators back. There were no arrests.
The U.S. Embassy issued a statement Thursday saying the mostly American passengers deserved the right to visit in peace.
Some passers-by said they disagreed with protesters. “I don’t have a problem with gay people coming to the Bahamas,” resident DeAndre Rahming said.