In brief: Pope: Ethics, as profit, key in finance

Madrid – Pope Benedict XVI warned Thursday at the start of a visit to crisis-hit Spain that Europe won’t be able to emerge from its economic woes unless it realizes that economic policy cannot be guided by a profit-driven mentality alone.

He said the continent must take into account ethical considerations that look out for the common good.

Benedict made the comments as he traveled to Spain’s capital for the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day, the festival held once every three years that is expected to draw 1 million young people from 193 countries for a week of bonding, praying and partying in Madrid’s streets – normally deserted in August.

Hundreds of thousands of them lined Madrid’s main boulevards to welcome the pontiff as he arrived for a four-day visit.

Storm hits music festival, killing three

Hasselt, Belgium – A storm swept through a popular open-air music festival in this eastern Belgium town on Thursday killing at least three people and injuring more than 70 others, an official said.

Ambulances and police cars raced to and from the site of the Pukkelpop festival, near the town of Hasselt, 50 miles east of Brussels, late Thursday, their sirens blaring.

Concertgoers described scenes of panic as the sky darkened, the winds whipped, rain poured, hailstones nearly half an inch across pelted the crowds, and concert structures buckled.

“It was frightening. It looked terrible. All the structures collapsed,” said Brinnie Gardner, 20, of Auckland, New Zealand, who is on a tour of Europe with a friend. “There was panic. It was crazy.”

Hugo Simons, Hasselt’s head of emergency medical planning, told VRT radio that three people had died, 11 had been severely injured and 60 had sustained light injuries as a result of the storm.

Organizers estimated that 60,000 people were at the three-day festival, which started Thursday, when the storm broke.