In brief: Pope begins tour of Asia in Sri Lanka

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Pope Francis arrived in Sri Lanka today at the start of a weeklong Asian tour saying the island nation can’t fully heal from a quarter-century of ethnic civil war without pursuing truth for the injustices committed.

Francis didn’t refer specifically to Sri Lanka’s refusal to cooperate with a U.N. investigation into alleged war crimes committed in the final months of the war. A 2011 U.N. report said as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians may have been killed, and that both sides committed serious human rights violations.

Francis, 78, delivered the speech on the tarmac of Colombo’s international airport, where he was welcomed under sunny skies by Sri Lanka’s new president, Maithripala Sirisena, who was sworn in Friday after a major electoral upset.

Rep. Ryan nixes 2016 presidential run

Washington – Republican Rep. Paul Ryan announced Monday that he will not run for president in 2016, instead focusing on his work as chairman of a powerful tax-writing committee in Congress.

Ryan, of Wisconsin, was the Republican candidate for vice president in 2012. There had been much speculation about his ambitions for 2016.

But with the start of the new Congress last week, Ryan became chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over taxes, trade, Social Security and health care.

Jakarta, Indonesia – Indonesian navy divers retrieved the cockpit voice recorder from the crashed AirAsia jet, officials said today, as experts prepared to analyze the aircraft’s “black box” devices for clues to the accident.

The flight data recorder was sent Monday to Jakarta to be analyzed, hours after search teams pulled the device from the bottom of the Java Sea. The cockpit recorder was found nearby and was being brought to shore by a navy vessel, a transport ministry official told Indonesia’s Metro TV.

Officials said the recorders – part of the black box containing information on why the plane crashed Dec. 28 – would be opened and their data studied by Indonesian transport authorities as well as experts from Singapore and France, home to Airbus, the aircraft’s manufacturer.