Catholic priests burn Harry Potter books in Poland

WARSAW: Catholic priests in the northern Polish city of Koszalin burned books they say are sacrilegious this weekend, including tomes from British author JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series of fantasy novels. “We obey the Word,” priests said in a Facebook post showing photographs of the public book burning and quoting Biblical passages from the book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament. One passage exhorting believers to destroy the enemies of God includes the passage “burn their idols in the fire”. AFP

UN’s Bachelet urges Brunei against death penalty for gay sex

Geneva: Brunei will deal a serious setback to human rights if it applies laws allowing death by stoning for adultery and gay sex, marking an end to a de facto moratorium on capital punishment, U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Monday. Bachelet said Brunei's revised Penal Code would enshrine serious breaches of international human rights law into law. "I appeal to the Government to stop the entry into force of this draconian new penal code, which would mark a serious setback for human rights protections for the people of Brunei if implemented,” she said in a statement. Reuters

Pope promises ‘healing’ of Church amid sex abuse scandal  

Madrid: Pope Francis said a process of “healing” had started within the Catholic Church in the wake of a paedophilia summit, but acknowledged guilty priests had not been punished.  The Argentine pontiff last week issued stringent child abuse legislation for Vatican City employees as part of the Church’s bid to address a wave of sex abuse allegations against priests. In an interview broadcast on Sunday with Spanish TV channel La Sexta, he said he understood that many were disappointed at the lack of concrete results of the landmark Vatican summit in February, but insisted progress was being made. "If I hanged 100 priests in Saint Peter's Square (people would have said) that's good, something concrete," he said in Spanish. "I would been seen to have taken action. "  — AFP

Rapper Nipsey Hussle shot dead in broad daylight

Los Angeles: Rapper Nipsey Hussle was killed after being shot multiple times in broad daylight outside his store here on Sunday. According to Los Angeles Times, the 33-year-old rapper was shot on the street where his store Marathon Clothing is located in the Hyde Park neighbourhood. Hussle was rushed to a hospital after the incident, where he was pronounced dead. Two other person were also injured during the shooting but they are said to be in stable condition. PTI

Reminder

Sao Paulo: Demonstrators hold placards with pictures of the victims of the military dictatorship at a protest against the 55th anniversary of Brazil’s 1964 military coup in Sao Paulo, Brazil. REUTERS

Gmail turns 15, Google says making it better 

San Francisco: Google's email service Gmail that has nearly 1.5 billion monthly active users turned 15 on Monday and the company plans to customise it for its users in the days to come. Created by Paul Buchheit on April 1, 2004, Gmail started with an initial storage capacity of one gigabyte per user. Today, Gmail allows 15GB free storage. "Over the years, Google also improved Gmail’s spam filtering capabilities and today, using artificial intelligence (AI), Gmail blocks nearly 10 million spam emails every minute,” the company said. IANS