White House blames 'trail of broken promises' for N. Korea summit collapse

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The White House said Thursday that a North Korean failure to keep its word had led US President Donald Trump to call off his summit with Kim Jong Un next month.

"There has been a trail of broken promises that gave the United States pause," said a senior White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"President Trump is willing to pursue diplomacy as far as it can be possibly pursued," added the official – who said the US leader had "dictated every word" of his letter to Kim cancelling the June 12 summit.

Pointing at what it called a "profound lack of good faith," the official

JAKARTA (AFP) – Indonesia passed a new law Friday that will give police more power to take pre-emptive action against terror suspects in the wake of the country's deadliest Islamist attacks in years.

The bill had been stalled for almost two years as parliament wrangled over details, including how to define terrorism, but a wave of deadly suicide bombings this month hiked pressure on lawmakers to pass the legislation.

Police will now be allowed to detain terror suspects for as long as 21 days, up from the current one week, and they will now also be able to charge people for joining or recruiting for a ''terrorist'' organization, at home or abroad.

Rights activists have expressed concerns that the bill's vague wording could open the door to a crackdown on any group seen as a threat.

This month, 13 people were killed in separate suicide attacks on churches and a police station by two families – including a nine and 12-year-old girl – in Indonesia's second-biggest city Surabaya.

The families had ties to a local extremist

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis warned Italian bishops this week to vet carefully applicants to the priesthood and reject anyone they suspected might be homosexual, local media reported on Thursday.

“Keep an eye on the admissions to seminaries, keep your eyes open,” the pope was quoted as saying by newspaper La Stampa’s Vatican Insider service. “If in doubt, better not let them enter.”

The Vatican did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on the remarks, which Vatican Insider and Il Messaggero said were made at a closed-door gathering on Monday.

Francis’ meeting with Italian bishops came just a day after a Chilean man who suffered clerical sexual abuse quoted the pope as telling him

LONDON (AFP) – Prince William will be the first senior British royal to make an official visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, as part of a tour in June announced by Kensington Palace on Friday.

William will begin his tour in Jordan on June 24 and travel on to Tel Aviv the following day, the palace, his official residence, said in a statement.

He will visit Jerusalem on June 26 and then go on to Ramallah on June 27.

The visit by the second in line to the throne ''is at the request of Her said Pyongyang failed to turn up to a preparatory meeting in Singapore with the White House deputy chief of staff.

"They waited and they waited. The North Koreans never showed up. The North Koreans did not tell us anything – they simply stood us up," the official said.

The White House also views North Korea's objection to a routine USSouth Korean joint military exercise – and its cancellation of a meeting with the South Koreans – as a breach of its commitments leading up to the summit.

"That constituted a broken promise," the official said.

Trump announced the cancellation of the talks shortly after North network that had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, which claimed the attacks.

A police officer was also killed in subsequent attack on a police station in Sumatra days later.

Indonesia – which is set to host the Asian Games in three months and an IMF-World Bank meeting in Bali in October – has long struggled with Islamist militancy.

Its worst-ever attack was the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people, including locals and foreign tourists.

Security forces have arrested hundreds of militants during a sustained crackdown since the Bali bombing and most attacks in recent years have been limited to low-level operations against domestic security forces.

But police have said they needed beefed-up terror laws to crack down on homegrown militancy.

In the wake of the Surabaya attacks, President Joko Widodo threatened to issue an emergency regulation if the parliament failed to pass the new law. in a private conversation that God had made him gay and loved him that way.

The Vatican declined to comment on the report which touched off fierce media speculation that Francis was softening the Church stance on homosexuality. It has previously condemned homosexuality as an immoral disorder if actively practiced.

In a 2005 document, released under Francis’ predecessor Pope Benedict, the Vatican said the Church could admit into the priesthood those who had clearly overcome homosexual tendencies for at least three years.

But it said practicing homosexuals and those with “deep-seated” gay tendencies and those who support a gay culture should be barred.

The reported comments to the bishops might appease conservatives who have grown alarmed at the way Francis has dramatically shifted the language the Church has used about homosexuality since his election in 2013.

“If a person is gay and seeks God and has goodwill, who am I to judge?” the Pope said on his first overseas trip in 2013. In 2016, he said he had ministered to people with unfulfilled homosexual tendencies as well as homosexuals who were not able to remain chaste, as the Church asks them to.

“When a person arrives before Jesus, Jesus certainly will not say: ‘Go away because you are homosexual’,” he said.

Pope Benedict wrote in 2005 that homosexuality was “a strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil.” Majesty's government and has been welcomed by the Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian authorities,'' the statement said.

There have been no previous official visits by members of the British royal family to the Palestinian Territories.

William will also be the first close relation of Queen Elizabeth II to make an official visit to Israel, following trips made previously by the monarch's cousins the Duke of Kent and the Duke of Gloucester. Korea declared it had "completely" dismantled its nuclear test site, a move portrayed as a goodwill gesture ahead of the landmark Trump-Kim talks.

The White House official said North Korea's failure to allow international observers to verify the dismantling had further eroded trust.

US officials "were promised by the North Koreans that international experts and officials would be invited to witness and verify today's demolition.

"But that promise was broken. Instead journalists were invited and we will not have forensic evidence that much was accomplished," the official said.

"We certainly hope that's it's the case but really don't know."