Pope has tough words for indigenous group, Chile
TEMUCO,Chile — Pope Francis took the Chilean state and the country’s largest indigenous group to task Wednesday over their failure to forge a truly unified nation, saying the government must do more than just negotiate “elegant” agreements and radical Mapuche factions must stop violence.
Pope Francis’ pointed homily in the heart of Chile’s restive Araucania region came hours after two more churches and three helicopters were torched — attacks blamed on Mapuche radical groups demanding the return of ancestral lands and the release of Mapuche prisoners. No arrests have been made.
The outdoor Mass at the Maquehue Air Base was steeped in symbolism because of its own history: The land was taken from the Mapuche in the early 20th century and the location was also used as a detention and torture facility in the early years of Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship.
Myanmar police kill 7
BANGKOK— Myanmar police opened fire at hundreds of protesters angry about a ban on a local festival, killing seven people, officials said Wednesday.
The protesters in Rakhine state marched through the ancient city of Mrauk-U and ransacked a government building on Tuesday after authorities banned the anniversary celebration of the founding of the old kingdom, saying they were not informed about it beforehand.
The protest involved Rakhine Buddhists. Rakhine is also home to minority Rohingya Muslims, who have long faced persecution that has seen about 650,000 people driven away from their homes into Bangladesh since August.
Russia-Brexit probe
Responding to growing pressure in Europe, Facebook is opening a new probe into Russian interference in Britain’s 2016 referendum to leave the European Union.
A Facebook executive confirmed the existence of a formal investigation on Wednesday in a letter to Damian Collins, a member of the British parliament.
Facebook found that the Internet Research Agency had engaged in an aggressive influence campaign ahead of the 2016 presidential election in the United States. The IRA spent roughly $100,000 on thousands of ads that reached over 10 million Facebook users.
U.S. troops to stay in Syria
BEIRUT — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday committed the United States to an indefinite military presence in Syria, citing a range of policy goals that extend far beyond the defeat of the Islamic State as conditions for American troops to go home.
Speaking in a major Syria-policy address hosted at Stanford University by the Hoover Institution, Mr. Tillerson listed vanquishing al-Qaida, ousting Iran and securing a peace settlement that excludes President Bashar Assad as among the goals of a continued presence in Syria of about 2,000 American troops currently deployed in a Kurdish-controlled corner of northeastern Syria.