NEWS OF THE DAY
_1 Kashmir violence: Tensions soared Wednesday along the volatile frontier between India and Pakistan in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, as rival soldiers shelled dozens of villages and border posts for a sixth straight day. A total of six civilians and a soldier were killed on the two sides, officials said, in escalating violence in the disputed region that both countries blame the other for initiating. The fighting has sent tens of thousands of villagers fleeing from their homes in dozens of affected villages along the border. India and Pakistan have a long history of bitter relations over Kashmir, which both claim. They have fought two of their three wars since 1947 over their competing claims to the region. _2 Cover-up conviction: An Australian archbishop said Wednesday that he will stand aside but does not intend to resign after becoming the most senior Roman Catholic cleric in the world to be convicted of covering up child sex abuse. Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson was convicted on Tuesday in the Newcastle Local Court, north of Sydney, of concealing the sexual abuse of two altar boys by a pedophile priest in the 1970s. The 67-yearold Wilson, who has Alzheimer’s disease, was released on bail and faces a prison term of up to two years when he is sentenced next month.
_3 Ex-premier sentenced: A Macedonian criminal court sentenced former conservative prime minister Nikola Gruevski to two years in prison Wednesday for unlawfully influencing officials at the interior ministry over the purchase of a luxury bulletproof car. The court ruled that Gruevski, who served as prime minister during 20062016, influenced the officials in the 2012 purchase of his Mercedes at an estimated cost of some $700,000. Gruevski, 47, denied any wrongdoing and remains free pending appeal. _4 German citizenship: German officials say the number of British nationals who received German citizenship hit a new high last year that is likely linked to Britain’s 2016 referendum to leave the European Union. Brexit has prompted British citizens to seek passports from the EU’s remaining countries to preserve their right to live and work in the world’s most powerful economic bloc. Germany’s Federal Statistical Office said Wednesday that 7,493 Britons were naturalized in 2017. A year earlier, 2,865 British nationals received German citizenship, as more than three-fold increase from 2015. Almost 10 percent of the British applicants received their German citizenship from abroad, likely because they or their ancestors lost their citizenship under the Nazis. _5 Forced marriage: A woman in Britain was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison Wednesday for forcing her teenage daughter to marry a relative in Pakistan almost twice her age. The sentence follows the first successful prosecution in England under laws against forced marriage. The victim says she was 13 years old when she was forced to enter a marriage contract with the man, 16 years her senior. She became pregnant and had an abortion. She says that as her 18th birthday approached in 2016, she was tricked into going to Pakistan for what she thought was a family vacation and made to marry the man instead. The girl eventually returned to Britain with government help. The mother, who can’t be named to protect the identity of her daughter, was found guilty Tuesday by a jury at Birmingham Crown Court in central England.