NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 _ Marijuana measure: New Zealand won’t be legalizing marijuana after the final votes counted Friday in a referendum failed to overturn the result from election night — although it was close. The referendum to legalize the drug ended up with 48% support and 51% against, a tightening from the election night split of 46% in favor and 53% against. The special votes counted after the Oct. 17 election included those cast overseas and accounted for about 17% of the total vote. The special votes also slightly increased the majority of liberal Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her Labor Party, which ended up with just over 50% of the total vote, and 65 of Parliament’s 120 seats.
2 _ Royal probe: Spanish Supreme Court prosecutors have opened a third corruption investigation involving former monarch Juan Carlos I of Spain, officials said Friday. Attorney General Dolores Delgado and top anticorruption prosecutor Alejandro Luzon said the investigation was triggered by “financial information” but declined to elaborate. Earlier this week, prosecutors announced a second investigation into Juan Carlos’ finances after Spanish online daily elDiario. es reported that anticorruption prosecutors were probing the alleged use by the former king, exQueen Sofia and other members of the royal family of credit cards linked to foreign accounts not in their names. The former king was already the target of investigations in Spain and Switzerland for possible financial wrongdoing.
3 _ Active volcano: Indonesian authorities began evacuating people living on the volatile Mount Merapi volcano’s slopes on Friday following an increase in volcanic activity. The head of Yogyakarta’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center, Hanik Humaida, warned that Merapi could erupt at any time, possibly sending hot gas clouds down its slopes. Edy Susanto, a local disaster mitigation agency official, said about 300 people from two villages, mostly the elderly, pregnant women and children, were taken to emergency shelters in Central Java’s Magelang district.
4_ Restive region: At least three civilians were killed in the latest shelling of NagornoKarabakh cities Friday as Azerbaijan pushed its offensive to reclaim control over the separatist territory for a sixth straight week, authorities said. Azerbaijani rockets and artillery shells hit residential areas in NagornoKarabakh’s regional capital, Stepanakert, and the city of Shushi, according to NagornoKarabakh authorities. Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry denied targeting civilian areas and accused Armenia of attacking the city of Terter and nearby villages in Azerbaijan. NagornoKarabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a war there ended in 1994. The latest outbreak of fighting started on Sept. 27 and has left hundreds — if not thousands — dead.
_ 5 Cardinal sanctioned: The Vatican has imposed sanctions on a prominent Polish cardinal, retired Archbishop Henryk Gulbinowicz, after he was accused of sexually abusing a seminarian and of covering up abuse in another case. The Vatican’s embassy in Poland said Friday that Gulbinowicz, 97, the retired archbishop of Wroclaw, has been forbidden from using his bishop’s insignia and participating in any religious celebrations or public events. The cardinal also been denied the right to have a cathedral burial service. He is the latest Polish prelate to be sanctioned after a Vaticanmandated investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct. The reckoning has rocked the Catholic hierarchy in the predominantly Roman Catholic Poland, where the clergy have long been held in high esteem.