AP News in Brief at 12:04 a.m. EST
Australian Cardinal Pell convicted of molesting 2 choirboys
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - The most senior Catholic cleric ever charged with child sex abuse has been convicted of molesting two choirboys moments after celebrating Mass, dealing a new blow to the Catholic hierarchy's credibility after a year of global revelations of abuse and cover-up.
Cardinal George Pell, Pope Francis' top financial adviser and the Vatican's economy minister, bowed his head but then regained his composure as the 12-member jury delivered unanimous verdicts in the Victoria state County Court on Dec. 11 after more than two days of deliberation.
The court had until Tuesday forbidden publication of any details about the trial.
Pell faces a potential maximum 50-year prison term after a sentencing hearing that begins on Wednesday. He lodged an appeal last week against the convictions.
Details of the trial had been suppressed because until Tuesday, Pell had faced a second trial in April on charges that he indecently assaulted two boys aged 9 or 10 and 11 or 12 as a young priest in the late 1970s in a public pool in his hometown of Ballarat.
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Kim Jong Un arrives in Hanoi for nuclear summit with Trump
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's armored limousine, surrounded by his phalanx of burly bodyguards, rolled into Vietnam's capital Tuesday ahead of a summit with President Donald Trump that's meant to deal with perhaps the world's biggest security challenge: Kim's pursuit of a nuclear program that stands on the verge of viably threatening targets around the planet.
Soldiers, police and international journalists thronged the streets outside Hanoi's Melia Hotel where Kim was set to stay, and hundreds of eager citizens stood behind barricades hoping to see the North Korean leader. As Vietnamese, North Korean and U.S. flags fluttered in a cold drizzle, dozens of cameras flashed and some citizens screamed and used their mobile phones to capture Kim's rock-star-like arrival at the hotel.
Vietnam's authoritarian leaders set up a huge security apparatus to welcome Kim, shutting long stretches of roads and locking down swaths of the bustling capital city. Earlier in the morning, a grinning and waving Kim stepped off his armored train at the end of a long ride that started in Pyongyang and wound through China to the Vietnamese border. He shook hands with officials as Vietnamese troops in crisp, white uniforms and black boots stood at attention on a red carpet at the Dong Dang railway station on the China-Vietnam border.
Kim's arrival comes as Vietnamese officials scramble to finish preparations for a rushed summit; officials have shared few details about the specifics of a summit that the world will be watching closely.
Trump was flying to Hanoi from Washington.
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AP Explains: What everyone wants at the Trump-Kim summit
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will likely be all smiles as they shake hands later this week in Hanoi for a meeting meant to put flesh on what many critics call their frustratingly vague first summit in Singapore. But behind the grins is a swirl of competing goals and fears.
In addition to the two main players, China, South Korea and Japan also have deep interests in what Trump and Kim can hammer out in Vietnam, including the biggest question of them all: Can the U.S. and North Korea agree on what the "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" means - the wishy-washy language they settled on in Singapore - and, if so, can they create a successful framework that gets it done?
A look at the contending goals in a summit meant to settle the world's most vexing nuclear standoff.
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NORTH KOREA
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Pence in Colombia announces new sanctions on Maduro
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - The Trump administration announced new sanctions Monday on allies of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro as it struggles to find new ways to boost his opponent after an effort to deliver humanitarian aid to the economically devastated nation faltered amid strong resistance from security forces loyal to the socialist leader.
Vice President Mike Pence arrived in the Colombian capital for an emergency summit of regional leaders to discuss the deepening crisis and immediately met with Juan Guaido, the opposition leader the U.S. and 50 other nations recognize as Venezuela's rightful president.
In a speech, Pence urged regional partners to freeze oil assets controlled by Maduro, transfer the proceeds to Guaido and restrict visas for Maduro's inner circle. He said the U.S. was imposing more sanctions on four pro-government governors, including a close Maduro ally who negotiated the release of an American jailed for more than two years.
"It's time to do more," Pence said. "The day is coming soon when Venezuela's long nightmare will end, when Venezuela will once more be free, when her people will see a new birth of freedom, in a nation reborn to libertad."
Hours later, Venezuela's government issued a statement accusing the U.S. and the Lima Group countries of conducting "a ferocious campaign to oust" Maduro by trampling on basic international human rights.
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R. Kelly leaves jail after posting $100K in sex abuse case
CHICAGO (AP) - R. Kelly walked out of a Chicago jail Monday after posting $100,000 bail that allows him to go free while awaiting trial on charges that he sexually abused four people dating back to 1998, including three underage girls.
Hours earlier, the R&B star pleaded not guilty to the allegations after spending the weekend behind bars. He said little during the brief arraignment, telling the judge only his name. His lawyers spoke on his behalf.
The singer-songwriter was arrested Friday on 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse. A judge set bond at $1 million, meaning Kelly had to post 10 percent of that amount to be released. Court records show a 47-year-old woman from the Chicago suburb of Romeoville, Illinois, posted the $100,000 bail and identified herself on the bond slip as "a friend" of Kelly, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Kelly will be forbidden from having any contact with females younger than 18.
The black van that took the entertainer away from the jail stopped in the parking lot of a large downtown McDonald's. He did not immediately emerge, but some members of his entourage stood outside the vehicle and a dark-colored Mercedes-Benz parked next to it.
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Pakistan says Indian aircraft bomb its territory
ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistan's military spokesman tweeted that Indian aircraft crossed into Pakistan on Tuesday and carried out an airstrike but said there were no casualties from the attack.
Maj. Gen Asif Ghafoor said the Indian "aircrafts" crossed into the Pakistan-controlled Muzafarabad sector of Kashmir. He added that Pakistan scrambled fighter jets and before turning back, the Indian jets they "released payload in haste," near Balakot, on the edge of Pakistani-ruled Kashmir.
There has been no comment from India.
The incursion could have been in retaliation for a deadly Feb. 14 suicide bombing in India's half of Kashmir that killed at least 40 troops. The Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility. The bomber who made a video before the attack was a resident of Indian Kashmir.
Pakistan and India both lay claim to a united Kashmir.
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Authorities: Kraft visited parlor for sex on day of AFC game
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft visited a Florida massage parlor for sex acts the night before and the morning of last month's AFC championship game, authorities said Monday in documents charging him with two misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution.
Kraft is one of hundreds of men charged in recent days as part of a crackdown on prostitution allegedly occurring in massage parlors between Palm Beach and Orlando. Ten spas have been closed and several people, most of them women originally from China, have been charged with running the operation.ˆ
The 77-year-old Kraft was chauffeured to the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in a 2014 white Bentley on the evening of Jan. 19, where police say they videotaped him engaging in a sex act and then handing over an undetermined amount of cash, Jupiter, Florida, police said in charging documents released by the Palm Beach State Attorney's Office.
Investigators said Kraft returned 17 hours later, arriving at the upper-middle class shopping center where the spa was located in a chauffeured 2015 blue Bentley, the documents said. Kraft, who is worth $6 billion, was videotaped engaging in sex acts before paying with a $100 bill and another bill, police said. He then flew to Kansas City to watch his Patriots defeat the Chiefs in overtime hours later.
Kraft, whose team won the Super Bowl earlier this month in Atlanta, denied wrongdoing Friday, shortly after Jupiter police announced he was being charged. The NFL said Monday in a statement that its personal conduct policy "applies equally to everyone in the NFL" and it will handle "this allegation in the same way we would handle any issue under the policy." Kraft's wife, Myra Hiatt Kraft, died in 2011. He has been dating 39-year-old actress Ricki Noel Lander since 2012.
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SEC wants Tesla CEO Elon Musk held in contempt for tweeting
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Tesla CEO Elon Musk's tweeting habits have triggered another legal challenge from stock market regulators worried about him using his Twitter account to mislead investors.
The latest dust-up emerged late Monday when the Securities and Exchange Commission asked a federal court in New York to hold Musk in contempt for violating a $40 million settlement he begrudgingly reached with the U.S. stock market's chief regulatory agency five months ago.
Allegations that Musk broke the agreement by tweeting without company approval could renew a debate about whether he has become too reckless to continue as Tesla's CEO. That cloud has been hanging over Tesla, even though many analysts still consider Musk's vision to be an indispensable part of the electric car maker he co-founded in 2003.
Tesla's stock dropped about 4 percent in after-hours trading Monday, reflecting investors' anxiety about the latest twist in the drama surrounding Musk.
Contempt charges are typically brought against individuals who defy a court order. The SEC settlement was approved by a judge last fall, exposing Musk to potential fines or even jail time if he is found to be in contempt.
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Attacked and powerless, Venezuela soldiers choose desertion
CUCUTA, Colombia (AP) - The simple house on a street ridden with potholes in this town on Colombia's restive border with Venezuela has become a refuge for the newly homeless - 40 Venezuelan soldiers who abandoned their posts and ran for their lives.
The young National Guard troops sleep on thin mats on the floor. In one room, several flak jackets rest along a wall. On a balcony, boots that got wet crossing the muddy Tachira River are set out to dry.
"I was tired of people seeing me as just one more of them," Sgt. Jorge Torres said, referring to President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government. "I'm not."
A high-stakes plan by the Venezuelan opposition to bring humanitarian aid into the country floundered Saturday when troops loyal to Maduro refused to let the trucks carrying food and medical supplies cross, but it did set off a wave of military defections unlike any seen yet amid the country's mounting crisis. Over 270 mostly low-ranking soldiers fled in a span of three days, Colombian immigration officials said Monday.
With no relatives in Colombia, several dozen have ended up in a shelter run by a priest. The home on a street with low-hanging electrical wires is where they are nervously keeping track of relatives left behind, figuring out how to apply for asylum and deciding what should come next.
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Hanoi Postcard: Kim-Trump summit inspires entrepreneurs
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - For North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump, this week's summit in Hanoi is a chance to advance the cause of world peace. For canny entrepreneurs, it's an opportunity to make a buck, or a dong, in Vietnamese currency.
A U.S presidential visit is a big deal anywhere, and when it's significant enough to draw wall to wall media coverage - as last year's first summit in Singapore did - an enterprising businessman or businesswoman takes note. Drinks will be poured, burgers will be broiled and T-shirts will be silkscreened.
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When Robert Gibb, an American who has been living in Hanoi for 10 years and is co-owner of a bar near Hanoi's old quarter, heard the summit would take place in Hanoi, he sprang into action.
Of course he was keen to mark a historic occasion, but beyond that, his Unicorn Pub is noted for the elaborate libations it concocts, such as its 'Pho' cocktail, mimicking the taste of the famous Vietnamese noodle soup.