Courtney McGrailPolice continue inquiries into Notre Dame car incident
Police in France are continuing to investigate the circumstances behind the placing of a car filled with gas canisters and diesel cans near to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Though the car was not rigged for an explosion, the suspicious placement of the vehicle led investigators to a female figure named on a terror watch-list in the country, prompting suspicions that the incident was a dry run for a serious terror attack on the Catholic site. Documents bearing Arabic writing were also discovered in the car.
To date, seven people have been detained in connection with the find, including a woman who stabbed and injured an officer during her arrest. The female figure connected with the car, the daughter of its owner who reported to police that she had taken his car without permission, has disappeared and is currently being sought by investigators.
Hungary establishes office to assist persecuted Christians
The government of Hungary has announced the formation of a new body to monitor and offer assistance to persecuted Christians.
In a move that follows a meeting between Pope Francis and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at the end of August, the new body has already received €3 million towards its work.
Funding to the office will allow it to monitor the situation for Christian communities and to establish delegations which will visit trouble spots worldwide.
Newspaper accuses Patrirach of link to Turkish coup
A newspaper in Turkey has accused Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I (pictured) of complicity in the country’s failed July 15 coup.
Apparently basing the accusation on an online report in the name of US Ambassador to Yemen, Arthur Hughes, which linked the patriarch with the military attempt to overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the fact that the patriarch departed the country just hours ahead of the outbreak of violence, the Aksam newspaper has now linked the patriarch with the CIA and Erdogan opponent, the exiled Fetullah Gulen, in a triumvirate of conspirators.
Ambassador Hughes has since denied authoring the online article, since removed, and forced Aksam to carry a clarification of this point. Meanwhile the Ecumenical Patriarchate has issued its own rejection of the “false allegations” and has pointed out that Patriarch Bartholomew’s departure on July 15 for Slovenia was a trip planned and announced weeks in advance.
Archbishop laments scale of human trafficking in Africa
The president of Nigeria’s Bishops’ Conference has sounded a warning on the scale of human trafficking in Africa.
In an address to a conference on human trafficking in Africa, held in Abuja, Nigeria, Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama of Jos revealed that across the continent of Africa, “a whopping 79% of the total number are sexually exploited, the victims being mostly women; 21% of those trafficked are for forced labour, the majority being males [while] “80% of Nigerian girls who arrive Italy, do so for sex trafficking purposes”.