Suspect in Dutch boy's 1998 murder agrees to be extradited

Yahoo – AFP, Sara MAGNIETTE with Daniel SILVA in Madrid, August 27, 2018

Eleven-year-old Nicky Verstappen who vanished two decades ago on August 9 at
a summer camp in southern Limburg province, near the German border (AFP Photo)

The Hague (AFP) - A survival expert arrested near Barcelona over the brutal 1998 rape and killing of a young Dutch boy after one of the most extensive murder investigations to date in the Netherlands agreed Monday to be extradited from Spain.

Spanish police arrested Joseph Brech, 55, on Sunday afternoon in a mountainous area near the town of Castelltercol some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Barcelona while he was going out to cut wood.

The authorities believe Brech -- an experienced mountain climber who had scaled Mount Everest -- killed eleven-year-old Nicky Verstappen who vanished two decades ago on August 9 at a summer camp in southern Limburg province, near the German border. Brech had worked at the camp at the time, according to Spanish police.

Verstappen's body was found a day after his disappearance close to the camp site, with authorities later confirming he had been sexually abused before his death.

Police at the time mounted a massive search closely followed by Dutch media and the public, but the killer remained on the loose -- until advanced DNA testing earlier this year led officers to Brech.

Spanish police on Monday escorted the suspect to a tribunal in the city of Granollers where he told a judge from Madrid's High Court by video conference that he had been in Spain since March and agreed to be extradited to the Netherlands, the court said in a ruling.

Spanish police arrested Joseph Brech, 55, on Sunday afternoon in a mountainous
area near the town of Castelltercol some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Barcelona
(AFP Photo/Spanish Police)

Brech will be held without bail until he is extradited, the court added. He is accused of murder, sexual aggression and kidnapping, it added.

'Love to have answers'

His arrest follows a public appeal on Wednesday, during which Dutch detectives shared photographs of the suspect.

A Dutchman living in Spain recognised the man in the photos and sent a tip-off to Dutch newspaper the Telegraaf, which contacted police.

Brech was living "in a tent in the woods" near an abandoned and isolated house where several homeless people live, the unidentified man told the newspaper.

"He told me he liked living in nature and that was why he was there," the man said.

Brech had extensive survival gear at the time of his arrest, including fishing roads, a book on edible wild plants, batteries and dehydrated foods.

In a picture shared by Spanish police, he appears face down on a dirt road with his hands handcuffed behind his back as police stand over him.

Eleven-year-old boy Nicky Verstappen was raped and killed at a Dutch summer 

camp two decades ago (AFP Photo/Marcel van Hoorn)

The boy's mother, Berthie Verstappen, said the family did not expect the arrest would come so soon after last week's police appeal.

"We feared he would hide so well that he would not be found for months. We would love to have answers to the questions we have, even if we dread hearing what happened," she told Dutch public television on Sunday night.

DNA evidence

The case regularly returned to the public eye in the Netherlands over the past two decades.

Police said new digital techniques helped them to develop a DNA profile in 2008, from traces found on Verstappen's clothing, but there had been no match.

As time ran out to catch the suspect, police in February appealed to 21,500 men to donate DNA samples in a bid to close in on the perpetrator.

Some 16,000 men living in the area where Verstappen was murdered volunteered to hand over DNA samples.

But Brech, a former scout worker who was 35 at the time of the murder, was not among the volunteers, and as he was previously interviewed as a witness, police became suspicious.

When his family reported him as missing in April, Dutch and French police searched his cabin in France's mountainous eastern Vosges region, where he owns a chalet.

They found traces of DNA on his personal belongings which matched samples taken from the slain boy's clothes.

A European-wide warrant for Brech's arrest was issued on June 12.

Pope faces calls for action over abuse 'shame' in Ireland

Yahoo – AFP, Joseph Stenson and Catherine Marciano, 25 August 2018

Pope Francis said the Catholic Church's failure to address the abuse scandal
had "rightly given rise to outrage", admitting it was a source of "pain and shame"

Pope Francis expressed "pain and shame" over the Catholic Church's failure to deal with abuse and met with eight victims during a visit to Ireland on Saturday where the prime minister pressed him to take action.

Francis said the "failure of ecclesiastical authorities... adequately to address these repellent crimes has rightly given rise to outrage, and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community.

"I myself share those sentiments," he said in a speech in Dublin Castle, speaking alongside Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.

The pope later held an hour and a half meeting with victims of abuse at the hands of clergy or in Church-run institutions, including Marie Collins, who was, at the age of 13, abused by a priest while being treated in a hospital in Dublin.

Collins, who last year resigned from a Vatican commission for child protection over its inaction, told reporters that the pope's speech was "disappointing" and "nothing new".

One of the victims of Fr Tony Walsh, a priest and serial abuser who assaulted hundreds of children over nearly two decades, was also present but preferred to remain anonymous.

'Cries for help'

Paul Jude Redmond, who was adopted illegally from a Catholic-run home in the 1960s where his mother had been interned for being pregnant and unmarried, was among those who met the pope.

Around 500,000 people are expected to attend a mass which will be given by 

Pope Francis on Sunday in Dublin's Phoenix Park

Redmond said the pope "lifted his hands to his head in shock" during the closed-door meeting after hearing stories of ill-treatment in Church-run Mother and Baby Homes.

"We feel hopeful there will be more movement from the Church," Redmond said in a statement put out by the Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors.

Varadkar, an openly gay leader and a symbol of Ireland's liberalising culture, demanded from Pope Francis "that from words flow actions" for victims in a strongly-worded speech.

He said Ireland's multiple historic scandals were "stains on our state, our society and also the Church."

"Far too often there was judgement, severity and cruelty... people kept in dark corners, behind closed doors, cries for help that went unheard," he added.

"There is much to be done to bring about justice and truth and healing for victims and survivors. Holy Father, I ask that you use your office and influence to ensure that this is done here in Ireland and across the world."

'An inspirational man'

Francis's visit was the first by a pope in this former bastion of Catholicism since John Paul II spoke to a crowd of 1.5 million people during a visit in 1979.

Irish society is virtually unrecognisable from that time.

Map showing the trips of Pope Francis since the start of his papacy

A new generation has shed Ireland's traditional mores, electing Ireland's first gay prime minister and voting to legalise same-sex marriage and abortion -- both once unthinkable.

In Dublin, tens of thousands of people lined the streets to cheer Pope Francis on as his Popemobile made its way from St Mary's Pro-Cathedral, where he gave marriage advice to couples, to a hostel for homeless families.

"I just think he is an inspirational man. He has a difficult job to do to try and bring around a lot of changes in the Church but he is doing his best I feel," said Eileen Grier-Gavin, who came from County Mayo in western Ireland to see the pope pass by.

The pope later attended a Festival of Families in Croke Park Stadium with more than 82,000 people in attendance.

'Still in denial'

Earlier this month, the Vatican was rocked by a devastating US report accused more than 300 priests in Pennsylvania state of abusing more than 1,000 children since the 1950s.

The pope wrote a letter to the world's 1.3 billion Catholics vowing to prevent future "atrocities" but also conceding that no efforts "to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient".

On arrival in Dublin, Pope Francis was met on the red carpet by Irish Foreign

Minister Simon Coveney and his children, who gave him white and yellow roses

Ireland has grappled with its own history of abuse, with multiple probes finding Church leaders protected hundreds of predatory priests over the decades.

The Argentine pontiff was in Ireland to close the 2018 World Meeting of Families (WMOF) -- a global Catholic gathering that takes place every three years.

The highlight of the trip will be an outdoor mass in the city's Phoenix Park on Sunday, which is expected to draw 500,000 people.

Priests and nuns from across Ireland have flocked to the capital, although merchandise sellers said business was sluggish.

"Local people are not spending," said street vendor Tony Mooney, 67. "There's an awful lot of not nice things being said to us."

Richard Duffy, 31, said he was opposed to the visit, telling AFP "it just boggles my mind that there's a celebration for him coming here."

"They're still in denial and refusing to admit any fault," he added.

Caspian Sea nations sign landmark deal

Yahoo – AFP, Christopher RICKLETON, August 12, 2018

The Caspian Sea borders Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran, Russia and
Turkmenistan (AFP Photo/BEHROUZ MEHRI)

Aktau (Kazakhstan) (AFP) - The leaders of the five states bordering the resource-rich Caspian Sea signed a landmark deal Sunday on the legal status of the inland sea which boasts a wealth of oil and gas reserves and sturgeon.

The leaders of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan signed the agreement on the status of the inland sea, which has been disputed since the collapse of the Soviet Union rendered obsolete agreements between Tehran and Moscow.

The host, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, said before the signing that the leaders were "participants in a historic event."

"We can admit that consensus on the status of the sea was hard to reach and not immediate, the talks lasted more than 20 years and called for a lot of joint efforts from the parties," Nazarbayev said.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin, whose country was seen as driving the deal, said the convention had "epoch-making significance" and called for more military cooperation between the countries on the Caspian.

Nazarbayev said the convention allows for the construction of underwater oil and gas pipelines as well as setting national quotas for fishing and forbids any foreign military presence.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was quick to hail the clause that prevents non-Caspian countries from deploying military forces.

"The Caspian Sea only belongs to the Caspian states," he said.

Putin also praised this clause, saying it would help "ensure the peaceful status of the Caspian Sea."

National boundaries

The deal provides a means of delimiting national boundaries in the sea whose underground energy resources are estimated at 50 billion barrels of oil and just under 300 trillion cubic feet (8.4 trillion cubic metres) of natural gas.

But Rouhani stressed several times during the summit that these boundaries still need to be worked out between the countries.

Iran, which ended up with the smallest share of the sea under the terms of the convention, is viewed as a potential loser in the deal.

Sunday's summit was the fifth of its kind since 2002 but there have been more than 50 lower-level meetings since the Soviet breakup spawned four new countries on the shores of the Caspian.

The deal goes some way to settling a long-lasting dispute on whether the Caspian is a sea or a lake -- which means it falls under different international laws.

A map of the Caspian Sea locating Aktau, in Kazakhstan, where a deal was 

signed Sunday by surrounding countries which ends decades of dispute over the 

inland sea rich in oil, gas and caviar. (AFP Photo/Valentina BRESCHI)

While the convention refers to the Caspian as a sea, provisions in the agreement give it "a special legal status", Russian deputy foreign minister Grigory Karasin told Kommersant daily earlier this week.

The agreement also offers hope for the Caspian's ecological diversity and its depleted stocks of the beluga sturgeon, whose eggs are prized globally as caviar.

While it remains to be seen how the deal will be implemented, the summit in Aktau was another opportunity for Moscow to present itself as a diplomatic deal-maker.

After years of unsuccessful negotiations on the Caspian the Kremlin "gains political kudos for breaking a log-jam," said John Roberts, a non-resident senior fellow at Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center.

Trans-Caspian plan

Turkmen leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov greeted the deal enthusiastically as his country wants to send gas to markets in Europe via a long-planned Trans-Caspian underwater pipeline.

The project is billed as allowing European countries to ease their dependence on gas from Russia at a time of heightened geopolitical confrontation.

Nevertheless, Iran and Russia could still challenge the pipeline on ecological grounds. They have previously blocked the project, which could cost up to $5 billion to build and would have a projected capacity of 30 billion cubic metres per year.

Kate Mallinson, Associate Fellow for the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House, urged caution over the prospects for the pipeline, saying the Aktau deal "is not a legal prerequisite for the construction."

"Neither will a major transport corridor to export Turkmen gas to Europe emerge overnight."

HSBC to pay $765m US fine over crisis-era conduct

Yahoo – AFP, Roland JACKSON with Elaine YU in Hong Kong, 6 August 2018

HSBC said it is hiring 'more frontline staff' in its strongest businesses after an
overhaul that saw 50,000 jobs axed

Britain's Asia-focused bank HSBC on Monday revealed a $765-million US fine over the lender's actions in the run-up to the subprime crisis, as it also logged rising first-half profits.

HSBC said it has agreed to pay the large US penalty over its conduct in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), a type of investment derivative that bundled home loans into securities and was sold to investors before the 2008 financial meltdown.

"HSBC reached a settlement-in-principle to resolve the Department of Justice's civil claims relating to its investigation of HSBC's legacy RMBS origination and securitisation activities from 2005 to 2007," the lender announced in a results statement.

"Under the terms of the settlement, HSBC will pay the DoJ a civil money penalty of $765 million."

The London-headquartered giant is the latest global bank to reach a US settlement over conduct in the run-up to the notorious subprime crisis which sparked a worldwide recession.

However, the deal was agreed in July and therefore was not included in HSBC's first half results, which cover the six months to June.

Brexit, trade war headwinds

HSBC posted advancing first-half profits and expressed optimism over the outlook -- despite headwinds from rising costs, the China-US trade war and Brexit.

Pre-tax profit rose almost five percent to $10.7 billion in the six months to the end of June compared with a year earlier.

Net profit or earnings after taxation gained 2.5 percent to $7.173 billion, boosted by high-growth markets -- particularly in Asia and the Middle East.

"We haven't yet seen any impact on our business or through our customers," chief executive John Flint told reporters when asked about the impact of the China-US trade spat.

"It's still too early to tell and in terms of estimating potential impact it's difficult because we don’t quite know what the substance of the trade war will be.

"We've got some tariffs in place and some coming, but the full impact is very difficult to estimate.

"It is possible that it will shave China's GDP growth by a modest amount but (it is) too early too start predicting."

Turning to Britain's looming departure from the European Union next year, the bank chief stressed that its cost estimate for a so-called hard Brexit remained unchanged.

The lender had warned late last year that a chaotic Brexit could cost it up to $300 million.

It had also outlined tentative plans to switch 1,000 jobs to Paris from London owing to Britain's departure from the European Union due in 2019.

"Our role has been to ensure that we are in a position to secure customers' ... needs across the UK, Europe and the network that we serve in 67 markets across the world," added Flint on Monday.

"Our planning from the outset has been based on what is euphemistically called a hard Brexit, and therefore the cost guidance that we have given in that regard remains absolutely consistent with what we have talked about in the past."

Costs outpace revenues

Revenues were up four percent at $27.3 billion in the reporting period -- but operating expenses grew seven percent to $17.5 billion.

In late morning deals, HSBC shares fell 0.53 percent to 712 pence on London's rising FTSE 100 index.

"The market has reacted cautiously to the numbers ... because the group reported costs rising significantly faster than income," noted Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Steve Clayton.

After wide-ranging cutbacks that saw 50,000 jobs axed in an overhaul announced in 2015, the bank added on Monday that it was now hiring again as it seeks new growth areas.

Flint said in June that he plans to invest $15-17 billion primarily in growth and technology projects, with a particular focus on accelerating growth in Asia.

HSBC, founded in Hong Kong and Shanghai in 1865, sees its focus firmly in Asia, although it has been based in Britain since 1992.