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Italy's Lawmakers Elect Sergio Mattarella As New President

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Italy's Lawmakers Elect Sergio Mattarella As New President p10 2_Layout 1 1/31/15 8:55 PM Page 1 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2015 INTERNATIONAL Africans open new front to fight war on Boko Haram MAIDUGURI: Schoolgirls torn from their be no taller than his weapon. families in a mass kidnapping and forced In what Amnesty International called into sexual slavery. Bombs that ripped the most deadly massacre of the 5-year-old through bus stations. The slaughter of hun- Islamic uprising, Boko Haram killed hun- dreds of villagers, many with their throats dreds of civilians - some say as many as cut. Nigeria has suffered through years of 2,000 - in a Jan 3 attack on Baga, a border violence from the Muslim extremist group town with a key military base on the north- known as Boko Haram, and now its neigh- eastern border with Cameroon. Nigeria’s bors are starting to take on the militants, military said only 150 people were killed. too. African nations are opening up a new Boko Haram attracted international out- international front in the war on terror, dis- rage in April when it kidnapped 276 cussing Friday the formation of a five- schoolgirls at a boarding school in the nation force of 7,500 troops to confront the remote town of Chibok. Dozens escaped looming regional threat from Boko Haram. on their own, but 219 remain missing. The United States promised more tech- The US, Britain, France and China nical support, training and equipment. On offered help to find the girls, and Jonathan Thursday, neighboring Chad sent a war- has repeatedly pledged to return them to plane and troops that drove the extremists their parents, but not one has been res- out of a northeastern Nigeria border town cued. He refused to swap the girls for ille- in the first such act by foreign troops on gally detained Boko Haram suspects. Nigerian soil. “We saw the fighter jet when Suicide bombings in recent months by it started shelling and bombarding the young girls - one looked no more than 10 - insurgents,” said Abari Modu, who watched has raised fears that Boko Haram is using the attack from a nearby village in Chad, the kidnap victims in its conflict, which has where he had sought refuge. He praised displaced more than 1 million people and the prowess of the Chadian forces. killed about 10,000 in the last year, accord- Chad’s victory, and the need for foreign ing to the Council on Foreign Relations. The troops, is an embarrassment to Nigeria’s new multinational force proposed Friday once-mighty military, brought low by cor- would also be mandated with searching for ruption and politics. The foreign interven- and freeing all abductees, including the tion comes just two weeks before hotly Chibok girls, according to a statement from ROME: Newly elected President of Italy, Sicilian judge Sergio Mattarella (left) stands by Lower chamber president Laura Boldrini at the contested national elections in which the African Union. “We will never forget the Constitutional Council.—AFP President Goodluck Jonathan is seeking girls kidnapped from Chibok last April, and another term. The offensive by Chad came I will never stop calling for their immediate days after Boko Haram leader Abubakar and unconditional release,” said UN Italy’s lawmakers elect Sergio Shekau warned Nigeria’s neighbors not to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a guest at intervene. the African summit. “African kings, I challenge you to attack Mattarella as new president me now. I am ready,” he taunted in an ‘Danger to international security’ Arabic video message translated by SITE “The Boko Haram insurgency poses a intelligence monitoring service. Shekau clear danger to national, regional and inter- Considered to be above the political fray regularly praises the Islamic State group national security,” he said. For years, Nigeria and Al-Qaeda. Boko Haram has declared an has looked down on its smaller, francopho- ROME: Italian lawmakers elected Sergio coalition’s main party. “Thanks for being serious,” widower with three grown children, lives in the Islamic caliphate that now encompasses ne neighbors, and Nigerian troops have Mattarella, a Constitutional Court justice widely Renzi and some loyalists wrote in a text message modest quarters of Constitutional Court justices in about 130 towns and villages in a large clashed with soldiers from Chad and considered to be above the political fray, as the to Democrats during the balloting, the Italian Rome. He was expected to start the seven-year term swath of northeastern Nigeria, according to Cameroon in the past over border disputes. nation’s new president on the third day of voting news agency ANSA reported. next week. A year ago, Berlusconi pledged his Amnesty International. The country’s 170 Analysts say the neighboring countries yesterday. Mattarella’s election as head of state Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s center- support for the electoral reform agenda of Renzi, million people are split almost equally worry how much Boko Haram has infiltrat- was clinched when he amassed 505 votes - a right opposition vowed to cast blank ballots. who had just assumed the Democratic Party between a mainly Muslim north and pre- ed Nigeria’s military. Even Jonathan has simple majority. The 73-year-old former minister While acknowledging Mattarella’s credentials to leadership. Buoyed by the deal, Renzi quickly dominantly Christian south. said that he fears his Cabinet is infiltrated with center-left political roots went on to garner be guarantor of the Constitution and arbiter in pushed fellow Democrat Enrico Letta out of the by sponsors of the extremists. A year ago, 665 votes from the 1,009 eligible electors. political crises, they complained Renzi didn’t premiership. Berlusconi lost his Senate seat Increasing ferocity he fired his entire military command and Known as a man of few words, Mattarella decide to reach agreement first with Berlusconi because of a tax fraud conviction but is keen on Global concern has grown in recent the defense minister. Even as Nigeria’s mili- cemented that reputation with his first remarks on the candidate. Mattarella raised conflict-of- keeping political influence. Reforms include months as the terrorist group known for tary is humiliated by the foreign aid, wit- to the nation. “My thoughts go, above all, to the interest concerns when media mogul Berlusconi changing Italy’s electoral law to make govern- recruiting across borders launched a series nesses say it has been ill-equipped to difficulties and hopes of our fellow citizens. jumped into politics two decades ago. He also ments more stable. Whether Berlusconi, irked of brazen attacks in northern Cameroon defend civilians from a series of vicious That’s enough,” he said, referring to the grim resigned as education minister in 1990 to over Renzi’s picking the presidential candidate, even as it increased the tempo and ferocity attacks. In Baga, Nigerian soldiers fought economic situation, in comments made at his protest legislation that helped Berlusconi trans- will renege on the reforms deal is unclear. A pro- of attacks on Nigerian soil. One video this valiantly for hours, then fled when they ran court office just down the street from the presi- form several local TV channels into a business Berlusconi lawmaker, Maurizio Gasparri, predict- week showed boys learning to shoot out of ammunition, witnesses told The dential palace. Italy is mired in recession and empire including Italy’s three main private TV ed the media mogul’s center-right lawmakers assault rifles, with one child appearing to Associated Press. —AP unemployment has hovered about 13 percent networks. might be “less generous” with support. nationally. Former Berlusconi allies now in Renzi’s coali- Young Italians are increasingly seeking work History with the Mafia tion chafed at the unilateral choice of the abroad. Renzi pushed hard for Mattarella’s elec- Mattarella, a Sicilian, was first elected to Mattarella candidacy. But the government’s tion, and some of Renzi’s rebellious Democrats Parliament in 1983. His Christian Democrat party short-term survival seemed little threatened. resented the premier’s imposing his choice on collapsed in corruption probes of the 1990s, but Politicians are generally uneager to provoke a them. So Mattarella’s victory signals that Renzi Mattarella was unscathed. His older brother, crisis that could bring early elections, with voters for now succeeded in closing fractious ranks, Piersanti Mattarella, governor of Sicily, was killed in exasperated over their leaders’ failure so revive including former Communists, in the governing 1980 by the Mafia. The silver-haired Mattarella, a the economy. — AP Vatican hits sour note with women VATICAN CITY: A new Vatican outreach initiative and invite women around the globe to send in a were sent in. A good number came from to women hit a sour note before it even got off 60-second video of their lives for possible inclu- activists advocating for women’s ordination. the ground: The attractive blonde on its Internet sion in a montage to be screened at the “big Consuela Corradi, a sociologist at Rome’s promo video came under such ridicule that it meeting of cardinals and bishops” next week. In Catholic Lumsa university, was one of 15 women was quickly taken down. But the program is the video, Italian actress Nancy Brilli - blonde, who advised Ravasi on the initiative. She com- going ahead, and an inaugural meeting this buxom albeit in a modest blue top - earnestly plained that criticism of the video was unfair. week will study women’s issues in ways that are asked her viewers how often they ask them- “If we had chosen an ugly woman, would that utterly new for the Holy See. No, there is no talk selves “Who are you? What do you do? What do have changed the message? I don’t think so,” she of ordaining women priests.
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