Nation & World Glance

Argentina’s VP Fernández guilty in $1B fraud, gets 6 years

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernández was convicted and sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison and a lifetime ban from holding public office for a fraud scheme that embezzled $1 billion through public works projects during her presidency.

A three-judge panel found the Peronist leader guilty of fraud, but rejected a charge of running a criminal organization, for which the sentence could have been 12 years in prison. It was the first time an Argentine vice president has been convicted of a crime while in office.

Fernández lashed out at the verdict, describing herself as the victim of a “judicial mafia.” But she also later announced that she would not run next year for the presidency, a post she previously held in 2007-2015.

The sentence isn’t firm until appeals are decided, a process that could take years. She will remains immune from arrest meanwhile.

Fernández’s supporters vowed to paralyze the country with a nationwide strike. They clogged downtown Buenos Aires and marched on the federal court building, beating drums and shouting as they pressed against police barriers.

Greek Orthodox church at World Trade Center reopens at last

NEW YORK – More than two decades after a tiny Greek Orthodox church in lower Manhattan was destroyed by the falling south tower of the World Trade Center, that church’s far grander replacement opened to the public this week in an elevated park overlooking the rebuilt trade center’s memorial plaza.

The new St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine hosted its first liturgy service on Tuesday to mark the Feast of St. Nicholas and is preparing to welcome visitors of all faiths who want to remember the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

“Today is a joyous day for America and for New York,” said Michael Psaros, chair of Friends of St. Nicholas, the group tasked with raising funds for the church. “We invite all of America to please come visit, to come to the cenotaph that was created and built in memory of 3,000 people who were martyred and murdered on Sept. 11.”

Completion of the project, one of the last pieces of the newly built World Trade Center complex, once seemed in doubt.

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the World Trade Center, battled in court over where the new church would be built before agreeing to Liberty Park just south of the main trade center site.

Ukraine leader defiant as drone strikes hit Russia again

KYIV, Ukraine – Drones struck inside Russia’s border with Ukraine on Tuesday in the second day of attacks exposing the vulnerability of some of Moscow’s most important military sites, experts said.

Ukrainian officials did not formally confirm carrying out drone strikes inside Russia, and they have maintained ambiguity over previous high-profile attacks.

But Britain’s Defense Ministry said Russia was likely to consider the attacks on Russian bases more than 500 kilometers (300 miles) from the border with Ukraine as “some of the most strategically significant failures of force protection since its invasion of Ukraine.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian authorities will “take the necessary measures” to enhance protection of key facilities. Russian bloggers who generally maintain contacts with officials in their country’s military criticized the lack of defensive measures.

A fire broke out at an airport in Russia’s southern Kursk region that borders Ukraine after a drone hit the facility, the region’s governor said Tuesday. In a second incident, an industrial plant 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Ukrainian border was also targeted by drones, which missed a fuel depot at the site, Russian independent media reported.

Indonesia’s Parliament votes to ban sex outside of marriage

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s Parliament unanimously voted on Tuesday to ban sex outside of marriage and insulting the president and state institutions.

Once in force, the bans will affect foreign visitors as well as citizens. They’re part of an overhaul of the country’s criminal code that has been in the works for years. The new code also expands an existing blasphemy law and keeps a five-year prison term for deviations from the central tenets of Indonesia’s six recognized religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. The code still needs approval from the president, and the government says it will not be fully implemented for several years.

The amended code says sex outside marriage is punishable by a year in jail and cohabitation by six months, but adultery charges must be based on police reports lodged by a spouse, parents or children.

Citizens could also face a 10-year prison term for associating with organizations that follow Marxist-leninist ideology and a four-year sentence for spreading communism.

Rights groups criticized some of the revisions as overly broad or vague and warned that adding them to the code could penalize normal activities and threaten freedom of expression and privacy rights.

However, some advocates hailed the passage as a victory for the country’s LGBTQ community. After fierce deliberation, lawmakers eventually agreed to remove an article proposed by Islamic groups that would have made gay sex illegal.

Man arrested after egg allegedly thrown at King Charles III

LONDON — A man was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of assault after an egg was allegedly hurled towards King Charles III during a visit to a town center, police said.

Bedfordshire Police said a man in his 20s was being questioned over an alleged common assault.

Charles was meeting members of the public outside the town hall in Luton, 30 miles (46 kilometers) north of London, when the projectile was apparently thrown. He was moved to a different area by his security guards and resumed shaking hands with members of the public.

The king has traveled widely across Britain since becoming monarch on the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in September. He was due to visit several sites in Luton on Tuesday, including a transit station and a Sikh house of worship, a gurdwara.

Last month a 23-year-old man was arrested after eggs were hurled at Charles and his wife Camilla, the queen consort, during a visit to York, northern England. The man was later released on bail.