Vatican City

Vatican official says gays unsuitable for priesthood

A top Vatican official has advised against bringing gays into the priesthood, saying their ordination would be imprudent and “risky.”

Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez’s letter, reproduced in a church publication, comes as the Vatican is drafting new guidelines for accepting candidates for the priesthood. The guidelines are expected to address whether gays should be barred.

Ordination “of homosexual men or men with homosexual tendencies is absolutely inadvisable and imprudent, and from the pastoral point of view, very risky,” Medina Estevez wrote in a letter to an unidentified cleric that was reprinted in the congregation’s main publication, Notitiae.

Washington, D.C.

FEC levies fine in case involving toymaker Mattel

Mattel Inc., maker of Barbie dolls and other famous toys, agreed along with two of its former employees to pay $477,000 in fines for making political donations in the names of other people, the third-largest fine ever imposed by the Federal Election Commission.

The fines, announced Thursday, stem from $120,714 in donations that came out of Mattel funds from 1996 to 2000. The money went to 23 Democrats and Republicans, two party committees and five political action committees.

The reimbursement arrangement involved Mattel senior vice president Fermin Cuza and Mattel consultant Alan Schwartz, according to agreements signed with the FEC. Cuza was in charge of government affairs for the toy company.

Gaza Strip

Israeli shell hits building, kills seven at refugee camp

Amid a battle with Palestinian gunmen, an Israeli army tank fired a shell into a two-story building in Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, killing seven people and wounding at least seven, witnesses and hospital officials said today.

Israeli troops moved into the camp early today with tanks backed by helicopters. The army said it was conducting a targeted operation.

Inside the camp, an intense gunfight broke out between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen, spurred on by calls through mosque loudspeakers urging people to come out and fight the troops.

Miami

Pilot killed when small plane hits Federal Reserve building

A small plane crashed into the Federal Reserve Bank Building on Thursday night, killing the pilot, authorities said. No one inside the building was injured.

“We have no information that it was an intentional crash,” said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown in Washington. “It appears to be an accident.”

More than 100 people were attending a holiday party in the one-story building when the aircraft slammed into the northeast side of the bank, exploded and burst into flames.

Based on communications between the pilot and air traffic controllers, Brown said the FAA thought the plane was coming from the Florida Keys and traveling to New Smyrna Beach.