China: Japanese activist for refugees detained

Chinese authorities have detained a Japanese activist who helped establish an organization that assists North Korean refugees, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

Hiroshi Kato, who had been missing for six days, was detained with his interpreter for allegedly violating Chinese immigration laws, said Foreign Ministry official Naoko Murasaki.

She said Kato, a co-founder of Tokyo-based Life Funds for North Korean Refugees, was to be expelled today from China.

Public TV broadcaster NHK said Kato was accused of planning and helping carry out the asylum bids of North Koreans who took refuge in foreign embassies in Beijing.

The interpreter, Masahiro Mizuta, a Japanese student who attends a Chinese university, was to be released and allowed to continue his studies in China, NHK said.

Germany: Sept. 11 defendant called Nazi admirer

A Moroccan student on trial for allegedly aiding the Hamburg cell of Sept. 11 suicide hijackers expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler’s attempt to exterminate the Jewish people and said Israel has no right to exist, a former roommate testified Tuesday.

In the first trial of a Sept. 11 suspect, Mounir el Motassadeq is accused of aiding suspected lead hijacker Mohammed Atta and two other suicide pilots who lived in Hamburg.

El Motassadeq, 28, is accused of handling logistics for the Hamburg cell, such as channeling money to the hijackers.

Ralf Goetsche, who shared an apartment with el Motassadeq and three others in 1996, said the accused exhibited a “strong anti-Semitic stance.”

“One day he was sitting in the living room and he said, out of the blue, what Hitler did wasn’t that bad,” Goetsche told the court. “And when I asked him what exactly he meant, he said ‘with the Jews’.” Hitler’s Nazis killed 6 million Jews during the Holocaust of World War II.

Vatican City: Guidelines to address admission of gay priests

The Vatican said Tuesday it was drafting new guidelines for accepting candidates for the priesthood that would address the question of whether gays should be barred.

The brief statement by the Vatican’s Press Office gave no indication what the conclusion may be despite news reports that the document will include directives against the admission of homosexuals.

Vatican congregations have been studying the issue for several years, but the question has received renewed attention after the clerical sex abuse scandal in the United States.

Most of the victims of molestation by priests have been adolescent boys. Experts on sex offenders say there is no credible evidence that homosexuals are more likely than heterosexuals to abuse children, but several church leaders have argued that gay clergy are to blame for the scandal.

A Vatican official, requesting anonymity, said the question of admitting homosexuals and other issues will be addressed in a letter to seminaries.

France: New arrivals banned at refugee center

A refugee center that has served as a stepping stone for illegal immigration to Britain closed its doors to new arrivals Tuesday, the first step toward shutting it down.

The Red Cross center at Sangatte, near the French end of the English Channel, is to close by April 2003, according to a French-British agreement.

Because asylum laws are looser in Britain than in France, many refugees try to sneak across the channel from the center, risking their lives to stow away on freight trains heading through the Channel Tunnel. Last year, six refugees were killed and 100 injured trying to reach Britain.

Authorities caught 18,500 refugees trying to cross the tunnel in the first half of 2001.

Refugees already at the center can remain, but no more will be admitted.