Chile

Court upholds Pinochet indictment

An appeals court Monday upheld the indictment and house arrest of former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet on human rights charges during his 17-year military regime.

A panel of the Santiago Court of Appeals voted 3-0 to uphold the indictment, said Judge Juan Escobar, a member of the panel.

The decision came as Pinochet, 89, recovered at the Santiago Army Hospital from a stroke he suffered on Saturday.

Pinochet was indicted a week ago by Judge Juan Guzman, who charged him in nine kidnappings and one homicide during his 1973-90 dictatorship.

United Nations

Human rights abuses in Iran condemned

The U.N. General Assembly on Monday approved a U.S.-backed resolution criticizing Iran for human rights violations, citing new restrictions on freedom of expression and the persecution of political and religious dissenters.

The measure, which is not legally binding but reflects global opinion, was approved 71-54 with 55 abstentions.

The world body said there was a “worsening situation” regarding freedom of opinion and expression, and freedom of the media, “especially the increased persecution for the peaceful expression of political views, including arbitrary arrest and detention without charge or trial.”

Italy

New smoking ban meets resistance

A cigarette with that Chianti? No more — at least not in most of Italy’s restaurants and bars, starting next month.

In this cigarette-loving country, a new law to ban smoking in public places has won support from nonsmokers. Restaurant owners, however, are fuming because it requires them to report diners who flout the law and light up.

They worry their new policing role will sour relations with customers.

“We are being asked to become informers, but we don’t want to give up our relation with customers,” lamented Edi Sommariva, the director general of the Italian federation that groups bars, restaurants and other public places.

If the law isn’t changed, he said Monday, the association will go to court.

The new legislation goes into force Jan. 10. It was originally expected to take effect at the end of this month, but officials agreed to postpone enforcement to allow smokers a few last puffs on New Year’s.

Vatican City

Beatification approved for nun who aided lepers

The Vatican cleared the way Monday for the beatification of Mother Marianne Cope, a nun who worked for more than 30 years with leprosy patients at Molokai’s Kalaupapa settlement in Hawaii.

The Vatican accepted a miracle attributed to the nun’s intercession, a required step for beatification. No details of the miracle were given.

Beatification is the last formal step before possible sainthood.

Born as Barbara Koob in Germany in 1838, Mother Marianne went to the United States at age 2 and later joined the order of St. Francis sisters in New York.

When Hawaii sought help caring for leprosy patients at the Kakaako Branch Hospital in 1883, Mother Marianne and six other sisters volunteered to go to Honolulu.

Five years later, she moved to the isolated peninsula on Molokai to supervise a new home for girls. She eventually took over Kalaupapa’s home for boys, too, and remained until she died in 1918 at the age of 80.