Agencies
Rome, June 13: Pope Francis Monday hit out at the “brazen” free circulation of arms worldwide, a day after a gunman used an assault rifle to kill 50 people in an Orlando gay nightclub. On a visit to the headquarters of the World Food Programme (WFP), the Pontiff contrasted the ease of obtaining lethal weapons with the bureaucratic obstacles often encountered by organisations trying to deliver humanitarian aid. “Whereas forms of aid and development projects are obstructed by involved and comprehensible political decisions, skewed ideological visions and impenetrable customs barriers, weaponry is not,” Francis said.
“It makes no difference where arms come from; they circulate with brazen and virtually absolute freedom in many parts of the world.” “As a result, wars are fed, not people.” Francis did not explicitly refer to the Orlando shooting in his speech at the UN agency. Sunday, he condemned the killings as an act of “homicidal folly and senseless hatred.” Global hunger and opposition to the arms trade have been recurring themes in Francis’s pronouncements since he became the first Pope from the southern hemisphere in 2013. The leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics insists hunger can be eliminated by addressing inequalities and waste.
“Food shortage is not something natural,” he said Monday. “That fact that today, well into the 21st century, so many people suffer from this scourge is due to selfish and wrong distribution of resources, to the ‘merchandising’ of food.”
Mateen’s father expressed support for Taliban
Washington: The Afghan father of Orlando gay nightclub shooter Omar Mateen had expressed support for the Afghan Taliban and denounced Pakistan in an online video, according to a media report. Seddique Mateen, who was referred to as Mir Seddique in early news reports, hosted the ‘Durand Jirga Show’ on a channel called Payam-e-Afghan, which broadcasts from California, the Washington Post reported. In it, the elder Mateen speaks in the Dari language on a variety of political subjects. Meanwhile, Omar Mateen, the Afghan-origin gunman who killed at least 50 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, was allegedly infuriated over seeing two men kissing in Miami recently, according to media reports.
Obama, Clinton postpone first joint campaign event
Washington: White House hopeful Hillary Clinton has postponed her first joint campaign event with President Barack Obama, in the aftermath of the worst mass shooting in US history. Clinton had been scheduled to appear with Obama in Wisconsin Wednesday, after he endorsed her as the Democratic candidate for November’s Presidential election, but this has been pushed back, her campaign said Sunday. The White House also confirmed the delay, announcing: “In light of the attack in Orlando, the President’s travel to Green Bay, Wisconsin scheduled for Wednesday has been postponed.”