WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that a cache of leaked documents proves that Chinese authorities are engaged in massive and systemic repression of Muslims and other minorities in western China, as a number of foreign governments expressed serious concern about the scale of the campaign.

Pompeo said the documents underscored “an overwhelming and growing body of evidence” that China’s leaders are responsible for gross human rights violations in the Xinjiang region.

“They detail the Chinese party’s brutal detention and systematic repression of Uighurs and members of other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang,” Pompeo told reporters at a State Department news conference. “We call on the Chinese government to immediately release all those who are arbitrarily detained and to end its draconian policies that have terrorized its own citizens in Xinjiang.”

Pompeo’s comments come at a delicate time in U.S.-Chinese relations amid ongoing negotiations to end a trade w..

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis is planning to change official Catholic Church teaching to declare the use and possession of atomic weapons as “immoral,” a move that makes clear that his rejection of the Cold War-era doctrine of deterrence is to be official church policy.

Francis had declared the possession of nuclear weapons immoral on Sunday in Hiroshima during an emotional encounter with survivors of the U.S. atomic bomb.

On Tuesday, during a press conference en route home from Japan, Francis indicated that his Hiroshima address should be considered part of his magisterium, or official church teaching.

“This must go in the Catechism of the Catholic Church,” he said, referring to the published compendium of official church teaching.

“Not just the use, also the possession,” he said. “Because an accident of possession, or the insanity of a leader or someone, can destroy humanity.”

Francis first articulated his opposition to the doctrine of deterrence in 2017, during a V..

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A special anti-terrorism tribunal in Bangladesh sentenced seven members of a banned militant group to death Wednesday for their involvement in an attack on a Dhaka cafe that killed more than 20 people, mostly foreigners.

Judge Mojibur Rahman found the men from the Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh group guilty of various charges including planning the attack, making bombs and murder. An eighth defendant was acquitted.

Rahman announced the decision in front of a packed courtroom amid heavy security.

Five militants took hostages and opened fire on the Holey Artisan Bakery on July 1, 2016. Twenty hostages were killed, including 17 from Japan, Italy and India.

The five militants were killed by commandoes during a 12-hour standoff. Two security officials were killed.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, but the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina rejected it, saying the domestic group was behind it that the international group has n..

(LONDON) — Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn sought Tuesday to defuse harsh criticism about anti-Semitism leveled at the party by Britain’s chief rabbi.

Corbyn addressed Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis’ remarks in The Times newspaper while taking questions at a campaign event just over two weeks before Britain’s Dec. 12 election.

He denied Mirvis’ claim that Labour and its leader have been deeply tarnished by pervasive anti-Semitic attitudes.

The influential rabbi’s suggestion that Corbyn was unfit for high office represented a break from his traditional position of not commenting on party politics. He said Britain’s Jews are “gripped by anxiety” about Corbyn’s possible election.

Corbyn said that if he becomes prime minister, he wants to lead a government that has an “open door” to all faith leaders.

He said he would invite Mirvis and other religious leaders “to come talk to us about what their concerns are” and said no community would feel at risk because of their faith.

The rabbi’s ..

(BAGHDAD) — Three simultaneous explosions rocked Baghdad late Tuesday, killing five people and wounding more than a dozen, Iraqi officials said, in the first apparent coordinated attack since anti-government protests erupted nearly two months ago.

It was not immediately clear who has behind the bombings, which bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group. Iraq declared victory over the extremists nearly two years ago, but they still maintain a presence in parts of the country and carry out sporadic attacks.

Security officials said at least three people were killed and five wounded in an explosion in the southwestern Baiyaa neighborhood. Two were killed and four were wounded in northeastern Shaab City, and four were wounded in Baladiyat, southeast of Baghdad.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media, said two bomb-laden motorcycles and a roadside bomb were used in the attacks.

The bombings took place far from Baghdad’s Tahri..

A koala that had received global attention after dramatic video footage emerged of its rescue from Australia’s bushfires by a woman who wrapped it in her shirt has died after suffering extensive burns.

Video footage released on Nov. 19 showed the koala, later named Ellenborough Lewis, as it was rescued by Toni Doherty who plucked him from a tree in New South Wales. Doherty took the koala to the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie but the hospital were unable to save him and put him to sleep today as a result of his severe burns.

“In Ellenborough Lewis’s case, the burns did get worse, and unfortunately would not have gotten better,” the hospital said in a statement. “The Koala Hospital’s number one goal is animal welfare, so it was on those grounds that this decision was made.”

The death comes after Deborah Tabert, chairman of the Australian Koala Foundation, last week estimated that over 1,000 koalas have perished in the fires ravaging the country in the last two months.

Tabert fear..