Belfast, U.K.
Real IRA bombs MI5: A bomb timed to coincide with a milestone in the Northern Ireland peacemaking process went off outside the Belfast headquarters of MI5, the British domestic intelligence service, but the bravery of its unwilling courier averted mass casualties. Militants from the Real IRA, a splinter group of the now-disbanded Irish Republican Army, hijacked a taxi and ordered its driver to take the bomb to MI5 headquarters, threatening to kill him and his family if he alerted police. But the driver, who was not publicly identified, shouted, “It’s a bomb!” as soon as he got to the perimeter entrance, giving police enough time to evacuate nearby houses. The blast injured one person, just minutes after midnight—when Britain officially transferred power over policing and justice from London to local authorities.
Vatican City
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More pressure on the pope: Embattled Pope Benedict XVI this week faced new criticism over his handling of child-abusing priests when it emerged that he had personally delayed defrocking a convicted molester. The Rev. Stephen Kiesle, a California priest, had pleaded no contest to tying up and molesting two boys, and in 1981 he asked to be laicized, according to documents uncovered by the Associated Press. But then–Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was in charge of church discipline, refused to defrock Kiesle until 1987, despite numerous pleas from Kiesle’s bishop. In a 1985 letter, Ratzinger said he needed more time to consider how sanctioning Kiesle might affect “the good of the universal church.” Also this week, the Vatican for the first time issued a policy guideline that bishops should “comply with civil law” and report priests who abuse children to the police.
Athens
Saved by the EU: European governments have reluctantly agreed to bail Greece out of a debt crisis that has been threatening Europe’s monetary union. Investors, worried that Greece’s government and banks might become insolvent, have been selling off Greek government bonds, sending the euro plunging. To restore investor confidence, the 16 nations that use the euro agreed this week to put up 30 billion euros in loans, with each nation contributing according to the size of its economy. That makes Germany the biggest lender, and Germans aren’t happy. “I can’t accept that German taxpayers should bleed for Greece’s bad economic and fiscal policy,” said Karl Heinz Daeke, head of the Federation of German Taxpayers.
