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world news Diahuebs 26 November 2020
Iran says British-Australian academic freed for 3 Iranians

(AP) — Iran on Wednesday convicted of spying and sen- a time of already escalating age showed faint sunlight has gone on repeated hun-
freed a British-Australian tenced to 10 years behind tensions, which reached a streaming through windows ger strikes and her health
academic who had been bars. Moore-Gilbert had ve- fever pitch earlier this year during the swap. Later, foot- has deteriorated during long
detained in the country hemently denied the charges following the American kill- age showed Moore-Gilbert stretches in solitary confine-
for over two years, in ex- and maintained her inno- ing of a top Iranian general in being escorted to a large grey ment. Over the summer, she
change for three Iranians cence. She was one of several Baghdad and retaliatory Ira- van after nightfall. was transferred to the remote
held abroad, state TV an- Westerners held in Iran on nian strikes on a U.S. mili- The state TV report did not Qarchak Prison, east of Teh-
nounced. widely criticized espionage tary base. elaborate on the Iranians it ran, as fears escalated over
charges that activists and It was not immediately clear described as “economic ac- the spread of the coronavirus
The television report was U.N. investigators believe is when Moore-Gilbert would tivists” freed in exchange for in the country’s notoriously
scant on detail, saying only a systematic effort to lever- arrive back in Australia. State Moore-Gilbert. They wore crowded prisons.
that the three Iranians freed age their imprisonments for TV aired footage showing Iranian flags draped over Moore-Gilbert has appealed
in the swap had been im- money or influence in nego- her clad in a gray hijab sit- their shoulders, black base- to the Australian govern-
prisoned for trying to bypass tiations with the West, which ting at what appeared to be ball caps pulled down over ment to work harder for
sanctions on Iran. Tehran denies. Moore-Gil- a greeting room at Meh- their eyes and surgical masks, her release. In her letters to
Kylie Moore-Gilbert, 33, bert wrote in a series of letters rabad International Airport outfits apparently designed to Prime Minister Morrison,
was a Melbourne University to Australia’s Prime Minister in Tehran. Accompanied by conceal their identities on- she wrote that she had been
lecturer on Middle Eastern Scott Morrison detailing her another Western woman in screen. Iran’s deputy foreign subjected to “grievous viola-
studies when she was picked plight that she had been im- a colorful headscarf, Moore- minister, Abbas Araghchi, tions” of her rights, including
up at the Tehran airport while prisoned “to extort” the Aus- Gilbert wore a blue face mask welcomed the three Iranians psychological torture.
trying to leave the country tralian government. tucked under her chin and a at the airport. There was no immediate
after attending an academic Moore-Gilbert’s detention stoic expression. The timing International pressure has comment from Australian
conference in 2018. She was had strained relations be- of her release also remained been building on Iran to re- authorities on Moore-Gil-
sent to Tehran’s Evin prison, tween Iran and the West at unclear, but the TV foot- lease Moore-Gilbert. She bert’s release.

Vatican butler convicted in Benedict XVI leaks case dies

(AP) — Paolo Gabriele, the Vatican butler ist Gianluigi Nuzzi because he thought Benedict
who was convicted of stealing and leaking wasn’t being informed of the “evil and corruption”
Pope Benedict XVI’s private papers in 2012, in the Vatican and thought that exposing it publicly
has died. He was 54. would put the church back on the right track.
He was convicted of aggravated theft by a Vatican
Vatican News, the Holy See’s media portal, said tribunal and served a few months of his 18-month
Gabriele died Tuesday after a long, undisclosed sentence in the Vatican police barracks before
illness. Gabriele’s case kicked off the first of two Benedict pardoned him at Christmas 2012.
“Vatileaks” scandals, exposing the internal tumult The Gabriele scandal was believed to have played
and turf wars in the Holy See and allegations of at least a small part in Benedict’s eventual decision
corruption and wrongdoing at the highest levels of to resign as pope two months later. In its obituary
the Catholic Church. Gabriele was arrested in May notice Tuesday, Vatican News noted that Gabriele
2012 after Vatican police found what they called had been a member of the Pontifical Family, the
an “enormous” stash of papal documents in his small, tight-knit circle of people who surround the
Vatican City apartment that he had stolen from the pope, and his betrayal was sorely felt.
papal apartments.Gabriele told Vatican investiga- After he was freed, Gabriele went to work for the
tors he had given the documents to Italian journal- Vatican’s pediatric hospital. He is survived by a wife and three children.

Mine explodes, damaging oil tanker off Saudi Arabia

(AP) — A mine in the off the coast and had been ling the waterways of the posing “a serious threat to vessels,” that report warned.
Red Sea off Saudi Ara- boarded by Saudi officials, Mideast, said it was aware of maritime security in the Bab “Relatively small quantities
bia’s coast near Yemen the company said. Shuqaiq the incident. al-Mandab strait.” The strait present a threat out of pro-
exploded and damaged an is some 160 kilometers (100 is some 585 kilometers (363 portion to their numbers.”
oil tanker Wednesday, au- miles) north by sea from the Saudi state television later miles) south of Shuqaiq. Iran repeatedly has denied
thorities said, the latest in- Yemeni border. aired a report claiming a mili- The Saudi-led coalition has arming the Houthis, though
cident targeting the king- tary coalition led by the king- been battling the Iranian- experts say Iranian weapons
dom amid its long war Ambrey, a British security dom destroyed a bomb-laden backed Houthis since March ranging from small arms to
against Yemen’s Houthi firm, reported the blast and Houthi drone boat and that 2015. Houthi military of- missiles have been smuggled
rebels. attributed it to a mine. It said a merchant ship sustained ficials did not immediately to the rebels.
the Agrari had cargo from light damage. The report of- respond to a request for The Red Sea is a vital ship-
The blast happened before Rotterdam, Netherlands, fered no details and it wasn’t comment, but they’ve been ping lane for both cargo and
dawn and struck the MT that it had discharged at the immediately clear if the re- blamed for other mining in- the global energy supplies,
Agrari, a Maltese-flagged, Shuqaiq Steam Power Plant. port was the same incident at cidents during the course of making any mining of the
Greek-managed oil tanker “The explosion took place in Shuqaiq. the war. A United Nations area a danger not only to
near Shuqaiq, Saudi Arabia. port limits and punctured the The explosion comes after panel in 2018 found the Saudi Arabia but to the rest
“Their vessel was attacked by hull of the vessel,” Ambrey a cruise missile fired by Ye- Houthis used both impro- of the world. Mines can enter
an unknown source,” a state- said. men’s Houthi rebels struck vised and what appear to be the water and then be carried
ment from the Agrari’s oper- The United Kingdom Ma- an oil facility early Monday Iranian-manufactured “bot- away by the currents, which
ator, TMS Tankers Ltd., said. rine Trade Operations, an in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia. tom” mines, explosives that changed by the season in the
“The Agrari was struck about information exchange over- The Saudi-led coalition re- could be live in the water for Red Sea.
1 meter above the waterline seen by the British royal navy ported Tuesday that it re- as a long as a decade. The Red Sea has been mined
and has suffered a breach. It in the region, acknowledged moved and destroyed five “Sea mines are low cost, easy previously. In 1984, some 19
has been confirmed that the a ship had “experienced an Iranian-made naval mines to deploy, tactically very ef- ships reported striking mines
crew are safe and there have explosion,” without elabo- planted by the Houthis in the fective, difficult to detect and there, with only one ever be-
been no injuries.” rating. The U.S. Navy’s 5th southern Red Sea, condemn- thus are a potent threat to ing recovered and disarmed,
The ship was still floating Fleet, responsible for patrol- ing the attempted attacks as both naval and commercial the U.N. panel said.