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Filipina convict spared from Indonesia executions, Filipinos rejoice

Indonesia executed seven foreign drug convicts including two Australians by firing squad Wednesday, causing Canberra to withdraw its ambassador over the "cruel" punishment.

Authorities put the seven plus a local man to death after midnight (1700 GMT Tuesday) on the high-security prison island of Nusakambangan in central Indonesia, but a Filipina was spared at the 11th hour.

"We respect Indonesia's sovereignty but we do deplore what's been done and this cannot be simply business as usual," said Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

"For that reason, once all the courtesies have been extended to the Chan and Sukumaran families our ambassador will be withdrawn for consultations."

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, ringleaders of the so-called "Bali Nine" heroin-trafficking gang, were described as reformed men after years in prison by Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who joined Abbott at a press conference in Canberra.

Australia had mounted a sustained campaign to save its citizens, who have been on death row for almost a decade, with the prime minister repeatedly appealing for them to be spared.

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Indonesian activists hold portraits of inmates, all convicted on drug charges, during a demonstratio …

Australia has never recalled an ambassador over a drug execution before, but the punishments were "both cruel and unnecessary", Abbott said, necessitating the "unprecedented" move to bring back Ambassador Paul Grigson.

In a statement, the families said their sons did "all they could to make amends, helping many others" in the years since their arrests, with Sukumaran teaching fellow inmates English and art, and Chan ordained as a minister in February.

"They asked for mercy, but there was none. They were immensely grateful for all the support they received. We too, will be forever grateful."

- 'Yes, yes mama will live' -

The Philippine government expressed delight at the late reprieve for Mary Jane Veloso, whose case attracted emotive appeals for mercy from boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao among others.

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Armed Indonesian police secure the Nusakambangan port in Cilacap across from the Nusakambangan maxim …

"The Lord has answered our prayers," Foreign Affairs Department spokesman Charles Jose said, as activists holding a vigil in front of the Indonesian embassy in Manila broke into cheers and hugged each other.

Veloso was spared after someone suspected of recruiting her and tricking her into carrying drugs to Indonesia turned herself in to authorities in the Philippines.

"Miracles do come true," her mother Celia told a Philippine radio station, adding that her daughter's two young boys were awake and yelling "Yes, yes mama will live".

The other foreigners executed were one from Brazil and four from Africa.

Three of the African traffickers are confirmed as being from Nigeria. However it is not clear whether the fourth holds Ghanaian or Nigerian nationality.

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Activists holding candles and portraits of Filipina Mary Jane Veloso shout slogans during a vigil in …

The execution of the Brazilian, Rodrigo Gularte, has generated much criticism in his homeland, with his family saying he should not have faced the firing squad because he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Gularte's cousin was observed leaving the port crying, accompanied by a religious counsellor.

The Brazilian government expressed its "deep dismay" at his execution and interim foreign minister Sergio Franca Danese said Brazil was "evaluating" its relationship with Indonesia after its repeated appeals for clemency were ignored.

France said it "reiterates its opposition to the death sentence in all cases and all circumstances".

A Frenchman was originally among the group to be executed but he was granted a temporary reprieve after authorities agreed to allow an outstanding legal appeal to run its course.

- 'Utterly reprehensible' -

In Indonesian executions, convicts are led to clearings just after midnight, tied to posts and then given the option of kneeling, standing or sitting before being executed by 12-man firing squads.

President Joko Widodo has been a vocal supporter of the death penalty for drug traffickers, claiming Indonesia is facing an emergency due to rising narcotics use.

He has turned a deaf ear to appeals from the international community, led by United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon.

Amnesty International condemned the executions as "utterly reprehensible" in a statement from research director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific Rupert Abbott.

Following the executions, ambulances carried coffins away from the island where the men were put to death, with some shrouded in embroidery and others made of plain wood, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.

Australia's consul general to Bali, Majell Hind, who took custody of the bodies of Chan and Sukumaran, was seen departing the Cilacap port with other consular officials in a heavily tinted van.

Hind was tasked with delivering the news of the executions to the Chan and Sukumaran families, who are staying at a nearby hotel.

A woman from the Philippines was spared before the other convicts were killed by firing squad.
Drug smuggling charges

Wochit
Vatican Convenes Major Climate-Change Meeting

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The United Nations and Vatican joined forces Tuesday to warn about the dire effects of climate change, gathering religious leaders, Nobel laureates and heads of state to present a united front ahead of make-or-break environment talks later this year in Paris.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised Pope Francis for framing the need to combat global warming as an urgent moral imperative, saying his upcoming encyclical provided an "unprecedented opportunity" to create a more sustainable future for the planet.

Ban opened a Vatican conference on the environment that is a key part of the Holy See's rollout of Francis' eagerly awaited encyclical, which is expected in June. While popes past have all taken strong stands in favor of environmental protection, Francis will be the first to address climate change in a pontiff's most authoritative teaching document.

The conference gathered Francis' key environmental advisers, the presidents of Italy and Ecuador, religious leaders from different faiths, Nobel laureates and respected climate change scientists. They were unanimous in agreeing that climate change is real, it's mostly human-induced, the poorest suffer the most from it and collective action is needed to stop it.

In a joint declaration, the participants said they "appreciate that (nature) is a precious gift entrusted to our common care, making it our moral duty to respect rather than ravage the garden that is our home." It said the Paris climate talks "may be the last effective opportunity" to negotiate agreements to keep global warming under the 2 C (3.6 F) limit set by world governments in 2009.

Francis' encyclical has generated more excitement and anxiety than any papal document in recent times: Environmentalists are thrilled that Francis will be lending his voice to the conservation cause, while climate skeptics have argued that a pope has no business getting involved in the debate.

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Pope Francis shakes hands with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during their meeting at the Vatica …

But Ban said that while neither he nor the pope is a scientist, "what is important is ... to mobilize the will of the people and to lead the people."

Monsignor Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, one of Francis' key advisers, stressed that the document won't delve into the science of global warming, but rather focus on pastoral issues created by it.

"The Bible tells us that Adam was commanded to serve and preserve the Earth, but we're clearly not doing that," said Dr. Peter Raven, a leading authority on evolution and a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, which hosted the event.

Chemist Paul Crutzen of the Netherlands, who shared the 1995 Nobel Prize for chemistry for work on the ozone layer, showed a series of slides detailing concentrations of pollution in the atmosphere from man-made activities.

"This is something I would like to present to the skeptics who say that human impact" has had no role in the warming of the earth, he said.

The skeptical Chicago-based Heartland Institute, a conservative think tank, sent a team to Rome urging the pope not to lend his moral authority to the U.N.'s climate agenda and warning that he would just be confusing Catholics by writing an encyclical about it.

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AP writer Karl Ritter contributed from Rome.

This artist rendering shows former Michigan Solicitor General John Bursch defending state laws during the Supreme Court hearing on same-sex marriage. Justices, from left: Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, Antonin Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan. (Photo: Dana Verkouteren/AP)

The gay rights movement has spent years trying to convince judges across the country that prohibiting same-sexmarriage discriminates against gays and lesbians solely because of their sexual orientation.

But on Tuesday, a surprising question from Chief Justice John Roberts revived a very different legal strategy that the gay rights movement had all but abandoned.

Roberts, who generally sides with the court’s conservatives, asked John Bursch, who was defending Michigan’s same-sex marriage ban, whether the law discriminates against people based on their gender.

“Counsel, I’m not sure it’s necessary to get into sexual orientation to resolve the case,” Roberts said. “I mean, if Sue loves Joe and Tom loves Joe, Sue can marry him and Tom can’t. And the difference is based upon their different sex. Why isn’t that a straightforward question of sexual discrimination?”

Bursch responded that he believed the government can legally draw lines based on sex if it’s related to biology, such as the ability to procreate. But Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg disagreed with his interpretation, interrupting his rebuttal.

The argument quickly moved on to other questions, but the point Roberts raised hung in the air, suggesting a way for the chief justice to strike down state bans on gay marriage on relatively narrow grounds, without finding a fundamental right to marriage for LGBT people.

Twenty years ago, the gay rights movement won its first legal victory in the Hawaii Supreme Court using this very same gender discrimination argument. Same-sex couples are generally denied marriage licenses based on their gender, not their sexual orientation. If a straight man wanted to marry a straight man, he would not be allowed to in a state that bans same-sex marriage. So, as Roberts points out, the reason a man is denied a marriage license to marry another man is his gender. If he were a woman, he could marry his partner.

But since the Hawaii decision — which was later rebutted by a Constitutional same-sex marriage ban — judges have gone out of their way to reject it. In 2008, the California Supreme Court explicitly said that the marriage ban discriminated against gay people — not against people for their gender. And gay marriage advocates have focused on the fact that LGBT people are a group that’s unfairly discriminated against for their sexual orientation.

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — The eruption of Chile's Calbuco volcano threatens to cause widespread and lasting economic damage, turning cattle pastures barren and choking fish with volcanic ash in one of the world's top salmon-producing countries.

Thousands of cattle and sheep in danger of dying have been evacuated in Los Lagos. The region produced about 950 million liters of milk last year worth about $346 million, said Ema Budinich of the National Agriculture Society.

"About 50 percent of Chile's milk production is located in Los Lagos, so this is affecting the whole industry," Budinich said Tuesday.

Emir Jadue of the Chamber of Commerce in the nearby city of Puerto Varas estimated the costs at about $600 million and a 50 percent drop in the region's hotel industry.

Official damage estimates are not available yet, but Eduardo Aguilera of the National Fishing Service says about 20 million fish have died.

Calbuco roared back to life Wednesday after lying dormant since 1972. It billowed ash about 11 miles (18 kilometers) high in the initial blast, then several hours later produced a second, spectacular outburst that turned the nighttime sky reddish orange and caused huge lightning bolts to crackle through its ash plume.

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Dead fish lie in a tank at a salmon farm, destroyed by volcanic mudflows from the Calbuco volcano, i …

Some 4,500 people have been evacuated. But the Los Lagos agricultural service said more than 45,000 animals remain at risk from eating plants and drinking water contaminated by volcanic ash. Experts say the soil in the area may not recover for over a year.

The animals "are practically without food because the pasture ceased to exist. They're roaming on volcanic rock," said Rodrigo Lavin, head of a farming group in Llanquihue, a province of Los Lagos.

The mighty blasts left Ensenada, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from Calbuco's peak, a ghost town, abandoned most of by its 1,500 residents. Military officials and some returned residents have been clearing the thick soot that covers the town.

"Our three horses, which had been missing since the eruption, finally came back yesterday gaunt and thirsty," said Daniel Patricio Gonzalez who left town with his wife and children.

"But many other people have had to sacrifice their sheep because packs of hungry wild dogs have been eating them," Gonzalez said. "The losses from this eruption are huge, but the animals are the ones who are suffering the most."

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Associated Press writer Eva Vergara contributed to this report.

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Follow Luis Andres Henao on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LuisAndresHenao

Volcano could devastate Chliean farming region

The Calbuco volcano could cause lasting damage to an area reliant on cattle and salmon production.
20M dead fish

Amid burning buildings, broken windows, and demolished police cars, at least one image has emerged from Baltimore in the last 24 hours as a beacon of peace.

A photograph from the day of cleaning that followed a night of rioting shows a young boy offering a bottle of water to one of several police officers clad in riot gear.

“One of many pictures that I captured today in the midst of helping clean up the city and it speaks VOLUMES #baltimore,” wrote Bishop M. Cromartie alongside the image he posted to Facebook Tuesday morning.

By Tuesday evening, the photo had accumulated nearly 50,000 Facebook shares and also made the rounds on Twitter, where many thanked Cromartie for capturing such a “powerful” moment.

Follow Constance Jones @ConstanceJones HANDS DOWN the most powerful picture I have seen from #Baltimore. #BaltimoreRiots (Pic: Bishop M Cromartie) http://fb.me/7dgSMS5zD 5:44 PM - 28 Apr 2015 55 Retweets 99 favorites

Follow Karisa Maxwell @KarisaMaxwell FYI: That photo was taken by Bishop Cromartie while cleaning up the city w/ local volunteers. One of many photos of unity in a city divided. 3:03 PM - 28 Apr 2015 11 Retweet favorites

The heartwarming image is reminiscent of "Flower Power," the iconic 1967 photograph of a Vietnam war protester placing a carnation in the barrel of a National Guardsman's rifle

Just one day earlier, though, Baltimore looked more like 1968.

Violence ravaged the city Monday evening following the funeral of Freddie Gray — the 25-year-old who died from a spinal cord injury in police custody earlier this month — with looting, burning, smashing, and rock throwing carrying on well into the night. Governor Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency and, for the first time since the riots sparked by Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination 47 years ago, the Maryland National Guard was deployed to help city and state law enforcement quell the chaos.

Simultaneously, many of Baltimore's religious leaders set out to promote peace from within the community.

Yahoo News was unable to reach Bishop M. Cromartie, but according to his Facebook profile, he is a Senior Pastor at Prophetic Deliverance Ministries Inc. and a resident of Baltimore. The viral image of the little boy is one of a few photos and videos Cromartie has posted of the protests in Baltimore — both Monday night, before they were hijacked by violence, and Tuesday morning.

He has also used Facebook to urge fellow Baltimore clergy members to unite in the face of upheaval, posting messages like, “Preachers of Baltimore need to come together and protect and cover our city!!!!!! NOW!!!” and “PLESE [sic] DO NOT USE THIS SITUATION TO GAIN PUBLICITY FOR YOU AND YOUR MINISTRY!!!!”

Like Ferguson and North Charleston and New York City and all the other cities that have experienced unrest following high profile killings of unarmed black men by police this past year, the outrage in Baltimore is seen as the eruption of long-simmering racial tensions and anger over police brutality. Freddie Gray was just the boiling point.

Gray’s death, like Michael Brown’s and Eric Garner’s and many others before him, might be an opportunity to finally address and tackle a national problem. Still, another kind of tension exists over how best to express that anger, with many people, including President Obama, condemning the kind of behavior that seared through Baltimore Monday as “counterproductive.”

There’s been perhaps no better depiction of this frustration than the Baltimore riots’ other viral moment: The video of woman hitting her teenage son after realizing he was among the young people throwing rocks at police officers Monday.

Angry Baltimore mom beats son after seeing him throw rocks at police (video)

In an interview with CBS News Tuesday, Toya Graham said she had one thing on her mind when she noticed her 16-year-old Michael among those antagonizing the cops — and it wasn’t whether she was on camera.

“That’s my only son and at the end of the day I don’t want him to be a Freddie Gray,” Graham said. “But to stand up there and vandalize police officers, that’s not justice.”

Viral photo sends message of hope from Baltimore

The morning after parts of the city were ravaged by violence, an image of peace and cooperation emerged.
Response on Twitter