Author: Greg Burke

A diplomatic dispute between Switzerland and Libya has now moved far beyond the borders of either country as Libya, angry about a Swiss black list, began to refuse entry this week to residents of any of the 25 European countries in what is known as the Schengen zone.

Foreign ministers from Italy, Malta and Libya were meeting today in Rome in an effort to resolve the impasse.

The spat began in the summer of 2008 when Swiss authorities questioned a son of Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi about allegedly mistreating domestic help while at a Swiss hotel.

Although that dispute was resolved and there were no charges filed, the Libyans retaliated by blocking two Swiss businessmen in Libya, who are currently living in the Embassy of Switzerland in Tripoli.

But now the fight has escalated after the Swiss government came up with a blacklist of 188 Libyans, including Qaddafi, blocking them from traveling to Switzerland.

While the Swiss are trying to hold the line and play hard ball with Libya, other European countries that want to protect their business interests in the North African nation are losing patience.

“This can’t last,” said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. “The Schegen countries can’t be held hostage.”

Pope Benedict said sex abuse is a “heinous crime” and a “grave sin” in a meeting with two dozen bishops from Ireland, a country that has been rocked by charges of widespread abuse and cover-ups in church institutions.

The bishops wrapped up a two-meeting with Pope Benedict and top Vatican officials today before heading back to Ireland for Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent.

Four bishops have already offered their resignations following the November publication of the Murphy Commission Report, which said cover-up of abuse in the Archdiocese of Dublin over the last 30 years was constant.

Benedict told Irish Catholics he felt betrayal and shame at the report’s findings, and promised to write a pastoral letter on the subject. That letter will be published during Lent.

A Vatican statement today said the Pope realizes the current situation won’t be resolved quickly, but that he challenged the Irish bishops to face the crisis with honesty and courage.

“The Holy Father observed that the sexual abuse of children and young people is not only a heinous crime, but also a grave sin which offends God and wounds the dignity of the human person created in his image,” the statement said.

Benedict has been quicker to respond to charges of sex abuse in the church than his predecessor, John Paul II, and spoke out forcefully against it on trips to both the United States and Australia. He also met with victims while in the U.S.

It was 20 years ago today that Nelson Mandela was freed from the Victor Verster Prison in South Africa. The anti-apartheid activist, who had spent 27 years in jail, would go on to become president of the country.

Mandela, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, helped the country avoid a bloodbath as the apartheid regime fell. The father of the new South Africa is now 91. While the country has not flourished in the way Mandela hoped, and is plagued with poverty and lots of violent crime, he is still immensely popular there.

On a recent trip to South Africa I spoke with a professor at the University of Cape Town, Richard  Calland, and popular cartoonist Zapiro about what Mandela has meant for the country. Clips from the interviews are in the video here.

If several dozen Iranians staged a violent protest in front of the Italian embassy in Tehran this week, there was a reason for it. In just a little more than a week, Italy has gone from being a kind of friend and certainly a major business partner with the Iranians — one of biggest in Europe, in fact — to leading the anti-Iran brigade.

Silvio Berlusconi set the tone on a trip to Israel at the beginning of February, vowing his friendship with the Israelis, and talking tough about Iran. He also compared Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Adolph Hitler.

The Iranian state-controlled media said Berlusconi was a slave of Israel, and called the Italian Ambassador to Tehran in for an explanation earlier this week. The explanation is probably that Europe is trying to show a united front in threatening sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear program. Foreign Minister Franco Frattini had initially warned against more sanctions, but has now changed his tack.

Frattini called the incident of demonstrators throwing rocks an “assault” on the Italian Embassy. That may have been an exaggeration, but it was loud and rowdy, with shouts of “Death to Italy” and “Death to Berlusconi,” which is not the kind of thing you expect to hear from a friendly country. Frattini said the Italian ambassador would not attend Thursday’s ceremonies marking the Iranian revolution.

Italy has also decided to cut its investments in Iran, specifically any future deals with the state-controlled oil company ENI. But hundreds of other Italian companies are still doing billions of dollars of business with Iran, and unless the spat gets a lot worse than shouting and rock throwing, they’re probably not going to stop.

You might have read this week about South African President Jacob Zuma having fathered his 20^th child. Perhaps it came as no surprise; the difference between 19 and 20 is not all that great.

The shock surrounding the most recent birth was not that Zuma has one more child, but that the mother is not one of his wives. In fact, she’s the daughter of a close friend of his.

But there are now reports tthat Zuma has married the woman, Sonono Khoza. That would make five marriages and four wives for the president, since one wife has died. And he has admitted to fathering the child.

Zuma’s adventures make John Edwards look like a Cub Scout. Before his election as president, Zuma was acquitted in a rape trial. But in the course of it, he admitted to having unprotected sex with a woman who was HIV-positive. He infamously said he took a shower afterwards to avoid infection.

After that, popular South African cartoonist Zapiro began always drawing Zuma with a shower nozzle over his head. Cameraman Peter Rudden and I interviewed Zapiro when I recently visited South Africa. With a guy like Zuma running the country, Zapiro has a lot of material to work with all the time.

Italy could beat France to a burqa ban, although members of the ruling center-right coalition were divided over whether it would be a wise decision.

Early this week, a parliamentary panel in France recommended limiting the use of the full veil, although the recommendation has not been debated by parliament or become law yet.

Italian government officials point out that they already have a 1975 anti-terrorism law on the books banning the use in public places of helmets and hoods that hide one’s identity.

While the Italian Minister for Equal Opportunity, Mara Carfagna, said she supported the French recommendation, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini argued that there are better ways to promote integration.

Italy’s anti-immigrant Northern League proposed a burqa ban in a bill last October, but it has not yet been debated by Parliament.

A burqa ban in Italy would be largely symbolic, since the full veil is hardly ever seen in the country. Even in France, which is about 10 percent Muslim, estimates are that fewer than 2,000 women wear the full veil.

The debate began in France after President Nicholas Sarkozy said the burqa was “not welcome” in the country, and the immigration minister said it was contrary to French values.

Pope John Paul II not only practiced severe bodily penance – including whipping himself with a belt and sleeping on the floor– but also wrote a letter in which he offered his resignation in the case he was incapacitated.

The revelations were made in an Italian book just published by the promoter of John Paul’s sainthood process, Msgr. Slawomir Oder.

The reports of the pope whipping himself first surfaced a couple of months ago in another Italian book, “Santo Subito,” by Andrea Tornielli. The Pope saw those penances, along with fasting and sleeping on the floor, as a way of uniting himself to the suffering of Christ.

While there had long been rumors of a resignation letter written during the pontificate, the new book brought it to light.

Oder’s book, “Why A Saint,” reproduces a 1989 letter in which the Pope offers his resignation to the College of Cardinals in case he was incapacitated. The Pope was only 68 at the time.

While there has been much speculation that John Paul will officially be declared “Blessed” by the Catholic Church in a massive ceremony in Rome this October, no date has been set for the beatification.

In December, Pope Benedict signed off on John Paul’s “heroic virtues,” officially making him Venerable, but a miracle worked through John Paul’s intercession has to be approved before he is declared Blessed.

A second miracle is necessary for full-fledged sainthood.

The head of Italy’s disaster-response department has trashed U.S.-led relief efforts in Haiti, calling them “pathetic” and saying people were more interested in getting on television than helping out the needy.

Guido Bertolaso, head of Italy’s Civil Protection Agency, and a well-respected relief coordinator, told Italian television that the U.S. military “tends to confuse military intervention with emergency intervention. There’s a capacity for coordination that’s missing, which is useful so that the assistance that’s been sent isn’t lost.”

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini quickly distanced the government in Rome from Bertolaso’s comments, which surprised many. He said Bertolaso was not speaking in any official capacity.

Bertolaso coordinated relief efforts after the 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila, and showed U.S. President Barack Obama around the area when he visited for the G8 summit of world leaders.

Bertolaso said the forces helping Haiti were frequently more focused on public relations than providing assistance.

“Once they’ve arrived on the scene of a disaster, organizations too often think about putting up a big poster with their symbol on it, to look good in front of cameras, rather than getting to work to bring aid to those who need it,” he said.