Chinese Vice-Foreign Affairs Minister Le Yucheng delivers his speech during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of China by Human Rights Council, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
Chinese Vice-Foreign Affairs Minister Le Yucheng delivers his speech during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of China by Human Rights Council, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP) Credit: SALVATORE DI NOLFI

China Dismisses Criticism About Mass Detentions at UN

Geneva — China on Tuesday once again rejected criticism of its treatment of ethnic Muslims, telling the United Nations that accusations of rights abuses from some countries were “politically driven.”

At a U.N. review of the country’s human rights record, China characterized the far west region of Xinjiang as a former hotbed of extremism that has been stabilized through “training centers” which help people gain employable skills.

Former detainees of such centers, on the other hand, have described the facilities as political indoctrination camps where ethnic Uighurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim minorities are forced to renounce their faith and swear loyalty to the ruling Communist Party.

The U.N. previously has said there are credible reports that as many as 1 million people are being held in this form of extrajudicial detention.

At Tuesday’s review — part of the Human Rights Council’s periodic review process for every member state — the U.S., Canada, Japan and several other countries called on Beijing to address growing concerns over its treatment of Xinjiang Muslims.

Apologizing for Cover-Up, Diocese Vows to ID Accused Priests

Iowa City, Iowa — A Roman Catholic diocese issued an apology on Tuesday for covering up an Iowa priest’s sexual abuse of boys for decades and promised to identify all priests who have faced credible allegations.

The actions by the Diocese of Sioux City come in response to an investigation by The Associated Press, which last week broke the church’s 32-year silence on serial abuse by the Rev. Jerome Coyle.

In a lengthy statement on Tuesday, the diocese said more disclosures of misconduct may be forthcoming. It urged all victims to come forward and vowed to use their reports and other files to create and publish a list of credibly accused priests — a step the diocese had long resisted. Coyle admitted to then-Bishop Lawrence Soens in 1986 to having sexually abused 50 boys over a 20-year period. The diocese said that it should have notified parishes and asked victims to come forward back then, and apologized that its former leaders failed to do so. Instead, the diocese sent Coyle to a treatment center for accused priests in New Mexico, where he lived and worked as a civilian for decades.

The diocese said that its current leadership should have notified the public this summer when Coyle was placed at a retirement home near a Catholic school, which he moved out of last week following AP’s disclosure of his history. But the statement said that its bishop, R. Walker Nickless, “inherited many issues from the past,” including the challenging of finding housing for accused priests who were never charged and aren’t listed as sex offenders.

Former Nazi SS Camp Guard, 94, Goes on Trial in Germany

Muenster, Germany — A 94-year-old former SS enlisted man went on trial on Tuesday in Germany, facing hundreds of counts of accessory to murder for alleged crimes committed during the years he served as a guard at the Nazis’ Stutthof concentration camp.

Johann Rehbogen was pushed into the Muenster state court trial in a wheelchair, a wooden cane at his side and a briefcase on his lap. He appeared alert and attentive as presiding judge Rainer Brackhane asked him questions, answering in slow, concise sentences.

Rehbogen is accused of working as a guard at the camp east of Danzig, which is today the Polish city of Gdansk, from June 1942 to about early September 1944.

— The Associated Press