MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) –
Missiles fired from US drones Sunday killed at least four militants in a restive Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan, security officials said.

“A US drone fired two missiles on a militant compound near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Four militants were killed,” a senior security official told AFP.

“It is not immediately clear if there was any important target,” he added.

Two other security officials and an intelligence official confirmed the drone strike and death toll in the Inzar village of North Waziristan tribal district.

“The targeted compound belongs to a relative of a militant commander,” the official said, adding that the militants had not yet begun rescue activities as US drones were still flying above the site.

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DUBLIN – Pope Benedict XVI’s unprecedented letter to Ireland apologizing for chronic child abuse within the Catholic Church failed Saturday to calm the anger of many victims, who accused the Vatican of ducking its own responsibility in promoting a worldwide culture of cover-up.

Benedict’s message — the product of weeks of consultation with Irish bishops, who read it aloud at Masses across this predominantly Catholic nation — rebuked Ireland’s church leaders for “grave errors of judgment” in failing to observe the church’s secretive canon laws.

The pope, who himself stands accused of approving the transfer of an accused priest for treatment rather than informing German police during his 1977-82 term as Munich archbishop, suggested that child-abusing priests could have been expelled quickly had Irish bishops applied the church’s own laws correctly. He pledged a church inspection of unspecified dioceses and orders in Ireland to ensure their child-protection policies were effective.

He also appealed to priests still harboring sins of child molestation to confess.

“Openly acknowledge your guilt, submit yourselves to the demands of justice, but do not despair of God’s mercy,” he wrote.

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