28 June 2013 -- News In Brief

• The United States plans to start supplying arms directly to Syrian rebels within a month, American officials said Thursday, as it emerged that the CIA has begun shipping weapons to a secret network of warehouses in Syria's neighbour, Jordan. Leaked CIA plans disclose that Washington will dispatch arms from Jordan to specially vetted groups in the Free Syrian Army in co-ordination with European and Arab allies. The arms supplies are intended to be in the hands of the rebels before an offensive against Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime is launched in early August, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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• Readings by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft confirm it is in unfamiliar territory, but it is still inside our solar system. Voyager 1 is about 18.5 billion kilometres from the sun and is poised to become the first spacecraft to break out of the solar system into the space between stars. Scientists do not know how far this region extends.
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• Police in Tennessee say a puppy was killed when a man put it in a dishwasher and ran the machine. Police charged 27-year-old Marcus Curry with aggravated abuse to animals. He is being held on a $40,000 bond. Police were called Wednesday by an apartment maintenance man who found a dead puppy in a trash bin.
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• The UN is raising the alarm about the recent rape of nine young girls in conflict-ridden eastern Congo, the youngest 18 months old. Two girls died, though their ages weren't released. Two officials say the girls were admitted to Panzi Hospital in South Kivu province over the past two months with serious internal wounds. UN special representative to Congo, Roger Meece, and UNICEF representative Barbara Bentein released their statement through UN deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey on Thursday. Officials said two suspects have been arrested.
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•  Civilians in hospitals, schools, churches and mosques are increasingly put in harm's way in armed conflicts around the world, including in Syria, Red Cross head Peter Maurer said Thursday. "Weaponization of medical facilities" and similar misuse of schools, churches and mosques is a worrisome trend, he said.
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• An autopsy confirms that a 2-year-old found dead in a car west of Toronto had been exposed to searing temperatures while left alone in the vehicle, police say. Investigators say the boy was found Wednesday outside a Milton, Ontario home. They say the boy was in the care of his grandmother, who is in her 50s. Police say they are awaiting further toxicology tests for an exact cause of death. The homicide squad is investigating.
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• Matteo Renzi, Florence's mayor has denied his city is a hotbed of "bunga bunga" amid a growing scandal involving prostitutes being paid for sex by council officials and local worthies. Goings-on in the Tuscan city have invited comparisons with parties organized by Silvio Berlusconi, who was this week sentenced to seven years' jail after being found guilty of paying for sex with an underage prostitutes. Prosecutors are investigating a network of 142 prostitutes, many of them from Eastern Europe, who were allegedly paid for sex by council officials and businessmen. Fourteen people are being investigated for procuring prostitutes based on 4,000 pages of transcripts of telephone calls.
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• Pope Francis told the Vatican's ambassadors they risked "ridicule" if they lived overly comfortable lives, in the latest expression of his desire for a more austere Roman Catholic Church. The Argentinian Pope said the apostolic nuncios (ambassadors) should eschew a "bourgeois" style of life and reject the pursuit of worldly goods. He said they had a vital role in the countries they represent by recommending who should be made bishops. But they should avoid candidates who were overly ambitious or showed "a princely psychology". "There is always a risk ... of giving in to that sort of "bourgeoisie of the spirit and life' which drives one to recline, to seek out a comfortable and tranquil life", he said.