- Brazil lifts ban on Musk's X, ending standoff over disinformation
- Harris holds slight edge nationally over Trump: poll
- Chelsea edge Real Madrid in Women's Champions League, Lyon win
- Japan PM to dissolve parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- 'Diego Lives': Immersive Maradona exhibit hits Barcelona
- Brazil Supreme Court lifts ban on Musk's X
- Scientists sound AI alarm after winning physics Nobel
- Six-year-old girl among missing after Brazil landslide
- Nobel-winning physicist 'unnerved' by AI technology he helped create
- Mexico president rules out new 'war on drugs'
- Israeli defense minister postpones trip to Washington: Pentagon
- Europe skipper Donald in talks with Garcia over Ryder return
- Kenya MPs vote to impeach deputy president in historic move
- Former US coach Berhalter named Chicago Fire head coach
- New York Jets fire head coach Saleh: team
- Australia crush New Zealand in Women's T20 World Cup
- US states accuse TikTok of harming young users
- 'Evacuate now, now, now': Florida braces for next hurricane
- US Supreme Court skeptical of challenge to 'ghost guns' regulation
- Sparks fly as Orban berates EU 'elites' in parliament trip
- US finalizes rule to remove lead pipes within a decade
- Solanke hungry for second England cap after seven-year wait
- Gilded canopy restored at Vatican basilica
- Zverev scrapes through, Djokovic cruises to Shanghai Masters last 16
- Trump secretly sent Covid tests to Putin: Bob Woodward book
- Gauff answers critics: 'It's hard to win all the time'
- Neural networks, machine learning? Nobel-winning AI science explained
- China says raised 'serious concerns' with US over trade curbs
- Boeing delivers 27 MAX jets in September despite strike
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of other sex crimes
- Italy seek Nations League consistency as Germany continue rebuild
- From boom to budgeting as reality bites for Saudi football
- Stock markets diverge as Hong Kong sinks, oil prices fall
- US trade gap narrowest in five months as imports slip
- Stay and 'you are going to die': Florida braces for next hurricane
- England 96-1 after Salman's century lifts Pakistan to 556
- Hollywood star Idris Elba champions African cinema in Ghana
- Djokovic rolls Cobolli to make Shanghai Masters last 16
- Milan's Hernandez receives two-game suspension after referee rant
- Geoffrey Hinton, soft-spoken godfather of AI
- Ex-Barcelona and Spain great Iniesta retires aged 40
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for 'foundational' AI breakthroughs
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China slaps provisional tariffs on EU brandy imports
- Ex-skipper Skelton eyes Wallabies November return
- Spanish great Iniesta leaves indelible legacy after retirement
- Indian Kashmir elects first regional government in a decade
- Hong Kong stocks crash, oil prices retreat on fading China boost
- Man City accuse Premier League of 'misleading' claims after legal case
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for key breakthroughs in AI
N.Ireland ministers to apologise for institutional abuse
Ministers from Northern Ireland's five main political parties are on Friday to issue a public apology for historical, institutional abuses in children's homes after years of delays.
The apology will be offered at the seat of Northern Ireland's devolved government at Stormont, and mirrored by religious institutions that ran the homes and were found to have committed systemic failings.
A four-year inquiry into abuses in care homes in Northern Ireland found widespread mistreatment in its final report, which was rendered in 2017.
Among the report's recommendations was a call for a public apology to survivors.
The apology was due to be delivered by the executive's first and deputy first ministers but was thrown into jeopardy when the power-sharing government collapsed last month.
Margaret McGuckin, chairwoman of SAVIA (Survivors and Victims of Institutional Abuse), told AFP the apology had become a "political football" over the years but remained deeply important.
"There are many people who needed it and to hear: 'I'm sorry, it's not your fault'," she said.
She compared the significance of Friday's apology to that issued by the UK government after nearly 40 years for "Bloody Sunday," when troops shot dead 13 civil rights protestors in Londonderry in 1972.
McGuckin survived abuse at one of four homes run by the Catholic Sisters of Nazareth order which attracted the highest number of complaints during the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry.
Her brother, Kevin, has said he was sexually abused at a children's home run by a Catholic order from the age of 11 after the four children were taken into care.
A total of 493 people came forward to report abuses, with testimonies gathered in Northern Ireland, the rest of Britain, Ireland and Australia.
The report was particularly scathing over serial failures by police to investigate allegations and the role of the Catholic Church in protecting perpetrators.
It found "evidence of sexual, physical and emotional abuse, neglect and unacceptable practices" from 1922 to 1995 in most of the institutions it investigated.
These included 22 care homes run by state, church and charitable bodies.
On Wednesday, the UK government's Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said it was "only right" that victims of historical institutional abuse would receive the formal apology.
"For too many years the voices of victims and their appeals for help went unheard. On March 11 they will receive a full and unconditional apology that is so deserved for them," Lewis said during a session of questions on Northern Ireland in the UK parliament.
P.Martin--AMWN