Venezuela: Vatican calls on Nicolas Maduro's government to suspend constitutional assembly

The Vatican has urged Venezuela’s president not to proceed with a controversial new assembly that his critics say would give him unprecedented power.In a statement issued on the day Mr Maduro was set to install the new assembly - a vote for which last week was boycotted by the opposition parties and denounced as “rigged - the Vatican called on “all political actors, and in particular the government, to ensure full respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and the existi