Latin America teen pregnancy rate ‘unacceptably high’, says UN
Thomson Reuters Foundation There has been insufficient progress in reducing high teenage pregnancy rates in Latin America and the Caribbean, three United Nations agencies said on Wednesday, as they warned that rising numbers of girls under 15 were falling pregnant. Although overall teenage pregnancy rates “dropped slightly” over the past three decades, the region has […]
Crowds line up to bid Billy Graham farewell at US Capitol
RNS Stanley Holmes, of Skyline, Marylan., right, holds his grandson Royce Holmes, two, on his shoulders as they stand in line to attend the public viewing of evangelist Billy Graham’s casket in the Capitol Rotunda. “I told my grandson that we are going to go to the same thing together as I did with […]
Rare papal vestments to go on show at New York’s Met
Rare papal vestments from the Vatican will form the heart of an upcoming exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York which aims to show the influence of the Catholic Church in the fashion world. Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination opens on 10th May and features some 40 liturgical vestments and accessories […]
STRANGESIGHTS: MOBILE COVERAGE…ON THE MOON?; STOLEN PAINTING TURNS UP IN A BUS; AND, SNAIL RACE CALLED OFF…
DAVID ADAMS writes about the odder side of life…
Syria faces two million lawsuits over lost and damaged property, say experts
Thomson Reuters Foundation Syrians are likely to file more than two million lawsuits seeking restitution for lost and damaged property, experts said on Tuesday, emphasising the need to work on a solution even while the civil war is ongoing. The conflict will enter its eighth year next month, having killed hundreds of thousands of people […]
Dozens of nuns, other Catholics arrested in US advocating for immigrants
RNS Dozens of nuns, priests and lay people were arrested in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC, as part of a Catholic-led effort to persuade lawmakers to protect undocumented immigrants who were brought to this country as children. Those arrested were part of a group of at least 200 Catholic demonstrators who marched on Capitol […]
NEPAL: VICTIMS DESPAIR DESPITE NEW GOVERNMENT’S PLEDGE OVER WAR CRIMES
GOPAL SHARMA, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on how victims abused during a civil war which ended more than a decade ago are still waiting for justice…
Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to reopen after tax dispute
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is expected to open again Wednesday morning after it was closed on Sunday in protest over government changes to the way church properties are taxed. Christian leaders who have custody of the site – including representatives of the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian churches – said it would reopen […]