“Is it necessary for the government to do this?” asks Chinese Christian after church demolition
World Watch Monitor Chinese authorities have demolished a church in Jinan, Shandong province, to make way for further development of the area, Catholic news agency UCAN reports. Liangwang Catholic Church was legally registered with the religious administration. So was Shilihe Church, of the same diocese, demolished earlier this year. A third church, Wangun Catholic Church in […]
More than 1,500 have died trying to cross Mediterranean Sea in first seven months of 2018, says UNHCR
More than 1,500 people have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe in the first seven months of this year – with more than 850 people killed in June and July alone, according to the UN refugee agency. Figures from UNHCR show that about 60,000 people have crossed the Mediterreanean this year and while […]
Assault on Christian leader in Nepal reflects growing threat
Morning Star News Pastor Sagar Baizu, 46, had finished one meeting and had an hour before the next one, so he decided to stop at a café on a major thoroughfare in Kathmandu, capital of Nepal, on 19th July. As he was about to sip a coffee in the crowded café at 2 pm, six […]
Salvation Army urges Australians to support efforts to help drought-stricken farmers
The Salvation Army is urging Australians to support efforts to help farmers in the country’s east facing the worst drought in more than 100 years. The organisation has deployed rural chaplains and other personnel to drought-affected areas, visiting farmers and rural communities and providing assistance including food hampers, helping with bill payments and other expenses, […]
INDIA: HINDU EXTREMIST VIOLENCE ON THE RISE IN SOUTHERN STATES
TEJASWI RAVINDER reports for World Watch Monitor…
Moves to cut emissions could cause more hunger than climate change, study finds
Thomson Reuters Foundation Adopting some of the most stringent measures needed to curb climate change across all industries could cause hunger levels to rise by three times as much as global warming itself, according to a study released last week. Including agriculture in schemes such as a global carbon tax could put 78 million more […]
ESSAY: RISING SUICIDES IN MEXICO EXPOSE MENTAL HEALTH TOLL OF LIVING WITH EXTREME, CHRONIC VIOLENCE
CECILIA FARFÁN-MÉNDEZ, a postdoctoral scholar at the Center for US-Mexican Studies at the University of California San Diego, says while violence is once again rising in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, even when it was declining, the number of suicides was on the rise…
THIS LIFE: FINDING JOY IN A CHAOTIC WORLD
US columnist CAROL ROUND, in an article first published on ASSIST News Service, reflects on the concept of “Biblical optimism”…
Breaking: At least 82 killed in earthquake on Indonesian island of Lombok
At least 82 people have been killed on the Indonesia island of Lombok after a magnitude seven earthquake, a week after an earlier quake killed more than a dozen people there. The latest earthquake, which shook buildings as far away as Denpasar in Bali when it struck early on Sunday night, saw thousands of Lombok’s […]