WOW!: ‘RESILIENT’ REFUGEES FIND FREEDOM WITH AUSTRALIAN FOOD BUSINESS
DOUG HENDRIE, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on how a Melbourne-based social enterprise is helping refugees in Australia to make a new life for themselves…
Perpetrators of Minya bus attack and the beheading of Coptic Christians captured in Libya
World Watch Monitor One of the “most wanted” Islamic extremists who is suspected of participating in the gun attack on a bus convoy of Coptic Christian pilgrims in May, 2017, has been captured by Libyan security forces, the BBC reports. The attack killed 28 people, including two children. Twenty-five others were injured. Hisham Ashmawi is the leader of the militant […]
Spike in Ebola cases pushes Congo outbreak to ‘tipping point’ – aid workers
Thomson Reuters Foundation Aid agencies said on Thursday that the Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo could be tipping into a wider crisis as the number of new cases spiked and violence grounded health workers for a second time. The disease is believed to have infected 194 people and killed 122 since the outbreak […]
Inspired by nuns, conservative, progressive evangelicals hop on the bus
RNS It all started with some nuns on a bus. Now, with midterm elections coming up next month, more faith-based organisations are hitting the road to energise religious voters. They include Vote Common Good, which is reaching out to progressive evangelicals, and the Family Research Council’s Values Bus, reaching out to conservative evangelicals. Attendees sign […]
KNOW IT ALL: AUSTRALIA’S PARLIAMENT HOUSE
Australia’s Parliament House turns 30 this year. DAVID ADAMS takes a look behind the scenes…
Pope likens abortion to “hiring a hitman to resolve a problem”
Abortion is like “hiring a hitman to resolve a problem”, Pope Francis said at his weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square this week. In some of his strongest comments on the issue, the Pope was reportedly reflecting on the fifth Commandment – “You shall not kill” – when he noted a “contradictory approach to […]
MSF ends mental health care on Nauru on government orders
Thomson Reuters Foundation Medecins Sans Frontieres has pulled its mental health workers off Nauru on government orders, the medical charity said on Wednesday, calling the situation of asylum seekers and refugees on the Pacific island “beyond desperate”. MSF said international staff had left Nauru, where it was providing mental health care to locals, refugees and […]
BEDROOM, BAR, BROTHEL: THE MANY FACES OF MIGRANT HOMES IN ITALY
MICHELE BERTELLI, writing for Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports from Italy…
Violence against Christians in India continues in run-up to 2019 elections
World Watch Monitor Hindu nationalists vandalised two Christian places of worship in the northern Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Assam in the last two weeks, reports AsiaNews. On 29th September a statue of Saint John Bosco, also known as Don Bosco, was desecrated in the city of Tezpur, Assam, northeast India. So far it is not […]
ESSAY: RUDDOCK REPORT CONSTRAINS, NOT EXPANDS, FEDERAL RELIGIOUS EXEMPTIONS
After extracts of the long-awaited Ruddock report into religious freedom were leaked this week, Australian academics LIAM ELPHICK, AMY MAGUIRE and ANJA HILKEMEIJER, in an article first published on The Conversation, take a look at what the review’s recommendations may mean for Australia…