POSTCARDS: AS UN CLIMATE TALKS NEAR, HOST CHILE CHARGES UP PUBLIC TRANSPORT
JOHN BARTLETT, writing for Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports from Santiago…
Bishops worry divisions on “details” at synod distract from big picture
Vatican CityRNS Halfway into a three-week gathering of bishops at the Vatican to discuss the Amazon region, participants warned that inside divisions over ordination or inculturation risk missing the forest, so to speak, for the trees. “In focusing only on certain themes, there is the risk of losing the broader outlook,” said the Vatican’s chief […]
Keep girls in schools to end hunger and poverty, Sachs tells governments
Rome, ItalyThomson Reuters Foundation Keeping girls in schools in Africa is key to lowering the fast-growing continent’s high fertility rates and ultimately ending hunger and poverty, US economist Jeffrey Sachs said Wednesday. Failure to do would bring more misery and suffering to the region, he warned, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa where nearly one in four […]
Compulsory photo ID to vote sparks fears of vulnerable Britons losing out
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation Thousands of homeless people and minority groups in Britain could be blocked from voting in national elections if government plans requiring voters to show photo identification go ahead, civil society groups warned on Tuesday. The proposal requiring all citizens to present photo ID to vote were outlined by Queen Elizabeth on […]
STRANGESIGHTS: THE POPE, SAINTS AND THE NFL; CARRY A BOOK AND HAVE A FREE RIDE; AND, A 12 HOUR PRESS CONFERENCE
DAVID ADAMS writes about the odder side of life…
Museum of the Bible says Oxford professor sold fragments illicitly
RNS As many as 17 ancient Bible fragments that Hobby Lobby’s owner, billionaire Steve Green, bought for the Museum of the Bible were apparently stolen by a world-renowned Oxford University professor, the museum has acknowledged. The acknowledgment builds on a slow drip of revelations over the past two years regarding the problematic origins of many of […]
Iranian pastor ends hunger strike
Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani – currently serving a 10 year prison sentence in Tehran for “acting against the national interest” – has ended a three week hunger strike held to protest bars on his children’s education. Nadarkhani began the strike on 23rd September after his 15 year-old son Yoel was informed he could not return to school […]
Rescuers slog through mud as Japan typhoon death toll rises to 66
Koriyama, JapanReuters The death toll in the worst typhoon to hit Japan for decades climbed to 66 on Tuesday as rescuers slogged through mud and debris in an increasingly grim search for the missing, and as thousands of homes remained without power or water. Fifteen people remain missing nearly three days after Typhoon Hagibis smashed […]
REFUGEES: AS FEWER ENTER US, ONE CHICAGO GROUP DECIDES TO GO TO THEM
EMILY MCFARLAN MILLER, of Religion News Service, reports on how Chicago-based Christian organisation Exodus World Service, is bridging the gap between Americans and refugees…
Global index finds climate change driving “alarming” hunger levels
LondonThomson Reuters Foundation Central African Republic topped an annual world hunger index on Tuesday as aid agencies warned that climate change was making it increasingly hard to feed the world. Aid agency Concern Worldwide, which co-compiles the Global Hunger Index, said progress towards a 2030 zero hunger target agreed by world leaders was “under threat […]