POSTCARDS: GLORIES OF OLD KABUL EMERGE FROM DECADES OF WAR – AND TRASH
RINA CHANDRAN, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on how Kabul’s Old City is being restored after years of conflict…
Bougainville independence hopes rise as vote counting set to begin
Sydney, AustraliaReuters Bougainville began counting votes on Tuesday in its independence referendum, officials said, amid expectations for the South Pacific region once ravaged by fierce fighting to overwhelmingly back independence from Papua New Guinea. Results are expected to be released on Thursday after the non-binding vote, held from 23rd November to 7th December, under a […]
Spitting volcano keeps search parties off New Zealand island, death toll rises to six
Whakatane/Wellington, New ZealandReuters Fearing the volcano could erupt again, search parties were unable to set foot on New Zealand’s White Island for eight people still missing on Tuesday, as police raised the death toll to six from the eruption a day earlier. Police doubted whether any more survivors would be found. They said latest victim […]
Runaway warming could sink fishing and reef tourism, researchers warn
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation Countries from Egypt to Mexico could lose 95 per cent of their income from coral reef tourism, and parts of West Africa could see their ocean fisheries decline by 85 per cent by the turn of the century if planet-warming emissions continue to rise, oceans experts have warned. “Action in reducing […]
Azerbaijan plants 650,000 trees to celebrate poet – but green activists grumble
Tbilisi, GeorgiaThomson Reuters Foundation Oil-rich Azerbaijan planted more than half a million trees on Friday to celebrate a 14th century poet, an initiative the government said would help tackle climate change but some environmental activists called “a waste of money”. The Azeri ministry of ecology said 650,000 trees were being planted across the country to […]
Head of Founders Ministries hospitalised
RNS Thomas Ascol, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Florida, and head of Founders Ministries, was hospitalised on Sunday after collapsing during church. According to a statement from Founders Ministries, Ascol was ministering to his church on Sunday morning when he “suddenly fell to the ground and was unresponsive.” He was then rushed to a […]
Pope Francis taps Filipino Cardinal to Vatican’s evangelisation powerhouse
Vatican CityRNS In a surprise move, Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, Philippines, as the head of Propaganda Fide, the major Vatican department for evangelisation, on Sunday. It’s a move that emphasises this pontificate’s efforts to highlight the global peripheries and taps the cardinal as a possible successor. “Thank you very much […]
PRINCIPAL
In primary school one of my friends scribbled in my workbook. I said, ‘Don’t’ and pulled my book away. For the rest of the class he kept reaching over and scribbling! PICTURE: Jeffrey Hamilton/Unsplash Now I was a good kid, so I didn’t retaliate, until the 10th time! Them I scribbled on his book! […]
EGYPT: COPTIC COMMUNITY RIGHTS ACTIVIST ARRESTED AMID HEIGHTENED SURVEILLANCE MEASURES
MINA NADER and JACOB WIRTSCHAFTER, of Religion News Service, report…
For Gambian Christians, there’s a lot to like – and one big worry – in the proposed constitution
World Watch Monitor The Gambia, a tiny nation on Africa’s North Atlantic coast, is considering a new constitution. Prominent Christian voices in the country say there is a lot to like in the draft, and one big thing to worry about: It does not explicitly define majority-Muslim Gambia as a secular state. A committee of […]