Wow!: How India’s non-profit buses are a lifeline to jobs for villagers
ROLI SRIVASTAVA, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on how non-profit bus lines are helping workers get back to their jobs…
Nun named to voting position at Vatican praises “brave” Pope
Rome, ItalyAP A French nun who has become the first woman to hold a voting position at the Vatican said Wednesday that her appointment is evidence the “patriarchal mindset is changing” as more and more women assume high-level decision-making responsibilities in the Catholic hierarchy. Sister Nathalie Becquart said during a news conference that her appointment […]
Explainer: The WHO’s theories about the origins of COVID-19 after Wuhan probe
Shanghai, ChinaReuters A team of experts appointed by the World Health Organization completed its 28-day mission to the Chinese city of Wuhan this week seeking clues about the origins of COVID-19. The following looks at their findings. What are the main scenarios?Peter Ben Embarek, the WHO’s leading animal disease expert, said the team conducted scientific […]
Murders of women spark anger in Lebanon as domestic violence doubles
Beirut, LebanonThomson Reuters Foundation The murder of three women has provoked outrage in Lebanon, as authorities revealed a doubling of domestic abuse reports in a country that recently won praise for new laws to protect women. The most high-profile death was that of model Zeina Kanjo, who was strangled at home. An arrest warrant has […]
Biden orders sanctions against Myanmar after military coup
Washington DC, USAP President Joe Biden on Wednesday ordered new sanctions against the military regime in Myanmar, taking action after the military this month staged a coup in the Southeast Asian country and arrested de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior politicians. Biden said he was issuing an executive order that will […]
Giant leap for womankind? Europe’s space agency wants more female astronauts
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation Space – the next frontier for gender equality? Europe’s space agency launched a mission this week to take on more women astronauts as it kicked off its first recruitment campaign for more than a decade. Nearly 60 years since the first human blasted off into space, women account for just 11 per […]
Indian spending on women’s safety “grossly inadequate”, says Oxfam
Mumbai/Chennai, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation Nearly a decade since the gang rape and murder of a student on a bus shocked India, state spending to combat violence against women and girls is “grossly inadequate”, Oxfam India said on Tuesday. Funds earmarked for setting up helplines, opening crisis centres and introducing gender-sensitisation training for officials remain unspent, […]
StrangeSights: Lawyer appears as a cat; London’s thinnest home?; and, frozen pants an answer to car parking difficulties…
DAVID ADAMS reports on the odder side of life…
No touching! US churches get ready for Ash Wednesday in a pandemic
RNS Ash Wednesday is one of the touchiest observances on the liturgical calendar – literally. Many churches mark the beginning of the penitential season of Lent with the imposition of ashes. Clergy smear ashes, usually those left after burning palm fronds from the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebrations, onto congregants’ foreheads, often in the shape of […]
Former Nazi guard, age 100, charged as accessory to murder
Warsaw, PolandAP German prosecutors have charged a 100-year-old man with 3,518 counts of being an accessory to murder on allegations he served during World War II as a Nazi SS guard at a concentration camp on the outskirts of Berlin, authorities said Tuesday. The man is alleged to have worked at the Sachsenhausen camp between […]