Clashes, prayers in Jerusalem on Muslim Laylat al-Qadr
Jerusalem, IsraelReuters Clashes erupted between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police outside the Old City of Jerusalem on Saturday as tens of thousands of Muslim worshippers prayed at the nearby Al-Aqsa Mosque on Islam’s holy night of Laylat al-Qadr. Palestinian youth threw stones, lit fires and tore down police barricades in the streets leading to the […]
Maldives leader: Blast that hurt Nasheed attacked democracy
Male, MaldivesAP The Maldives President said Friday an explosion that wounded former leader Mohamed Nasheed was an attack on the country’s democracy and economy, and announced that Australian police would assist the investigation. Nasheed, 53, was wounded in the blast Thursday night outside his home and was being treated in a hospital in the capital, […]
Anti-Olympics campaign gains traction online in Japan amid COVID-19 fears
Tokyo, JapanReuters An online petition in Japan calling for the Tokyo Olympics to be cancelled has garnered more than 200,000 signatures in the past few days, as public concerns mount over holding the Games in a pandemic. With less than three months to go before the start of the summer Olympics, already postponed for a […]
South Africa losing cultural landmarks like Apartheid Museum to COVID
Johannesburg, South AfricaReuters A pair of boxing gloves worn by Nelson Mandela at the height of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa lie under a thick layer of dust in a darkened room, the silence broken only by the thud of moths nose-diving onto the glass display case. The gloves were once one of the […]
Rio de Janeiro drug shootout death toll rises to 28; judge sees signs of “arbitrary execution”
Rio de Janeiro, BrazilReuters The death toll from a police raid on a drug gang in a poor Rio de Janeiro neighbourhood on Thursday has risen to 28, civil police said on Friday, the deadliest operation ever carried out by the security forces in the Brazilian city. The bodies of three more victims removed from […]
Taking a toll: For some US pastors, the past year was a sign from God it was time to quit
BOB SMIETANA, of Religion News Service, reports from the US on the toll the COVID-19 pandemic has taken on some pastors – and how it helped to bring them to a decision to leave the ministry…
Updated: Ethiopian Orthodox Church Patriarch blasts Tigray “genocide”
Updated: 6.30pm, 9th May, 2021 Nairobi, KenyaAP The head of Ethiopia’s Orthodox Church has said that atrocities amounting to genocide are being committed in Tigray, in his first comments on the conflict in the region that broke out in November and has killed thousands. Abune Mathias, who has been head of the church since 2013, did […]
From teaching to football, communities seen as key to ending use of child soldiers
Addis Ababa, EthiopiaThomson Reuters Foundation Listening to local communities is key to meeting a global goal of ending the use of children by armed groups by 2025, a top United Nations official and charities said on Thursday. Former child soldiers often face stigma when they return home and they risk being re-recruited if they cannot […]