Extreme poverty jumps in Italy on back of COVID woes
Rome, ItalyReuters The number of Italians living in absolute poverty rose sharply in 2020 to its highest level for at least 15 years as the coronavirus crisis brought economic pain to much of the country, data showed on Wednesday. Last year, about 5.6 million people, or 9.4 per cent of the population, lived in absolute […]
Southern Baptist Convention – vote to probe leaders’ sex abuse response; Saddleback’s ordination of women to be considered
Nashville, Tennessee, USAP Delegates at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to create a task force to oversee an independent investigation into the denomination’s handling of sexual abuse. The resolution calls for the newly elected SBC president, Alabama pastor Ed Litton, to appoint the taskforce, which will head up a review of […]
Updated: Far apart at first summit, Biden and Putin agree to steps on cybersecurity, arms control
Updated 9am (AEST)Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Wednesday to begin cybersecurity and arms control talks at a summit that laid bare their deep discord on those issues, human rights and Ukraine. In their first meeting since he took office in January, Biden asked Putin how he would […]
US speeds visas for vulnerable Afghans as pullout looms, but Congress wants more
Washington DC, USReuters As the US military completes its withdrawal from Afghanistan in the coming weeks, the Biden administration says it is adding staff to hurry up the visa process for Afghans who worked for the US Government and want to flee to avoid Taliban reprisals. But for refugee advocates and members of Congress, the […]
Watchdog says ‘pervasive’ digital sex crime affecting life for South Korean women, girls
Seoul, South KoreaReuters Digital sex crime is now so pervasive in South Korea that the fear of it is affecting the quality of life for women and girls, with many victims saying they had considered suicide or leaving the country, a human rights watchdog said on Wednesday. South Korea has become the global epicentre of […]
StrangeSights: A whale of a tale; ‘glacier blood’; and, want a water tower with that?…
DAVID ADAMS writes about the odder side of life…
Southern Baptists pick president who worked for racial unity
Nashville, Tennessee, USAP The Southern Baptist Convention tamped down a push from the right at its largest meeting in decades on Tuesday, electing a new president who has worked to bridge racial divides in the church and defeating an effort to make an issue of critical race theory. Ed Litton, a pastor from Alabama, won […]
UN envoy regrets failure to mediate a Yemen cease-fire
United NationsAP The UN’s outgoing special envoy for Yemen expressed “deep regret” Tuesday that he failed to mediate a cease-fire and peace talks between Yemen’s warring parties, but said he hoped a recent diplomatic effort by Oman “will bear fruit”. Martin Griffiths, who painted a bleak picture of the Arab world’s poorest country, said in […]
Ethiopia’s UN envoy says Eritrea troops to leave Tigray “soon”
New York City, USReuters Eritrean troops in Ethiopia’s Tigray region are expected to “definitely leave soon”, Ethiopia’s UN envoy said after a top UN official told the Security Council on Tuesday that Eritrea’s soldiers were using starvation as a weapon of war. Outgoing UN aid chief Mark Lowcock told the 15-member council in a private […]
The Interview: Dr Francis Collins – We asked God for help with COVID-19, and vaccines are the “answer to that prayer”
JACK JENKINS, of Religion News Service, speaks with Dr Francis Collins, director of the US National Institutes of Health about the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, his faith and how he views the intersection of religion and science…