Joy and scepticism as Myanmar frees hundreds held since coup
Reuters Myanmar freed more than 2,000 detainees on Wednesday, among them journalists and others who the ruling military said had been held on incitement charges for taking part in protests, local media reported. The release was described by some activists as a ploy by the ruling military to divert attention from an ongoing security crackdown. […]
World Bank says will boost COVID-19 vaccine funding to $US20 billion
Washington DC, USReuters The World Bank on Wednesday pledged to boost available funding for COVID-19 vaccine purchases and deployment to $US20 billion from a previous target of $US12 billion, citing a sharp increase in overall financing demand from developing countries. World Bank President David Malpass said the global development bank had already provided more than […]
Red Cross reveals that children held in north-east Syria prisons
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters Hundreds of children are incarcerated in adult prisons in north-eastern Syria, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday, disclosing their plight as inmates for the first time. The children, mostly boys, have been removed to prisons from al-Hol, a desert camp run by Syrian Kurdish forces for 60,000 people from […]
Myanmar junta to release 700 prisoners from Yangon’s Insein jail
Reuters Myanmar’s authorities will free around 700 prisoners from Yangon’s Insein jail on Wednesday, prison chief Zaw Zaw told Reuters, in a release that is expected to include some of the thousands of people detained for opposing military rule. The prison chief said he did not have a list of those being released, but BBC […]
Pope Francis: Thank you, Benedict, for praying for church
Vatican CityAP Pope Francis on Tuesday offered an affectionate, public thank-you to Benedict XVI, whose retirement from the papacy in 2013 shocked the Roman Catholic Church and the world. Addressing tourists and Romans in St Peter’s Square, Francis triggered applause when he recalled that it was the 70th anniversary of Benedict’s ordination to the priesthood […]
StrangeSights: UFO report; a painting octopus; and, a French masterpiece rediscovered….
DAVID ADAMS looks at the odder side of life…
Explainer – Canadian churches on First Nations land are burning
RNS A slew of church burnings across western Canada have left six churches on First Nations land badly damaged or destroyed as of Tuesday. Four of the churches are within an hour’s drive of one another in south-eastern British Columbia. Sgt Jason Bayda of the Penticton South Okanagan Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement that […]
Hong Kong security law is “a human rights emergency” – Amnesty
Hong Kong, ChinaReuters Hong Kong authorities have used a new national security law to target dissent and justify “censorship, harassment, arrests and prosecutions that violate human rights”, Amnesty International said on Wednesday, a year after the law was implemented. Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law in June last year that sets out punishment for […]
Aid worker’s father appeals to Pope Francis to gain his son’s release from Israel
RNS A Palestinian man has appealed to Pope Francis to intercede with the Israeli government to release his son, a humanitarian worker with a Christian aid organisation, who has been in jail for more than five years on what the father maintains are manufactured charges. Khalil al Halabi, a former head of education at the […]
Post-COVID churches: Millions skipped services during pandemic. Will they return?
DAVID SHARP, of Associated Press, reports on the long-term impact of the coronavirus pandemic on US faith communities…