Donors pledge $US1.1 billion for “collapsing” Afghanistan
Geneva, Switzerland/New York City, US Reuters Donors have pledged more than $US1.1 billion to help Afghanistan, where poverty and hunger have spiralled since the Islamist Taliban took power, and foreign aid has dried up, raising the spectre of a mass exodus. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, speaking halfway through a UN conference seeking $US606 million to […]
Pope, in Slovakia, warns European countries against being self-centred; honours Slovak Holocaust victims
Bratislava, SlovakiaReuters Pope Francis warned against too much focus on individual rights and culture wars at the expense of the common good on Monday during a visit to Slovakia amid increased nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment across eastern Europe. The 84-year-old Francis, looking fit, is making his first trip since undergoing intestinal surgery in July. Asked […]
Nigeria says 75 abducted children released amid army crackdown
Maiduguri, NigeriaReuters Seventy-five children who were kidnapped from their school in Nigeria’s north-western Zamfara State have been released after their abductors came under pressure from a military crackdown, a state official said on Monday. Gunmen took the students from the village of Kaya on 1st September, the latest in a spate of mass kidnappings from […]
Explainer: How bad is the crisis in Lebanon?
Beirut, LebanonReuters Lebanon’s financial meltdown has swiftly worsened in the last month, with much of the country crippled by fuel shortages that have ignited country-wide security incidents. Exacerbated by political deadlock, Lebanon’s rapid deterioration has prompted Western concern. Some senior Lebanese officials have sounded the alarm about a country that has spent 30 years slowly recovering from a […]
Greece plans firm hand on Afghan migrants, wants more EU help
Athens, GreeceReuters Greece would seek to block a potential wave of Afghan asylum-seekers fleeing Taliban rule and needs more European Union help on migrant issues, the Prime Minister said on Sunday. The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan has brought fears of a replay of 2015 when nearly a million Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans fled to Europe […]
Strong typhoon cuts power, causes flooding in northern Philippines
Manila, The PhilippinesReuters Several communities remain flooded and without power after a strong typhoon battered the Philippines’ northernmost islands, the authorities said on Sunday, displacing thousands of people. Typhoon Chanthu, which at one point was categorised by the Philippine weather bureau as a category 5 storm, has weakened after powering into the northernmost region, including […]
The Interview: Francis Collins on the role US churches can play in the COVID-19 vaccine push
ADELLE M BANKS, of Religion News Service, speaks with Dr Francis Collins, director of the US National Institutes of Health, about religious organisations and vaccine mandates, the role of churches in the vaccine rollout and his “call” encouraging religious groups to work to end the pandemic…
As West ponders aid for Afghanistan, China and Pakistan quick to provide relief
Islamabad, PakistanReuters As international donors gather in Geneva on Monday to discuss humanitarian relief for Afghanistan under Taliban rule, neighbours China and Pakistan have already reached out with aid and discussions of future assistance. The economy in the war-torn country is in crisis and a humanitarian crisis is looming, experts say. Chinese State Councilor and […]
Essay: Haiti – what aid workers can learn from the previous earthquake as they struggle to rebuild the country
In an article first published on The Conversation, DAVID ALEXANDER, a professor of risk and disaster reduction at UCL in London, looks at the lessons for aid agencies from the response to Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake…
Wow!: South Africa’s first Black free dive instructor turns tide on apartheid history
WENDELL ROELF, of Reuters, reports frome Cape Town on Zandile Ndlovu’s breakthrough role…