Postcards: Life in ruins – ancient sites shelter Syria’s displaced
KHALIL ASHAWI, of Reuters, reports from among some of those displaced in Syria…
All Europe must share responsibility for migrants, Pope says
Vatican City Reuters All European countries must share the responsibility for taking in migrants and helping them integrate, Pope Francis said on Wednesday, urging nations to open “the door of the heart”. Pope Francis meets an Afghan refugee family who came from Lesbos, after the weekly general audience at the Paul VI Audience Hall, at […]
UN shrinks Yemen food rations in “desperate measures”
Reuters The World Food Programme said on Wednesday it will reduce food rations for eight million people in Yemen from January due to a lack of funding from donors, warning the cuts will push more people into starvation. Families on reduced handouts will receive barely half of the WFP’s daily minimum ration. Other food assistance […]
Too soon to decide if Omicron more severe than Delta, WHO says
Reuters The World Health Organization does not yet have enough data on the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus to say if it is more severe than the Delta variant, an official said on Wednesday, almost a month after South Africa first raised the alarm about its emergence. “We do have some data suggesting that […]
World’s children bearing brunt of COVID pandemic, Vatican studies say
Vatican CityReuters The world’s children are bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic, with marked increases in violence, abuse, child labour, lost schooling, and malnutrition, two Vatican studies said on Wednesday. The studies, based on academic, scientific, United Nations data and other source material, were produced by the Vatican’s development office and the Pontifical Academy […]
United Methodists to join in plan for Boy Scouts bankruptcy
Dover, Delaware AP Congregations affiliated with the United Methodist Church have agreed to contribute $US30 million to a fund for victims who say they were molested as youngsters in the Boy Scouts of America, an attorney said Tuesday. A committee representing United Methodist churches that sponsored Scouting activities also agreed to help raise an additional […]
Santa Claus delivers Christmas cheer in Brazil’s City of God slum
Rio de Janeiro Reuters Santa Claus strode into the Brazil’s City of God favela this week, delivering much-needed Christmas cheer to some of Rio de Janeiro’s poorest children. Dressed in an unseasonably warm red suit and jacket, with an artificial white beard strapped to his chin, Santa Claus was mobbed as he handed out toys […]
Haitians mourn victims of fuel truck blast as anger simmers
Port-au-Prince, HaitiReuters Haitians on Tuesday mourned victims of a fuel truck blast that killed 90 people last week, though many stayed home out of anger at the government amid a string of tragedies in a Caribbean nation plagued by gang violence, poverty and political turmoil. The coffins of several of the victims, some draped in […]
StrangeSights: A tiny prayer book; Christmas in Venice – Santas on gondolas and a floating Nativity; and, Vancouverites enjoy a beach joke…
DAVID ADAMS provides a round-up of some stories on the odder side of life…
US churches’ ministry to those hurt by the pandemic shows “monumental” growth, study says
RNS More than half of Christian congregations in the US say they have started a new ministry or expanded an existing one during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new survey. On average, in fact, these Christian houses of worship began or broadened more than three of their outreach activities in response to the pandemic. […]