Sight-Seeing: Stay alive in the meantime – notes at the top of 2022
DANTÉ STEWART, in an article first published on Religion News Service, reflects on his mixed feelings at the start of a new year…
Victims seek definitive European ruling on Vatican immunity
Rome, ItalyAP Clergy abuse victims asked the European Court of Human Rights on Thursday to make a definitive ruling on whether the Holy See can continue to avoid being held liable for sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests by claiming state immunity. Lawyers for the victims asked the court’s Grand Chamber to hear the case, […]
Russia says Ukraine talks hit “dead end”, Poland warns of risk of war
Vienna, Austria/Moscow, RussiaReuters Poland’s foreign minister said on Thursday that Europe was at risk of plunging into war as Russia said it was not yet calling time on diplomacy but that military experts were preparing options in case tensions over Ukraine could not be defused. In Washington, the White House said the threat of a […]
At least 78 rights defenders killed in Colombia in 2021 – UN
Bogota, ColombiaReuters At least 78 human rights defenders were killed in Colombia in 2021, the United Nations human rights agency said on Thursday, adding that more cases were still being verified. Violence against human rights defenders, environmentalists and community activists – known collectively in Colombia as social leaders – has become a big challenge for […]
Last year was the world’s sixth-warmest on record – US scientists
Reuters Last year ranked as the sixth-warmest year on record, causing extreme weather events around the world and adding to evidence that the globe is in a long-term warming trend, according to an analysis released on Thursday by two US Government agencies. The data compiled by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA […]
Ethiopia PM must end Tigray conflict, Nobel committee says
Oslo, NorwayReuters The committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize appealed on Thursday to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who won the award in 2019, to halt the conflict unfolding in the country’s northern region of Tigray. In a rare critique of a former laureate, the Norwegian Nobel committee said Abiy bore special responsibility for […]
India’s new COVID-19 rules aim to free up resources but carry risks
New Delhi, India Reuters India has eased its COVID-19 rules on testing, quarantine and hospital admissions in a bid to free up resources for its neediest people, a strategy hailed by experts even though it carries the risk of a heavy undercount of infections and deaths. The moves will offer a breathing space for healthcare […]
NASA begins process of bringing new space telescope into focus
Reuters NASA on Wednesday embarked on a months-long, painstaking process of bringing its newly launched James Webb Space Telescope into focus, a task due for completion in time for the revolutionary eye in the sky to begin peering into the cosmos by early summer. Mission control engineers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, […]
US lawmakers ask IOC for assurances uniforms not made through forced labour
Reuters The United States’ Congressional-Executive Commission on China released a letter to the International Olympic Committee on Wednesday voicing concern over forced labour in the production of uniforms ahead of the Beijing Games. The CECC is concerned that Anta Sports and Hengyuanxiang Group, with which the IOC has contracts to produce uniforms, use cotton from […]
A Sustainable Life: Garden birds are struggling – four ways to help
In an article published on The Conversation, BECKY THOMAS, a senior teaching fellow in ecology at Royal Holloway University of London, looks at how each of us can play a role in encouraging the return of birdlife…