Your own CIA jail? Lithuania to sell secret US ‘rendition’ site
Antaviliai, LithuaniaReuters A huge steel barn outside Lithuania’s capital, whose long corridor and windowless rooms with carpets and soundproof doors once served as a CIA detention centre, will soon go on sale. Washington’s so-called “rendition program”, under which suspected Islamist militants from conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq were spirited to jails outside US jurisdiction, remains shrouded […]
Spain: Catholic Church agrees to return usurped real estate
Madrid, SpainAP The body representing Catholic bishops in Spain has acknowledged that nearly 1,000 real estate properties across the country were registered as possessions of the Church despite having no proof of ownership or clearly belonging to others. The Catholic Church will now begin a process to “regularize” those properties, according to a joint statement […]
Three killed as Sudanese security forces crack down on protest; concert for detained women’s rights activist
Khartoum, SudanReuters Three demonstrators were killed on Monday when Sudanese security forces fired live rounds and teargas during protests against military rule that attracted tens of thousands of people across the country, medics said. Such protests, along with barricades throughout the capital and a general strike last week, have continued since the military took power […]
Swing for the grandstand
Are you a ‘swing for the grandstand’ kind of person? PICTURE: Michael Weir/Unsplash That’s a person who puts in maximum effort whenever they do anything. That’s how I started life, and I’ve still got a bit of it in me. If I did something, I did it wholeheartedly, or not at all. That’s something I realised […]
Child abuse: Vatican child protection expert says prelates should apologise for abuse cover up
Following last week’s report scathing report on sexual abuse in Germany’s Archdiocese of Munich and former Pope Benedict XVI’s response, CLAIRE GIANGRAVÉ, of Religion News Service, speaks with Jesuit Fr Hans Zollner, a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors…
NATO sends reinforcements and US puts troops on alert as Ukraine tensions rise
Moscow, Russia/Brussels, BelgiumReuters NATO said on Monday it was putting forces on standby and reinforcing eastern Europe with more ships and fighter jets, in what Russia denounced as Western “hysteria” in response to its build-up of troops on the Ukraine border. The US Department of Defense in Washington said about 8,500 American troops were put […]
Essay: “In the name of God, go” – the history of a speech that has brought down parliament and a prime minister
Historian MARTYN BENNETT looks – in an article from The Conversation – at the history behind UK MP David Davis’ recent call for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to resign…