Ethiopian soldiers seek asylum in Sudan, fear returning home due to Tigrayan ethnicity
Khartoum, SudanReuters Up to 550 Ethiopian peacekeepers working in Sudan have sought asylum rather than return home for fear they will be persecuted due to their Tigrayan ethnicity, an official with direct knowledge of the plan said on Tuesday. The soldiers, numbering between 525 to 550, were part of a UN peacekeeping force working in […]
Ukraine accuses Russia of blackmail with plan to halt gas to Poland
Warsaw, Poland/Ramstein Air Base, GermanyReuters Kyiv accused Russia of blackmailing Europe by cutting off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria as the crisis in Ukraine deepened, with tensions surging in nearby Moldova and Moscow warning the West to back off. NATO member and staunch Kremlin opponent Poland is among the European countries seeking the toughest […]
Movement to build affordable housing on church land reaches Florida
RNS As Miami-Dade County in Florida grapples with a housing affordability crisis, houses of worship are being recruited to build affordable homes on vacant or underutilised church land. The national non-profit Enterprise Community Partners last Thursday announced $US1.3 million in grant funding from the Wells Fargo Foundation that would go toward helping 15 South Florida […]
Russia warns “serious” nuclear war risks should not be underestimated
Lviv, Ukraine/Kyiv Reuters Russia told the world not to underestimate the considerable risks of nuclear war that it said it wanted to reduce and warned that conventional Western weapons were legitimate targets in Ukraine, where battles raged in the east. “The risks now are considerable,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russia’s state television according to […]
El Salvador extends emergency powers to fight gangs
San Salvador, El SalvadorReuters El Salvador’s Congress on Sunday approved a month-long extension of emergency measures that rights groups say infringe civil liberties but which President Nayib Bukele has said are necessary after a surge of gang killings. The measures, which enact emergency powers to limit some constitutional rights, went into effect late last month […]
Books: Imago Dei – a pope’s “extraordinary insight” into God-given human sexuality
MATTHEW SMEAL reads an adaption of the former pope and Catholic saint, John Paul II’s, views on human sexuality…
Beijing shoppers throng stores as district starts mass testing
Beijing, ChinaReuters Beijing residents snapped up food and other supplies as the city’s biggest district began mass COVID-19 testing of all residents on Monday, prompting fears of a Shanghai-style lockdown after dozens of cases in the capital in recent days. Authorities in Chaoyang, home to 3.45 million people, late on Sunday ordered residents and those […]
Mexico detains almost 6,000 foreign migrants in four days
Mexico CityReuters Mexico detained almost 6,000 foreign migrants in a four-day span, the country’s National Migration Institute (INM) said on Monday. The majority of the 5,688 migrants detained from 21st to 24th April were found in safe houses, trailers, or hidden in bus compartments or truck cabins, the INM said in a statement. Members […]
Human activity is leading to more disasters – UN report
London, UKReuters Human activity is contributing to an increasing number of disasters, with 350 and 500 medium-sized or large disasters a year occurring globally in the past two decades and more frequent events expected, according to a UN report. The number of disasters – many of them weather-related such as fires and floods, but also […]
Constant change
In William Bridges’ famous book, Transitions, he points out that for virtually all of human history we have honoured those in a community who protected our stable continuation. PICTURE: srgktk/iStockphoto Those who kept us safe – reinforced our communal rules and stories, the status quo – were our heroes. We now live in the first era of […]