Pope cracks down on new Catholic religious start-ups
Rome, ItalyAP Pope Francis has taken another step to reign in new religious groups in the Catholic Church after their unregulated proliferation in recent decades led to abuses in governance that allowed spiritual and sexual misconduct to go unchecked. Francis issued a new decree published Wednesday that requires prior Vatican approval for bishops to erect […]
Israeli court convicts Palestinian aid worker after six years in detention
Beersheba, Israel AP An Israeli court on Wednesday convicted a Palestinian aid worker who has been detained for six years on Israeli charges he funneled tens of millions of dollars in relief funds to the militant group Hamas. The Beersheba District Court found Mohammad El Halabi guilty of supporting a terror organisation but acquitted him […]
Ukraine ignores Sievierodonetsk ultimatum, urges faster arms deliveries
Kyiv/Niu-York, Ukraine Reuters Ukraine ignored a Russian ultimatum to surrender the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk on Wednesday as the United States announced more weapons for Kyiv, which warned that arms deliveries were taking too long. Sievierodonetsk, now largely in ruins, has become the focal point of the war. Russia had told Ukrainian forces holed up […]
North Korea spent as much as $US642 million on nukes in 2021, report estimates
Seoul, South KoreaReuters North Korea may have spent as much as $US642 million on its nuclear program last year, according to anti-nuclear activists, as the impoverished country appears ready to test a new weapon despite battling a COVID-19 outbreak and economic crisis. There is no confirmed data on North Korea’s nuclear spending, or the size […]
Who is Bart Barber, new Southern Baptist president?
Anaheim, California, USAP Bart Barber is a staunch Southern Baptist conservative who would welcome bans on abortion, opposes critical race theory and believes only men should serve as pastors. Yet Barber, elected Tuesday as the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention, says he has a track record of dialogue with those who disagree on […]
In the US, Southern Baptists agree to keep list of accused sex abusers
Anaheim, CaliforniaAP The Southern Baptist Convention voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to create a way to track pastors and other church workers credibly accused of sex abuse and launch a new taskforce to oversee further reforms in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. The vote came three weeks after the release of a blockbuster report by an outside consultant […]
StrangeSights: Baby names – from IKEA; ‘International Bath Day’; and, spend a night in the ‘Mystery Machine’…
DAVID ADAMS provides a round-up of some stories on the odder side of life…
Kyiv parish ravaged by occupation makes painful split from Moscow
Irpin, UkraineReuters For years a vocal minority at Saint Nicholas’ parish in the middle-class Kyiv commuter town of Irpin resisted calls to split from their spiritual fathers in Moscow. A millennium of sacred ties between Russia and Ukraine, they argued, should be above politics. But after three weeks of Russian military occupation that left the […]
Protests by Indian Muslims continue, as lawyers condemn state response
Kolkata, IndiaReuters Thousands of Muslims marched in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata on Tuesday in a second week of protests, while six prominent former judges said a state government had acted illegally by demolishing the house of a Muslim activist. Muslims have taken to the streets across India to protest against anti-Islamic comments made […]
More people are avoiding the news, and trusting it less, report says
Reuters A growing number of people are selectively avoiding important news stories such as the coronavirus pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the cost-of-living crisis, according to a report released on Tuesday. While the majority of people surveyed consume news regularly, 38 per cent said they often or sometimes avoid the news – up from […]