Pell’s secret memo casts shadow at cardinal’s funeral
Vatican CityAP The Australian cardinal who decried the papacy of Pope Francis as a “catastrophe” was given a funeral Saturday and hailed by some fellow churchmen at St Peter’s Basilica, with the pontiff imparting a final blessing for the once high-ranking Vatican prelate. Cardinal George Pell, 81, died on 10th January, shortly after undergoing hip surgery in a Rome […]
Ethics group urges tougher Swiss action over money-laundering
Zurich, Switzerland Reuters Swiss prosecutors should enforce laws against money-laundering more effectively as the country remains a soft touch for corporate financial corruption, an ethics group said on Friday. Bundles of Swiss franc banknotes are seen at a Swiss bank in Zurich, Switzerland on 9th April, 2019. PICTURE: Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann The Swiss branch of Transparency International […]
Greek court rejects charges against aid workers
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters A Greek court dismissed espionage charges on Friday against a group of humanitarian workers on trial in Greece and ordered a prosecutor to refile the case, citing flaws in the litigation process, a defense lawyer and local media said. The aid workers, some of them foreigners and including a Syrian refugee, were affiliated […]
Family members reunite in China after three-year COVID separation
Singapore/Shanghai, China Reuters Chu Wenhong would fly back to Shanghai and visit her parents at least once a year after she moved to Singapore in 1994. But she hasn’t been able to do so in the past three years due to China’s signature zero-COVID policy, which involved mass PCR testing, city-wide lockdowns and quarantining all […]
Pope’s role in Vatican financial probe again centre stage
Vatican City AP Pope Francis’ own role in the investigation into financial wrongdoing at the Holy See took centre stage on Friday in the Vatican tribunal, with witnesses saying he encouraged a key suspect to cooperate with prosecutors and a key defendant accusing him of interfering in the trial. Friday’s hearing was one of the […]
Brazil’s prosecutors ask top court to investigate Bolsonaro role in Brasilia riots
Brasilia, BrazilReuters Brazilian federal prosecutors on Friday asked the Supreme Court to investigate former President Jair Bolsonaro for allegedly encouraging anti-democratic protests that ended in the storming of government buildings by his supporters in Brasilia. Bolsonaro will be investigated for possible “instigation and intellectual authorship of the anti-democratic acts that resulted in vandalism and violence […]
Southern Baptists: Dispute over abuse hotline reveals how far the SBC still has to go
BOB SMIETANA, of Religion News Service, reports that while a group of Southern Baptist leaders is working to implement a set of reforms to respond better to sexual abuse, many survivors still distrust them…
Analysis – Russian mercenary boss courts Putin with Ukrainian battlefield success
London, UK Reuters In the twilight of the Soviet Union, Yevgeny Prigozhin was languishing in prison for theft. Now as the founder of Russia’s most powerful mercenary group, he is vying for Vladimir Putin’s favour by claiming a rare battlefield win in Ukraine. His aim is to leverage the success that Wagner Group, his mercenary […]