UN rights chief asks Venezuela to release arbitrary detainees, end torture
Caracas, VenzuelaReuters Venezuela should release arbitrarily detained individuals and end torture, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on Saturday at the end of a trip to the country. Turk arrived in Venezuela on Thursday and met with President Nicolas Maduro on Friday, in addition to Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, senior […]
Israel promises swift response to synagogue shooting
JerusalemReuters Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged on Saturday a “strong, swift and precise” response to a deadly Palestinian shooting attack near a synagogue on Jerusalem’s outskirts, as its military sent more troops into the occupied West Bank. Seven people were killed in Friday’s attack and two others were wounded in another shooting in the city on […]
New Zealand’s Auckland starts clean-up after deadly flash floods
Reuters Authorities in New Zealand’s biggest city, Auckland, began mopping up on Saturday after torrential rains brought flash flooding and evacuations, with at least two people confirmed dead and two missing in the widespread inundation. A state of emergency remained in place in the city of 1.6 million people on New Zealand’s north island as […]
Russian coronavirus-denying ex-monk sentenced to seven years
Moscow, Russia AP A former Russian Orthodox monk, who denied that the coronavirus existed and defied the Kremlin, was handed a seven-year prison sentence Friday. Nikolai Romanov, 67, who was known as Father Sergiy until his excommunication by the Russian Orthodox Church, urged his followers to disobey the Russian Government’s lockdown measures and spread conspiracy […]
UN refugee chief: Russia violating principles of child protection in Ukraine
Kyiv, Ukraine Reuters Russia is violating the “fundamental principles of child protection” in wartime by giving Ukrainian children Russian passports and putting them up for adoption, the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, chief told Reuters in an interview. Speaking at the UNHCR offices in Kyiv following a six-day tour of Ukraine, Filippo Grandi said President Volodymyr […]
Development partners commit $US30 billion to food production in Africa
Dakar, Senegal Reuters Development partners have committed $US30 billion to boost food production in Africa over the next five years, the president of the African Development Bank said on Friday at the close of a summit on food security on the continent. The continent is facing its worst food crisis ever, with more than one […]
Promoting Jesus: ‘He Gets Us’ organisers hope to spend $US1 billion to promote Jesus. Will anyone care?
Organisers of the ‘He Gets Us’ campaign in the US hope to spend a billion dollars in the next three years to redeem Jesus’ brand. BOB SMIETANA, of Religion News Service, reports…
Auschwitz director cites “sick megalomania” in Ukraine war at commemoration
Warsaw, Poland Reuters The director of the Auschwitz Memorial on Friday compared the deaths of people in Ukraine to the suffering in World War II during commemorations marking the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German death camp by Soviet troops. The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial preserves the Auschwitz death camp set up […]
Dozens of Yanomami children hospitalised in northern Brazil amid health crisis
Boa Vista, Brazil Reuters Dozens of Indigenous children suffering from malnutrition and acute diseases have been hospitalised in northern Brazil, with relatives in hammocks holding their emaciated frames in scenes that underscore the gravity of a public health crisis. A nurse talks to a mother belonging to the Yanomami Indigenous group, whose son is treated […]