Thousands attend funeral Mass for beloved Los Angeles Bishop David O’Connell
Los Angeles, US RNS Catholics, multi-faith clergy and elected leaders from across Southern California filled the pews of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles on Friday for the funeral Mass of Auxiliary Bishop David Gerard O’Connell, a beloved priest regarded as a “peacekeeper,” a “man of the people” and […]
Death toll in strike on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia rises to 11 – officials
Kyiv, Ukraine Reuters The death toll from a Russian missile strike that hit an apartment block in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia rose to 11 on Saturday after a woman’s body was found in the debris, the state emergency service said. One child was among those killed in Thursday’s early-morning strike on the five-storey […]
Fire at Indonesia’s Pertamina fuel storage station kills 17
Jakarta, Indonesia Reuters At least 17 people were killed when a fire broke out on Friday at a fuel storage station operated by Indonesia’s state energy company Pertamina in the capital Jakarta, an official at the city’s main firefighting unit said. The fire, which started after 8pm local time, burned some houses and sent nearby […]
SpaceX capsule delivers latest four-member crew to International Space Station
Reuters A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule arrived safely at the International Space Station after a brief delay early on Friday, carrying two US astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and a United Arab Emirates astronaut on a six-month science mission. The autonomously flying spacecraft dubbed Endeavour docked with the space station shortly after 1:40am EST on Friday, […]
African migrants suffer under crackdown in Tunisia
Tunis, Tunisia Reuters Since Tunisia’s President announced a crackdown on illegal immigration last month using language the African Union denounced as racialised, Malian construction worker Mohamed Kony has been evicted from his apartment and sacked from his job. Unemployed, homeless and without legal residency, he now fears he will face the fate of several of […]
Seventy years after death, Stalin’s polarising legacy looms large
Moscow/Gori, Georgia Reuters On the eve of the 70th anniversary of Josef Stalin’s death, attitudes to the Soviet Union’s wartime leader remain mixed in the nations he once ruled with an iron fist. During three decades of dictatorial rule, Stalin oversaw rapid industrialisation and victory over the Nazis but also the deaths of millions in […]
Six Nigerian states drop bid to annul presidential election
Abuja, Nigeria Reuters Six opposition-led Nigerian states on Friday night withdrew a Supreme Court petition to invalidate the result of last weekend’s presidential vote, which they had argued violated electoral rules, court papers showed. The states, in a court filing signed by their attorneys general, did not give reasons for their decision. Nigeria’s newly declared winner […]
Seeking to make a difference: For many US congregations, wiping out medical debt has become a popular calling
YONAT SHIMRON, of Religion News Service, reports that while donations from religious groups constitute less than 20 per cent of RIP Medical Debt’s overall revenue, they are becoming an increasingly common way for congregations to do social justice…
Portuguese Church struggles to adopt concrete measures to tackle child sexual abuse
Fatma, Portugal Reuters Portugal’s Catholic Church announced a handful of steps on Friday to tackle child sexual abuse within the church – but it said suspected priests still in active roles would not be suspended unless the facts against them were clearly established. The head of Portugal’s Bishops’ Conference (CEP), Jose Ornelas, also said that […]
More than half of the world will be overweight or obese by 2035 – report
London, UKReuters More than half of the world’s population will be overweight or obese by 2035 without significant action, according to a new report. The World Obesity Federation’s 2023 atlas predicts that 51 per cent of the world, or more than four billion people, will be obese or overweight within the next 12 years. Visitors […]