Migrant boat sinks off Turkey, children among 22 dead
Istanbul, Turkey Reuters At least 22 people drowned, including seven children, when a rubber boat carrying migrants sank off Turkey’s north-west province of Canakkale, the local governor’s office said on Friday, adding that search and rescue efforts continued. In a statement, the Canakkale governor’s office said that two people had been rescued by the coast […]
Independent vote monitor says Russian elections are “most secret” ever
London, UK Reuters The head of an independent vote-monitoring group that Russia has labelled a “foreign agent” says the presidential election that began on Friday and is widely expected to re-elect Vladimir Putin is the least transparent the country has seen. Stanislav Andreichuk, co-chairman of Golos (Voice), said the use of electronic voting for the […]
Savannah plans a supersized 200th anniversary celebration of its beloved St Patrick’s Day parade
Savannah, Georgia, US AP There was no green beer, no pickup trucks towing parade floats or throngs of tourists in gaudy green outfits. Instead, just a few dozen of Savannah’s early Irish immigrants marched a half-mile from a hotel near the riverfront to attend a special service at what then was the city’s only Roman […]
Russia systematically tortures Ukraine POWs, UN commission says
Geneva, Switzerland Reuters A United Nations commission of inquiry on Ukraine said on Friday that it had gathered more evidence that Russia has systematically tortured Ukrainian prisoners of war, documenting rape threats and the use of electric shocks on genitals. The three-member Commission of Inquiry said in a report that the scale of such torture […]
Bulgarians pay their last respects to the late Orthodox Patriarch
Sofia, Bulgaria AP Thousands of Orthodox Christians from across Bulgaria flocked to Sofia’s main Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on Friday to pay their respects to their late spiritual leader, Patriarch Neophyte, who died Wednesday at the age of 78. Neophyte, who became Patriarch in 2013, was the first head of the Bulgarian church to be chosen after the […]
‘God’s Ghostwriters’: New Testament scholar Candida Moss looks at the hidden hands behind the Bible
In her new book, Moss argues that slaves and other lower-status workers played a key role in producing and preserving the Christian Scriptures. BOB SMIETANA, of Religion News Service, reports…
Most of Haiti transition council has been named, Blinken says
Vienna, Austria/Washington DC, US Reuters Most of the nine people who will sit on Haiti’s political transition council have been named by the groups they represent, although a couple are still pending, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday. Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced on Monday he would step down once the […]
Essay: A better faith
TIM COSTELLO reflects on the late Australian Indigenous leader Lowitja O’Donoghue’s “deep” Christian faith…
Russian missiles kill 20 in Odesa, Zelenskiy vows retaliation
Odesa, Ukraine Reuters A Russian ballistic missile attack struck a residential area in Ukraine’s Black Sea port city of Odesa on Friday, killing at least 20 people and wounding more than 70, in Moscow’s deadliest attack in weeks, Ukrainian officials said. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia would receive a “fair response” from Ukrainian forces for […]
Israel approves plan to attack Rafah but keeps truce hopes alive
Gaza Strip/Cairo, Egypt/Dubai, United Arab Emirates Reuters Israel on Friday approved a potential assault on the Gaza city of Rafah while also keeping ceasefire hopes alive with plans to send another delegation to Qatar for talks on a possible hostage deal with Islamist militant group Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had […]