El Salvador court sentences ex-President Funes to 14 years in prison
San Salvador, El SalvadorReuters A court in El Salvador sentenced former President Mauricio Funes and his justice minister to more than a decade behind bars for their ties to criminal groups and failure to comply with duties, the Attorney General’s office said on Monday. Funes was sentenced to 14 years and his former justice and […]
South Koreans fighting drug addiction find few rehab options
Seoul, South Korea Reuters Every Saturday a group of young South Koreans gathers in Incheon just west of Seoul to talk about their battles with drug abuse, seeking sympathy and support in often emotional exchanges. The free midday therapy sessions are organised by Choi Jin-mook, who fought addiction for more than 20 years before becoming […]
Pope washes feet in Holy Thursday rite at Rome youth prison
Vatican City AP In a Holy Thursday ritual symbolising humility, Pope Francis washed and dried the feet of a dozen residents of a Rome juvenile prison, assuring them of their dignity and telling them “any of us” can fall into sin. The Casal del Marmo facility on the outskirts of Rome is the same juvenile […]
El Salvador opens 40,000-person prison as arrests soar in gang crackdown
San Salvador Reuters Authorities in El Salvador have opened one of Latin America’s largest prisons, more than doubling the country’s incarceration capacity, as a government crackdown on criminal gangs is causing the prison population to soar. The 40,000-capacity Terrorism Confinement Center was inaugurated on Tuesday to help relieve some of the overpopulation in the country’s […]
Aung San Suu Kyi’s Myanmar trials end with seven more years in jail
Reuters Deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi was convicted of five counts of corruption on Friday and jailed for seven more years, an informed source said, wrapping up a marathon of trials condemned internationally as a sham. In a closed-door court session in army-ruled Myanmar, Suu Kyi, 77, who was arrested during a coup […]
Ukraine’s Zelenskiy announces mandatory evacuation of Donetsk region
Kyiv, UkraineReuters Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday his government was ordering the mandatory evacuation of people in the eastern Donetsk region, scene of fierce fighting with Russia. In a late-night television address, Zelenskiy also said the hundreds of thousands of people still in combat zones in the larger Donbas region, which contains Donetsk […]
Islamic State claims raid on Nigerian prison, 440 inmates on run
Abuja, Nigeria Reuters Islamic State claimed responsibility on Wednesday for a raid on a Nigerian prison in the capital Abuja which freed around 440 inmates, raising fears that insurgents are venturing from their enclaves in the north-east. Inmates who escaped during the attack by suspected Boko haram fighters wait after being captured and returned back […]
In the US, seventh and final Plowshares member sentenced to prison for nuclear base break-in
RNS The seventh and final Catholic peace activist, who three years ago broke into the King’s Bay Naval Base in Georgia to symbolically disarm its stockpile of nuclear weapons, was sentenced on Friday to 21 months in prison. Mark Colville, who runs Amistad Catholic Worker in New Haven, Connecticut, was part of the Kings Bay […]
More than 1,800 break out of Nigerian prison: BBC
Reuters More than 1,800 inmates escaped from a Nigeria prison after an attack by gunmen carrying rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns, explosives and rifles, the BBC reported on Tuesday. The attackers used explosives to blast the administrative block of the prison in the south-eastern town of Owerri and enter the prison yard, the BBC said. Owerri […]
My Mission: Bringing comfort, hope and love to those behind bars
Australian SANDRA BARKER talks about her role serving as a prison chaplain in Queensland…