Myanmar to court-martial more troops over Rohingya crackdown, army says

Yangon, Myanmar Reuters Myanmar’s army said in a statement on Friday it would hold more court-martials over alleged abuses against Rohingya Muslims, after a government-appointed commission said soldiers committed war crimes against the minority. The panel concluded, in a report published in January, that members of the security forces, among “multiple actors”, were responsible for […]
SNAPSHOT: KENDO PRACTICE IN JAPAN

See SAKURA MURAKAMI’s image…
Bangladesh’s first female Middle East ambassador hopes to help abused women workers

Dhaka, Bangladesh Thomson Reuters Foundation Bangladesh’s first woman ambassador in the Middle East is hoping her appointment will help female migrant workers in the region, with a mission to build a shelter at the embassy in Jordan for women labourers facing abuse or exploitation. Nahida Sobhan, 52, a career foreign service officer who has worked […]
Delta Air Lines, Aldi, HSBC lead way in Stop Slavery Award

London, UK Thomson Reuters Foundation US carrier Delta Air Lines and British retail bank HSBC UK were named as major winners of a global anti-slavery award on Thursday after training flight attendants to spot trafficking and giving bank accounts to slavery survivors. Supermarket Aldi UK – the British arm of the German discount store – […]
Top worry for young Africans? Jobs and corruption – but green anxieties grow

Johannesburg, South Africa Thomson Reuters Foundation Despite surging climate change threats, from worsening storms to growing water shortages, young Africans see unemployment, corruption and political instability as the most pressing issues facing them, according to a first-of-its-kind survey. But environmental and socioeconomic problems are often inter-related – with corruption and unemployment driving illegal logging, for […]
Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney announces confidential advocacy service for victims of modern slavery

Sydney, Australia The Sydney Archdiocese of Australia’s Catholic Church has unveiled a new “one stop” advocacy hub for victims of modern slavery. Anthony Fisher, the Archbishop of Sydney, says the new service “enables entities or workers to have a safe, confidential conversation about situations of modern slavery and forced labour”. “It fills a gap in […]
US POLITICS: DEMOCRATS LOST WHITE CHRISTIANS. CAN THEY WIN THEM BACK?

JACK JENKINS, of Religion News Service, reports…
In depth – Updated: Dispute over Russell Moore spurs pushback among some Southern Baptists

RNS Jack Graham believes in the Southern Baptist Convention. He’s a former president of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination and once traveled the country drumming up support for the Cooperative Program, the church giving program that funds much of the convention’s missions. Yet, after three years, Graham’s congregation, Prestonwood Baptist Church, which claims 45,000 members, […]
Essay: Lent’s counter-cultural call is as old as the church – and more necessary than ever

US columnist CHARLES C CAMOSY and lawyer SHERIF K MOUSSA, in an article first published on Religion News Service, look at the idea of Lent in today’s unequal world…