Egypt’s churches reopening after four months
Cairo, EgyptAP Egypt’s churches are reopening their doors to the faithful on Monday for the first time in more than four months due to a coronavirus lockdown. The Coptic Orthodox Church said in a statement that it would receive the faithful in its churches with restrictions that include social distancing and wearing masks. Other churches […]
Murad, Amal Clooney accuse leaders and UN of failing Yazidis
United NationsAP Six years after Islamic State fighters launched an attack on Iraq’s Yazidi minority, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad and human rights lawyer Amal Clooney accused government leaders and the United Nations on Monday of failing to bring the extremists responsible for the genocide to justice. Murad, whose mother and six brothers were […]
Notre Dame Cathedral’s organ getting four-year-long cleaning
Paris, France AP Pipe by precious pipe, the organ that once thundered through Notre Dame Cathedral is being taken apart after last year’s devastating fire. The mammoth task of dismantling, cleaning and re-assembling France’s largest musical instrument started Monday and is expected to last nearly four years. It will take six months just to tune […]
World Vision sounds alarm over rise in coronavirus cases in Syria
Thousands of people are at risk as cases of COVID-19 soar in war-torn Syria, aid agency World Vision has warned. Graham Strong, acting CEO of World Vision Australia, said the “spectre of COVID-19” was yet “another devastating blow for children and their families in Syria, who have been through much heartache already”. A camp for […]
UN to train Botswana traditional leaders to fight gender-based abuse
Gabarone, UgandaThomson Reuters Foundation Dozens of traditional leaders in Botswana will take part in a UN training program that aims to help them tackle high rates of gender-based violence in the country, officials and leaders said last week. Nearly 70 per cent of women in the southern African nation have experienced physical or sexual abuse – more […]
Pope calls on politicians to create jobs for post-pandemic world
Vatican CityAP Pope Francis called on politicians to create jobs so that economies can relaunch from the lockdowns imposed to combat the coronavirus pandemic. The Pope, speaking after the traditional Sunday blessing, said that ‘’without work, families and society cannot go forward. Let us pray for this, because this will be a problem in the […]
US election: Trump’s faith outreach aims to cast Democrats as the enemy
ELANA SCHOR, of Associated Press, reports on how US President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign is working to woo religious voters…
Eat or stay cool? Cities test ways to protect the poor from rising heat
London, UK Thomson Reuters Foundation From spray parks in water-short Cape Town to heat-reflecting pavements in Tokyo, cities around the world that face worsening heatwaves as the planet warms are rapidly adopting innovations to try to beat increasingly deadly heat. But ensuring the measures help those most at risk remains a challenge, for reasons ranging from […]
Essay: US federal executions are one more example of Trump administration over-reach
Anti-death penalty Christian activist, SHANE CLAIBORNE, in an article first published on Religion News Service, says the “recent surge of executions” in the US “contradicts hundreds of years of ethics in the church” – and goes against the trend among Americans favouring abolition…
Sight-Seeing: Why the coronavirus pandemic is a ‘gift’
NILS VON KALM looks at why, amid the devastation being seen around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic can still be considered a gift…