Pope gets an earful from Belgian King, PM and abuse victims over scandals and failures to respond
Updated: 8:20am, 29th September (AEST) Brussels, Belgium AP On a brutal day for the frail and aging Pope Francis, the King of Belgium, its prime minister and the rector of the Catholic university that invited him here all ripped into the institution he heads for a spectrum of sins: for covering up cases of clergy sex […]
Civil society groups call for release of top Egyptian activist
Reuters Egyptian and international civil society groups on Thursday called for the release of the country’s most prominent activist, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, after his lawyer indicated that he would remain in detention until 2027. Egyptian-British software developer and blogger Abd el-Fattah had hoped to be freed on Sunday, when he will have been imprisoned for […]
Britain’s racist immigration laws led to wrongful deportations of Black people, report says
London, UK Reuters Britain’s wrongful detention and deportation of Caribbean migrants was the result of decades of racist immigration laws designed to reduce the country’s non-white population, a long-withheld official report showed on Thursday. Known as the Windrush scandal, the revelations of the mistreatment of thousands of Caribbean people damaged the authority of former British […]
Hong Kong court jails former editor for sedition, releases another on health grounds
Hong Kong, China Reuters A Hong Kong court on Thursday night sentenced a former editor to jail for 21 months and immediately released another after they had earlier been found guilty of conspiring to publish seditious articles in a ruling that has prompted an international outcry. In a landmark case about media freedom, Chung Pui-kuen […]
South Korea offers incentives, adoptions ahead of ban on farming dogs for food
Seoul, South Korea Reuters South Korea will help rehome almost half a million dogs bred for food and give dog farmers subsidies and incentives to help them prepare for a ban on the practice set to take effect in early 2027, the agriculture ministry said on Thursday. In January, parliament passed a bill to ban […]
Minority wing of Moldovan Orthodox church accuses priests of lobbying against Europe vote
Chisinau, Moldova Reuters The minority pro-Romanian branch of Moldova’s Orthodox Church accused clergy from the rival Moscow-linked branch of the church of campaigning against a referendum asking voters whether they back the government’s drive to join the European Union. The minority Metropolis of Bessarabia said rival priests were lobbying against pro-European President Maia Sandu’s campaign […]
Haiti’s top official grateful for Americans’ solidarity with migrants in Springfield, Ohio
United Nations Reuters The head of Haiti’s transition council, Edgard Leblanc, told the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday that he was thankful for Americans showing solidarity with Haitian migrants, especially in Springfield, Ohio. Springfield has become a flashpoint in the US presidential election after baseless claims by Republican candidate Donald Trump and his running […]
Kenyan school blaze victims mourned at mass funeral
Nyeri, Kenya Reuters Thousands of mourners stood before rows of small white coffins on Thursday at a memorial service for 21 children who died in a boarding school fire in central Kenya earlier this month. The coffins were topped with bouquets of flowers and photographs of the young boys from Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri […]
‘Fishing net’: Police quotas, surveillance trap North Koreans in China
JU-MIN PARK and EDUARDO BAPTISTA, of Reuters, report on the increasing challenges North Korean defectors trying to cross into China are facing…
Catholic support for women’s ordination rises in Latin America – poll
United States RNS In major Latin American countries, Catholic support for ordaining women as priests has risen significantly in the last decade, while Pope Francis’ popularity has declined somewhat, according to a survey released on Thursday by Pew Research Center. Peru saw the highest increase among the surveyed countries – which also included Argentina, Chile, […]