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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Seven months after a federal judge ordered the State Department to begin releasing monthly batches of the detailed daily schedules showing meetings by Hillary Clinton during her time as secretary of state, the government told The Associated Press it won't finish the job before Election Day....
NEW YORK (AP) -- Hillary Clinton vigorously defended her family's foundation against Donald Trump's criticism on Friday and declared she's confident there will be no major further accusations involving the foundation, her emails or anything else that could undermine her chances of defeating him in November....
(Vatican Radio) Bolivia's Deputy Minister of the Interior, Rodolfo Illanes, has been abducted and beaten to death by striking miners as he attempted to negotiate with them.Listen to James Blears' report: Bolivia's President Evo Morales is deeply shaken with the news of Rodolfo Illanes' murder. Mr. Illanes, who had been appointed Deputy Interior Minister in March, had gone to the town of Panduro 130 km to the south of the capital La Paz to try and establish dialogue with striking miners, who have blocaded the main highway. The situation had deteriorated after two miners were shot dead on Tuesday. Riot police who tried to clear the road were driven back.A bodyguard, who was abducted with Mr. Illanes was stripped of his gun and beaten, but managed to escape. He's being treated in a hospital in La Paz. Mr Illanes' body has yet to be recovered. More than 100 miners have now been arrested and five state prosecutors have been sent to town.&n...
(Vatican Radio) Bolivia's Deputy Minister of the Interior, Rodolfo Illanes, has been abducted and beaten to death by striking miners as he attempted to negotiate with them.
Listen to James Blears' report:
Bolivia's President Evo Morales is deeply shaken with the news of Rodolfo Illanes' murder.
Mr. Illanes, who had been appointed Deputy Interior Minister in March, had gone to the town of Panduro 130 km to the south of the capital La Paz to try and establish dialogue with striking miners, who have blocaded the main highway.
The situation had deteriorated after two miners were shot dead on Tuesday. Riot police who tried to clear the road were driven back.
A bodyguard, who was abducted with Mr. Illanes was stripped of his gun and beaten, but managed to escape. He's being treated in a hospital in La Paz.
Mr Illanes' body has yet to be recovered.
More than 100 miners have now been arrested and five state prosecutors have been sent to town.
The National Federation of Mining Cooperatives of Bolivia is striking for more union representation, better working conditions, and the right to work for private companies.
Washington D.C., Aug 26, 2016 / 10:55 am (CNA).- A leaked grant report from the Open Societies Foundation seems to show Planned Parenthood and its allies in a panicked effort to raise millions of dollars to counter a series of investigative videos alleging the abortion provider broke the law.For undercover journalist David Daleiden, it’s a sign of hope.“It shows that the issue of selling baby body parts for profit is an issue that could shut Planned Parenthood down. And that is why they are taking it so seriously,” Daleiden, founder of the Center for Medical Progress, told CNA Aug. 24In an undercover project released last year, Daleiden and a colleague had posed as prospective buyers of fetal tissue. They recorded conversations with multiple Planned Parenthood officials around the country, and recorded several grisly sessions of aborted babies’ bodies being disassembled for possible tissue harvesting and sale.Daleiden said a document attributed to billionaire...
Washington D.C., Aug 26, 2016 / 10:55 am (CNA).- A leaked grant report from the Open Societies Foundation seems to show Planned Parenthood and its allies in a panicked effort to raise millions of dollars to counter a series of investigative videos alleging the abortion provider broke the law.
For undercover journalist David Daleiden, it’s a sign of hope.
“It shows that the issue of selling baby body parts for profit is an issue that could shut Planned Parenthood down. And that is why they are taking it so seriously,” Daleiden, founder of the Center for Medical Progress, told CNA Aug. 24
In an undercover project released last year, Daleiden and a colleague had posed as prospective buyers of fetal tissue. They recorded conversations with multiple Planned Parenthood officials around the country, and recorded several grisly sessions of aborted babies’ bodies being disassembled for possible tissue harvesting and sale.
Daleiden said a document attributed to billionaire George Soros’ Open Societies Foundation group “shows that Planned Parenthood and their allies realize that the baby body parts issue is the biggest crisis, the biggest scandal and the worst revelations that they have every faced in their 100-year existence.”
“I think it shows that even an organization as large, as well-funded and politically connected as Planned Parenthood is not invincible,” he added. “The tone of panic is really evident in this funding request.”
The document, titled “Urgent Response in Defense of Women’s Health –Planned Parenthood Action Fund,” was published by the website DCLeaks.com. If accurate, it indicates that the Open Societies Foundations’ U.S. general reserves fund made a $1.5 million grant to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund for lobbying efforts to respond to the video investigation and its aftermath.
According to the document, Planned Parenthood’s Fight Back Campaign was projected to cost $7 to $8 million. Cecile Richards, the Planned Parenthood CEO and a trustee of the deeply influential Ford Foundation, had already secured a $2 million commitment for 501c3 funds.
“While Planned Parenthood has had to defend against a variety of attacks by abortion opponents in recent years, the release of these videos and the related attacks were severe and without warning,” the document says. “Countering this offensive requires an enormous amount of resources and staff time, which is the intent of the opposition.”
In July 2015, the Center for Medical Progress began to release a series of undercover videos that appeared to show Planned Parenthood’s role in the sale of fetal tissue of aborted babies to tissue harvesters for profit – a practice barred by federal law.
The investigation provoked an outcry over possible lawbreaking by the largest abortion provider in the U.S. and strengthened the movement to end taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood, which receives $500 million in federal funds annually for other services.
The reputed Soros foundations document appears to have been written about three weeks after the first video broke.
According to the document, the $1.5 million grant provided an “infusion” of 501c4 funding to Planned Parenthood’s political arm “as they were waging a critical defense against attacks to the reputation and credibility of Planned Parenthood and potential loss of federal funding.” The grant reportedly enabled the action fund’s Fight Back Campaign to mobilize supporters and lobby state and federal legislators to counter efforts to defund the abortion provider.
The grant report said funding for lobbying activities through 501c4 organizations is “much harder to come by” so the Open Society Policy Center is “uniquely situated” to provide “critical resources Planned Parenthood will have a hard time finding anywhere else.”
The grant was planned to fund lobbying of legislators as well as paid and earned media, and other activities. Planned Parenthood Action Fund was running targeted television ads in key districts to rally voters.
“Working with top crisis communications consultants, Planned Parenthood is conducting national and state media outreach to both expose the true agenda of its opponents and transform the narrative surrounding these attacks, including forensic analysis of doctored tapes,” the document says.
Daleiden has rejected charges the Center for Medical Progress committed fraud in its investigations and reports.
“All of those claims from Planned Parenthood have been completely discredited at this point,” he told CNA. “There’s no deceptive editing in the videos. In fact the full footage of the videos has been available for over a year now for anyone who wants to watch to see it.”
Daleiden pointed to the work of the Select Investigative Panel of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee.
“They’re confirming that Planned Parenthood absolutely profited off of the sale of fetal body parts, which was a state and federal crime,” he said, suggesting the panel has found even deeper problems.
The journalist also thought the abortion provider’s reaction campaign had reached the limit of its effectiveness.
“There’s not really much else that Planned Parenthood or their allies or their many business partners in this area can do to erase history or rewrite history at this point. We live in a digital age. You can’t just shred documents or delete e-mails… they still end up popping up one way or another.”
He pointed to another leaked document apparently prepared for the Oct. 1-2, 2015 board meeting for the Open Society U.S. Program. It referred to the videos as one of the attacks “that have upended Planned Parenthood.” The Center for Medical Progress investigations will have long-term consequences involving “the substantial eroding of Planned Parenthood’s credibility and reputation,” the board meeting book said.
Daleiden said the $1.5 million grant report shows that Planned Parenthood particularly feared congressional investigation, which echoed what multiple Planned Parenthood leaders told him when he was undercover.
The grant proposal noted Planned Parenthood’s response campaign would increase security at its clinics and support its legal defense through the prominent law firm O’Melveny & Myers. Its concern for federal and state investigations particularly noted the state of Texas.
Daleiden suggested the document’s focus on Texas may be due to the presence of one of the abortion providers’ biggest and wealthiest affiliates, the Houston-based Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast. He said the affiliate was particularly implicated in his reports and had been selling baby parts for 10 years.
In January, a Houston grand jury cleared Planned Parenthood of accusations, while indicting Daleiden for a misdemeanor charge of attempting to purchase fetal tissue from the abortion clinic in Houston and a felony charge for using false identification to access the Houston clinic. The charges against Daleiden were dropped in June and July.
Daleiden suspected collusion between Planned Parenthood and legal authorities.
“Planned Parenthood really pulled out all the stops in the state of Texas and I think we know why now because of this leak,” he said. “This leaked memo shows that that was one of the states that they were absolutely concerned about.”
For Daleiden, journalistic investigations done correctly can overcome even well-funded campaigns.
“The biggest key is good data and good information. No amount of millions of dollars can ultimately cover up a crime or erase the fact that a crime was committed,” he said.
The reputed Open Societies Foundation grant report lists two external partners in the campaign to defend the abortion provider: the Hewlett Foundation and the Democracy Alliance. The Hewlett Foundation, a major Planned Parenthood donor, had $9 billion in assets as of December 2015 and made an estimated $400 million in grants to various groups last year. It was founded by William R. Hewlett, the co-founder of the Hewlett Packard Company. The foundation website says it is “wholly independent” of the company.
The Democracy Alliance is a major network of wealthy donors generally aligned with the Democratic Party. It gives as much as $60 million a year in strategic funding, the group’s website says. The group describes itself as “dedicated to building the progressive movement in the United States.”
The grant report describes the Planned Parenthood Action Fund as a long-time grantee of the Open Society Foundations’ U.S. Programs section.
The Open Society Foundations did not respond to a request for comment.
Another document in the leak, an apparent version the Open Society Foundations’ proposed 2016-2019 strategy for its Women’s Rights Program, notes the foundations’ support for groups backing the repeal of pro-life laws in Ireland. The document says Ireland could be used as a model to change pro-life laws in other Catholic countries.
Some security experts say DCLeaks.com has the hallmarks of Russian intelligence, Bloomberg News reports. The Open Society Foundations reported a security breach to the FBI in June. A security firm investigation reportedly found the intrusion was limited to an intranet system used by the foundations’ board members, staff and foundation partners.
IMAGE: CNS photo/Robert DuncanBy Cindy WoodenROME (CNS) -- Blessed Teresa of Kolkata was a woman whotruly felt wed to Jesus, and the freedom she experienced in loving him led herto radical poverty, a courageous outreach and an immense love for the poor,said the superior general of the order Mother Teresa founded."She was very happy to be a woman and to be a mother toso many souls," Missionaries of Charity Sister Mary Prema Pierick told Catholic News Service."Her freedom of loving opened the doors of hearts andavenues of service, which maybe were not so common, especially in sharing theradical poverty of the poor," said the blue-eyed, German-born sister, whowas elected superior general in 2009.Mother Teresa, who will be canonized Sept. 4, began herorder in the 1940s, walking into the slums of Kolkata, "having no conventwalls to protect her," Sister Prema said. "But it was love for Jesusand love and compassion for the suffering of the poor that brought her to dowhat she did."At the m...
IMAGE: CNS photo/Robert Duncan
By Cindy Wooden
ROME (CNS) -- Blessed Teresa of Kolkata was a woman who truly felt wed to Jesus, and the freedom she experienced in loving him led her to radical poverty, a courageous outreach and an immense love for the poor, said the superior general of the order Mother Teresa founded.
"She was very happy to be a woman and to be a mother to
so many souls," Missionaries of Charity Sister Mary Prema Pierick told Catholic News Service.
"Her freedom of loving opened the doors of hearts and avenues of service, which maybe were not so common, especially in sharing the radical poverty of the poor," said the blue-eyed, German-born sister, who was elected superior general in 2009.
Mother Teresa, who will be canonized Sept. 4, began her order in the 1940s, walking into the slums of Kolkata, "having no convent walls to protect her," Sister Prema said. "But it was love for Jesus and love and compassion for the suffering of the poor that brought her to do what she did."
At the main Missionaries of Charity house in Rome -- a whitewashed oasis above the roar of traffic around the Circus Maximus and near the crush of tourists at the Colosseum -- Sister Prema spoke of how natural it was that Mother Teresa would be declared a saint during the Year of Mercy.
Mother Teresa is "an icon of mercy," she said. "Even people who would have no faith would see the compassion and the mercy which Mother spread around her. She would not leave a suffering person without giving attention to them. On the contrary, she would go out to search for them and try to bring them to the realization that they are loved and they are appreciated."
A growing number of Missionaries of Charity continue Mother Teresa's work around the world. According to Sister Prema, the number of sisters has increased from 3,914 at the time of Mother Teresa's death to 5,161 as of Aug. 5. The number of Missionary of Charity brothers has grown by 53 to 416. When Mother Teresa was alive, her order was working in 120 countries; today they are present in 139 nations.
Like millions of people around the world, Sister Prema believed Mother Teresa was "a living saint." She was beatified in 2003 -- six years after she died. The time it took for her sainthood cause to make its way through the exacting Vatican process "have been years of going deeper into understanding who she is," her successor said.
As it turned out, the years were especially important in coming to understand Mother Teresa's spiritual thirst and what she described as "the darkness" of feeling unloved by God. Sister Prema, who first met Mother Teresa in 1980, said the founder's spiritual pain was something she kept well-hidden from all except her spiritual directors.
"In all things, Mother did not draw attention to herself but gave herself completely to others, forgetting about her own pain," Sister Prema said.
Her continuing prayer and work, even with the experience of God being so far away, "speaks about her faith, her faithfulness to the commitment she had taken and to the person to whom she was wed: Jesus."
The "darkness" became part of Mother Teresa's ministry, the grace that gave it power.
"It was part of her mission to the poorest of the poor, especially sinners who experienced their unwantedness and their rejection. Sharing their experience of darkness and of being away from God made her an instrument of grace for them," Sister Prema said. "And she had great compassion for those who did not know God and did not experience the love of God for them."
Speaking in the sisters' garden, with blue-trimmed white saris drying on a clothes line, Sister Prema said Mother Teresa's persistence in prayer and works of mercy, even when she felt God was far from her, is a lesson for all believers.
"Prayer is something we want to be faithful to rather than to be successful at," she said.
And while the phrase "corporal and spiritual works of mercy" may sound old-fashioned to some people, Mother Teresa demonstrated the enduring power of those expressions of love, Sister Prema said. "However you phrase it, it is always modern because you are imitating Jesus and his compassion."
The vast majority of people Mother Teresa tended to, caressed and accompanied were not Christian, Sister Prema said, but for her, they were Christ in disguise.
Called, like all Christians to spread the Gospel, Mother Teresa "helped people to find Jesus in their own hearts and experience that love that God has for them just by the experience of her motherly attention and intense interest in their personal lives."
"She had a great desire that all souls would get to know and love Jesus," Sister Prema said. But at the same time, "she knew that conversion is the work of God. The acts of charity and mercy, which she performed, came because of love for Jesus and for others."
"God has to do the work of conversion," she said. "It's not a human work to convince a person to believe what I believe. It's a grace which a soul receives and for which we can pray."
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Follow Wooden on Twitter: @Cindy_Wooden.
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House says that President Barack Obama will expand a national monument off the coast of Hawaii, creating the world's largest marine protected area....
NEW YORK (AP) -- Hillary Clinton vigorously defended her family's foundation against Donald Trump's sniping on Friday and declared she's confident there will be no new blockbuster accusations on the foundation, her emails or anything else that could undermine her chances of defeating him in November....
(Vatican Radio) The Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, Ilia ΙΙ, has sent a letter to Pope Francis to offer his condolences and prayers for the earthquake, which hit central Italy on Wednesday morning.In the letter dated August 25, the Catholicos expressed his support for the Italian people and asked Pope Francis to convey his condolences 'to the families of the deceased and injured, to those who have suffered loss, and to the people of Italy'.Below is the original letter in full:To His HolinessPope of Rome FrancisYour Holiness,On behalf of the Orthodox Church of Georgia and personally on my behalf, I would like to express our deep condolences in connection with the aftermath of the earthquake which took place in Perugia and in its vicinity, claiming the lives of so many people and leaving thousands homeless.In these hard times for yo...
(Vatican Radio) The Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, Ilia ΙΙ, has sent a letter to Pope Francis to offer his condolences and prayers for the earthquake, which hit central Italy on Wednesday morning.
In the letter dated August 25, the Catholicos expressed his support for the Italian people and asked Pope Francis to convey his condolences 'to the families of the deceased and injured, to those who have suffered loss, and to the people of Italy'.
Below is the original letter in full:
To His Holiness
Pope of Rome Francis
Your Holiness,
On behalf of the Orthodox Church of Georgia and personally on my behalf, I would like to express our deep condolences in connection with the aftermath of the earthquake which took place in Perugia and in its vicinity, claiming the lives of so many people and leaving thousands homeless.
In these hard times for your people and your country, I would like you to know that you have our support and we share your pain.
Please convey our condolences to the families of the deceased and injured, to those who have suffered loss, and to the people of Italy.
We implore God that He may grant Italy and all the peoples of the world peace and His mercy.
Yours Sincerely,
Ilia ΙΙ,
Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia,
Archbishop of Mtskheta and Tbilisi, Metropolitan of Bitchvinta and Tskhum-Apkhazeti
25.08.2016
Christians in India on Thursday marked the 8th anniversary of the terrible anti-Christian massacres and atrocities in eastern India’s Odisha state, with survivors still awaiting justice and compensation from the government. The orchestrated violence against Christians erupted with untold savagery on August 25 2008, with Hindu extremists blaming Christians for the August 23, 2008 murder of Hindu leader Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati, despite Maoist rebels claiming the assassination. The carnage led to the death of about 100 Christians, although the government officially speaks of 38 victims. An estimated 5,600 homes were looted and burned, while about 300 churches and other places of worship were destroyed. More than 50 thousand faithful fled into the woods and began a life as refugees to survive ethnic cleansing.The Governor of Odisha, Senayangba Chubatoshi Jamir, on August 25 received a copy of journalist Anto Akkara's investigative...
Christians in India on Thursday marked the 8th anniversary of the terrible anti-Christian massacres and atrocities in eastern India’s Odisha state, with survivors still awaiting justice and compensation from the government. The orchestrated violence against Christians erupted with untold savagery on August 25 2008, with Hindu extremists blaming Christians for the August 23, 2008 murder of Hindu leader Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati, despite Maoist rebels claiming the assassination. The carnage led to the death of about 100 Christians, although the government officially speaks of 38 victims. An estimated 5,600 homes were looted and burned, while about 300 churches and other places of worship were destroyed. More than 50 thousand faithful fled into the woods and began a life as refugees to survive ethnic cleansing.
The Governor of Odisha, Senayangba Chubatoshi Jamir, on August 25 received a copy of journalist Anto Akkara's investigative book 'Who Killed Swami Laxmanananda?' at the Raj Bhavan in Odisha’s capital, Bhubaneswar. The book busts the myth the Christians were behind the murder. After receiving the copy of the book, Governor Jamir listened eagerly to the shocking tale of the travesty of justice due to the Kandhamal fraud with seven innocent Christians - six of them illiterates – serving life imprisonment for murdering the Swami. Akkara, a rights advocate who has pursued Kandhamal's mockery of justice for eight years with 23 arduous trips to Kandhamal, in a letter urged the Governor "to ensure justice to the innocent convicts". "It is a blot on the Indian democracy and the judicial system that these innocent convicts have been languishing in jail for nearly eight years," reiterated the author requesting the Governor "to take up this cry of the oppressed with the concerned authorities." The Governor assured the author to go through the book 'carefully'.
The seven convicts languishing in jail for nearly eight years are Duryodhan Sunamajhi, Munda Badamajhi, Sanatan Badamajhi, Garnatha Chalanseth, Bijay Kumar Samseth, Bhaskar Sunamajhi and Budhadeb Nayak. The journalist author also launched an online petition for the release of the seven innocent Christian convicts at www.release7innocents.com in early March in New Delhi in the presence of the illiterate wives of the convicts along with a host of dignitaries.
Late retired Archbishop Raphael Cheenath of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar, whose jurisdiction includes Kandhamal District, had tirelessly campaigned for justice for his persecuted Christians, In 2008, he had filed a Public Interest Litigation in India’s Supreme Court seeking directives to the union and state governments for protection, compensation and rehabilitation of the victims.. The 82-year old Divine Word prelate died on August 14, after the apex court issued a ruling seeking directives to the union and state governments for protection, compensation and rehabilitation of the victims. The Aug. 2 ruling also called for re-investigation of 315 cases of communal violence against Christians.
Meanwhile, Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay recalled the victims of Kandhamal, wishing they be raised on the altar of the martyrs. "May their blood and suffering bring many fruits to the Church in Odisha,” the cardinal, who’s also president of India’s Latin Rite Bishops (CCBI), told AsiaNews ahead of the first “Kandhamal Martyrs Day” which the bishops of Odisha have designated for Aug. 30, Tuesday. Speaking to AsiaNews, the cardinal who is also president of India’s Latin Rite Bishops (CCBI) The prelate to spoke to AsiaNews
“The Church in India stands in prayerful solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Odisha,” the cardinal who is also president of India’s Latin Rite Bishops (CCBI) , told AsiaNews. “It has been eight years since the horrific attack on our Khandhamal Christians, and the Indian Church suffers the painful anguish of the orchestrated communal violence. We continue to seek justice for survivors and victims,” Card. Gracias added.
