Catholic News 2
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Wanted: Volunteers willing to be infected with the Zika virus for science....
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Uber passengers in Pittsburgh will be able to summon rides in self-driving cars with the touch of a smartphone button in the next several weeks....
DENHAM SPRINGS, La. (AP) -- Keisha Taylor, a 37-year-old mother of four, has spent three nights in two different shelters since her family fled the flooding at their Baton Rouge apartment complex. And she doesn't know how many more nights they will be sleeping on cots inside the downtown arena where hundreds sought shelter....
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) -- A Brazilian police official is telling The Associated Press that American swimmer Ryan Lochte fabricated a story about being robbed at gunpoint in Rio de Janeiro....
(Vatican Radio) Russian authorities say six suspected militants have been killed by security forces in two separate incidents in the city of St. Petersburg and near Moscow, the capital. Those killed reportedly included gunmen who were described as Islamic insurgents fighting in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region.Listen to Stefan Bos' report: Confused residents were seen standing behind masked security forces in front of an apartment complex on the outskirts in St. Petersburg. It is here where officials said four suspected militants were killed in a shoot-out with intelligence officers in what is Russia's second largest city.The spokesperson of the Russian National Anti-Terrorist Committee later told reporters that the suspects holed up in this apartment block and opened fire when the officers tried to detain them. "A group of people involved in activities of militant underground [groups] operating in the North Caucasus region were discovered in St. Pete...
(Vatican Radio) Russian authorities say six suspected militants have been killed by security forces in two separate incidents in the city of St. Petersburg and near Moscow, the capital. Those killed reportedly included gunmen who were described as Islamic insurgents fighting in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region.
Listen to Stefan Bos' report:
Confused residents were seen standing behind masked security forces in front of an apartment complex on the outskirts in St. Petersburg. It is here where officials said four suspected militants were killed in a shoot-out with intelligence officers in what is Russia's second largest city.
The spokesperson of the Russian National Anti-Terrorist Committee later told reporters that the suspects holed up in this apartment block and opened fire when the officers tried to detain them. "A group of people involved in activities of militant underground [groups] operating in the North Caucasus region were discovered in St. Petersburg as a result of operational and search activities carried out by the Federal Security Service (FSB), said spokesman Dmitri Pavlov.
He added that the apartment in which the militants were hidden, "was surrounded" by special FSB forces. When asked to they lay down their arms and surrender, "the gunmen opened fire on personnel of the special forces," Pavlov explained. "As a result of a brief firefight four militants received fatal injuries."
GUNMEN IDENTIFIED
He identified three of the gunmen as "Zalim Shebzukhov born in 1986, Astemir Sheriev born in 1991, and Vyacheslav Nyrov born in 1982."
All three were described as terrorist leaders operating in the Kabardino-Balkaria area. They had been on a Russian wanted list on charges that included attempts to assassinate law enforcement personnel and prosecutors.
Automatic weapons, ammunition and several improvised explosive devices were reportedly found at the site of the special operation, but authorities said there we were no casualties among the civilian population and security forces.
Yet it is rare that raids against suspected Islamist militants are carried out in St Petersburg.
MORE VIOLENCE
In a separate incident which also rocked Russia Wednesday, two gunmen wielding firearms and axes reportedly attacked traffic police on the Shchelkovskoye highway in Balashikha, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of Moscow.
The men, reportedly from Central Asia, were shot dead but wounded two policemen.
Both incidents have underscored concerns that the insurgency in the North Caucasus, which followed two bitter separatist conflicts in Russia's Chechnya republic, are spilling over into violence in other parts of Russia. It remains a major challenge for Russia's hardline President Vladimir Putin.
Some 4,000 domestic workers in New Delhi went on strike Aug. 16 to demand that the federal government formulate a law to ensure fair wages and security for them.The domestic workers, registered under the Domestic Workers' Forum of Chetnalaya, the social service wing of the Delhi Archdiocese, took to the streets to observe No Rights, No Work Day.Chetnalaya has been calling people to observe the day for the past two years. They want justice for a community of workers who are exploited, harassed and underpaid."Domestic workers in India do not have any recognition of work, respect and are exploited at the hands of employers," Nilima Tirkey, the forum secretary, told ucanews.com.The forum also used the day to highlight the issue of trafficking and the migration of girls and young women from tribal areas into cities looking for domestic work."Trafficking of girls is going on for domestic work and this happens because of the ignorance of people in remote villages...
Some 4,000 domestic workers in New Delhi went on strike Aug. 16 to demand that the federal government formulate a law to ensure fair wages and security for them.
The domestic workers, registered under the Domestic Workers' Forum of Chetnalaya, the social service wing of the Delhi Archdiocese, took to the streets to observe No Rights, No Work Day.
Chetnalaya has been calling people to observe the day for the past two years. They want justice for a community of workers who are exploited, harassed and underpaid.
"Domestic workers in India do not have any recognition of work, respect and are exploited at the hands of employers," Nilima Tirkey, the forum secretary, told ucanews.com.
The forum also used the day to highlight the issue of trafficking and the migration of girls and young women from tribal areas into cities looking for domestic work.
"Trafficking of girls is going on for domestic work and this happens because of the ignorance of people in remote villages," said Father Savari Raj, director of Chetnalaya. "Girls working as domestic workers in cities suffer from poverty and lack of education."
He said there has to be an informed migration where innocent girls can come to the cities for domestic work and remain in touch with their families, friends, village heads and neighbors so they are not lost and exploited.
Suman Klara, who was brought from the western Indian state of Chhattisgarh as a domestic worker by relatives, said she was 19 when she came to work to the national capital.
Now 32, Klara told ucanews.com that her initial experience as a domestic worker was not good as her employer tried to sexually molest her on several occasions.
"I somehow managed to escape and save myself but I did not know who to turn to and had nowhere to go as I was new to the city," she said.
Same for Anjali Dumdum, who migrated from eastern Indian state of Jharkhand at the age of 13.
"There are women who work for placement agencies and visit villages informing them that they can employ girls in big cities with good wages," said Dumdum. "I heard one such announcement and came to Delhi."
She said that the recruiting women left her at the placement agency and never met her again.
"The employers where I was sent for work used to give me only rice to eat and I was made to sleep in the balcony," Dumdum explained. "Also, I used to work very late at night. There was no end to the work."
According to data collected by Chetnalaya, 129 cases of exploitation of domestic workers were registered in 2015 in New Delhi including five cases where the worker died due to harsh conditions set by their employers, and one for of rape. There were 56 cases of forced labor and illegal confinement.
The International Labor Organization estimates that there are nearly 4 million domestic workers in India. Even though the Indian government supported ILO's 2011 convention, "Decent Work for Domestic Workers," it has not ratified it.
The convention requires each member country to fix a minimum wage for domestic workers, ensure their security and decent living conditions.
House maids in the national capital are young girls from tribal areas such as Jharkhand and Bihar. Many of them are Christians looking to better their lives with a city job and to support their impoverished families.
Source: UCANews.com
Washington D.C., Aug 18, 2016 / 03:02 am (CNA).- As the world's eyes are on Rio de Janeiro for last days of the 2016 Summer Olympics, the topic of performance-enhancing drugs has also jumped back into the spotlight amid several high-profile controversies. Along with the increased publicity surrounding the prevalence of drug use among athletes come questions about why “doping” or the use of such substances is wrong, and how to address a problem whose roots are almost as old as sport itself.Fr. Tad Pacholczyk, Director of Education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, told CNA that athletes in a competition come to the starting line with a kind of equality, “in the sense that they arrive with whatever they were endowed with at birth, and whatever they may have managed to become endowed with through practice, hard work, and discipline.”“Cheating through doping involves an attempt to step outside these rules and suppositions, and play a diff...
Washington D.C., Aug 18, 2016 / 03:02 am (CNA).- As the world's eyes are on Rio de Janeiro for last days of the 2016 Summer Olympics, the topic of performance-enhancing drugs has also jumped back into the spotlight amid several high-profile controversies.
Along with the increased publicity surrounding the prevalence of drug use among athletes come questions about why “doping” or the use of such substances is wrong, and how to address a problem whose roots are almost as old as sport itself.
Fr. Tad Pacholczyk, Director of Education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, told CNA that athletes in a competition come to the starting line with a kind of equality, “in the sense that they arrive with whatever they were endowed with at birth, and whatever they may have managed to become endowed with through practice, hard work, and discipline.”
“Cheating through doping involves an attempt to step outside these rules and suppositions, and play a different game,” he said.
When athletes come to the starting line, they come with the supposition that they are playing on a level playing field, that no one has an unfair advantage over anyone else. Doping lets athletes pretend this is the cases, even if performance-enhancing drugs or procedures gives an unnatural athlete an edge other competitors.
“In this sense, cheating through doping is wrong because it is a form of lying,” Fr. Pacholczyk added.
In a competitive athletic situation, the setup and supposition is that competitors are on a par with each other, which means that no one has an “unfair” or “unjust” advantage over another going into the competition.
Doping's history at the Olympic Games reaches back thousands of years, as ancient competitors would eat strange meats and body parts to gain an edge over their opponents. (Some of these practices, such as the consumption of raw animal testicles before races may not have been completely scientifically unfounded, though certainly less effective than modern doping methods.)
Artificial enhancement followed the Olympics to the reinstatement of the Modern Olympic games. Famously, in 1904, American marathon winner Thomas Hicks was given shots of strychnine – a stimulant and common rat poison – along with sips of brandy by his coach during the race.
The use of performance enhancing drugs proliferated throughout the mid-Twentieth Century, as the lengths athletes took to gain an advantage became more extreme and ubiquitous. In the 1990's, after the fall of the Soviet Union, documents emerged detailing the extent of anabolic steroid and other performance-enhancing drug use by some of the the East German sports teams. Former athletes attested that they were given what they were told were “vitamins” at ages as young as eleven, with no option to refuse the substances.
The use of artificial enhancements has come under increasing scrutiny since 1962, when the International Olympic Commission, or IOC, began developing a list of prohibited substances and, later, tests. In 1999, the IOC formed the World Anti-Doping Agency, a foundation dedicated to the monitoring of the use of drugs in sports and coordinate efforts to end the practice among competitors. Now, athletes are subject to routine blood and urine testing for a wide array of substances.
Some of the substances banned by WADA pose serious risks to athletes. Anabolic steroids can cause liver damage, dangerous structural changes to the heart, and abnormal physical characteristics such as breast growth in men and and hair growth in women. Stimulants, like amphetamines and ephedrine, can cause rapid muscle breakdown, high blood pressure and rapid heart rates, and are the cause of the only drug-related Olympic death, when Danish Cyclist Knud Enemark Jensen collapsed during the 1960 Games in Rome.
Blood doping, or the alteration of the blood’s capacity to carry oxygen, either through drugs or blood transfusions, also carries with it significant risks. The increased blood volume thickens the blood, which in turn increases the risk of life-threatening blood clots, strokes and heart attacks.
However, while these drugs can be dangerous, some of the substances banned or restricted by WADA also have legitimate therapeutic uses. Common drugs such as asthma rescue inhalers, heart medications and common over-the-counter cold medicines are all found on the list of prohibited substances for athletes at the 2016 Olympics.
While some of the substances are only banned over certain limits or for certain sports, the inclusion of these substances with legitimate therapeutic uses introduces not only a plausible excuse for athletes such as Yulia Effimova – who was allowed to swim at in Rio after testing positive for the heart medication meldonium*, banned earlier this year – but clouds the moral waters as well, says Fr. Pacholczyk.
“The fact that some of the banned substances used among Olympic athletes may have legitimate therapeutic uses complicates the determination of whether steroids are being used for illegitimate purposes,” he told CNA.
“In some cases, it may not be possible to distinguish such differences via standardized testing protocols,” Fr. Pacholczyk continued, adding that it may be necessary and appropriate for sport authorities to set detection levels for a drug’s use at a given limit. If an athlete passes that limit, whether or not a drug’s use was for an injury or treatment of health issue, the athlete should sit out the next competition, he suggested.
“Injuries, obviously, must be properly attended to through standard treatments, even though one consequence may be that competitive athletic activities may need to cease, at least for a period.”
*In July 2016, the world swimming association, FINA, ruled to allow Efimova to compete in the 2016 Rio Games despite testing positive for the heart medication, noting that it is currently unclear how long meldonium stays in a patient’s body, even after stopping its use.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Kanye West fans can buy a taste of "The Life of Pablo" this weekend following the rapper-turned-fashion mogul's announcement of 21 pop-up stores worldwide that will be open just this weekend....
DENHAM SPRINGS, La. (AP) -- Keisha Taylor, a 37-year-old mother of four, has spent three nights in two different shelters since her family fled the flooding at their Baton Rouge apartment complex. And she doesn't know how many more nights they will be sleeping on cots inside the downtown arena where hundreds sought shelter....
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Two car bombings targeted police stations in Turkey, killing at least six people and wounding 219 others, officials said Thursday....
