Rights group says Pakistan among leading executioners
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A Pakistani rights group says that the nation has executed 464 prisoners since it lifted a moratorium on capital punishment, after a Taliban attack on a school in late 2014. The Justice Project Pakistan, which is opposed to capital punishment, says Pakistan now has the fifth highest rate of executions in the world, after China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, the Associated Press reported. The rights group says Pakistan has executed 44 people this year, around the same rate as the previous year, in which 87 people were executed.Pakistan halted executions in 2008 due to pressure from rights groups but reinstated capital punishment following an attack by militants on an army-run school in Peshawar on 16 December, 2014, that killed some 150 people, mostly children.The European Parliament last month criticized Pakistan's human rights record, calling for the abolition of the death penalty and to commute all death sentences to various terms of imprisonment. In a resol...
A Pakistani rights group says that the nation has executed 464 prisoners since it lifted a moratorium on capital punishment, after a Taliban attack on a school in late 2014. The Justice Project Pakistan, which is opposed to capital punishment, says Pakistan now has the fifth highest rate of executions in the world, after China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, the Associated Press reported. The rights group says Pakistan has executed 44 people this year, around the same rate as the previous year, in which 87 people were executed.
Pakistan halted executions in 2008 due to pressure from rights groups but reinstated capital punishment following an attack by militants on an army-run school in Peshawar on 16 December, 2014, that killed some 150 people, mostly children.
The European Parliament last month criticized Pakistan's human rights record, calling for the abolition of the death penalty and to commute all death sentences to various terms of imprisonment. In a resolution endorsed unanimously on 13 June, EU parliament members said Pakistan was abusing the capital punishment to fulfil its political aims in trials related to civilians.
Last month, Pakistan sentenced a man to death in what has become the first ever capital punishment for online blasphemy. An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on 10 June convicted Taimoor Raza for sharing offensive content about Islam on social media, the Dawn reported. Shafiq Qureshi, public prosecutor in Bahawalpur, south of provincial capital Lahore said the 30-year-old man community had allegedly posted derogatory content about prominent Sunni religious figures and wives of the Holy Prophet Muhammad on Facebook. (Source: AP/…)
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Our Lady of Lourdes grotto, Lourdes, France. / Credit: Elise Harris/CNAWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 31, 2024 / 17:45 pm (CNA).Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman threw his support behind a Park Hills Catholic church that is embroiled in a legal battle over the proposed construction of a shrine within its property."It's not up to the courts to decide how we exercise our religion in this country," Coleman said in a statement."For centuries, Americans have bravely fought and died for the right to practice their faith without substantial burden from the government," the attorney general added. "We proudly continue that fight today. Our office stands with the men and women of faith who simply want to exercise their rights."Coleman signed an amicus brief, also known as a "friend of the court" brief, in defense of the Missionaries of St. John the Baptist, which operates the Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel in the northern Kentucky city just south of Cincinna...
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New Boston Archbishop Richard Henning and outgoing archbishop Cardinal Cardinal Seán O'Malley during a packed two-hour-plus installation Mass at Boston's Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Oct. 31, 2024. / Credit: Andrzej SkoniecznyBoston, Mass., Oct 31, 2024 / 19:00 pm (CNA).Newly installed Boston Archbishop Richard Henning challenged people of the archdiocese Thursday to commit to a relationship with God even when it hurts, saying that's what God does for them."He gives us the precious gift, the gift of his own heart: his Son," Henning said Oct. 31 during a packed two-hour-plus installation Mass at Boston's Cathedral of the Holy Cross.Henning, 60, originally from Long Island, New York, and most recently bishop of Providence, Rhode Island, replaced Cardinal Seán O'Malley, who had led the Archdiocese of Boston since 2003.As the 10th bishop and sixth archbishop of Boston, he is the first head of the diocese to come from New York, which he noted often leads to a question.Ever since h...
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Pope Francis meets with participants of Italy's Educational Commitment Movement of Catholic Action (MIEAC) national congress on Oct. 31, 2024, at a private audience held in the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican MediaVatican City, Oct 31, 2024 / 10:55 am (CNA).Pope Francis encouraged members of Italy's Educational Commitment Movement of Catholic Action (MIEAC) on Thursday to not be afraid to propose high Christian ideals to young people in a secularized society."Christian education crosses unexplored terrain, marked by anthropological and cultural changes, on which we are still seeking answers in the light of the Word of God," the Holy Father said to participants of MIEAC's national congress at a private audience held in the Vatican.MIEAC is an educational project connected to Italy's Catholic Action that was established in 1990 with the aim of fostering the integral development of young people in all its dimensions: existential, spiritual, affective, cultural, social, and political.Du...
