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SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela (AP) -- Tebie Gonzalez and Ramiro Ramirez still have their sleek apartment, a fridge covered with souvenir magnets from vacations aboard, and closets full of name brand clothes. But they feel hunger drawing close....
Russian government officials engineered the drug-fueled corruption of 28 Olympic sports, an investigator found, prompting the World Anti-Doping Agency to call for a ban of the country's entire team from the Rio de Janeiro Games....
VIENNA (AP) -- Key restrictions on Iran's nuclear program imposed under an internationally negotiated deal will start to ease years before the 15-year accord expires, advancing Tehran's ability to build a bomb even before the end the pact, according to a document obtained Monday by The Associated Press....
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Republicans cast Donald Trump as the right man for turbulent times as they opened their presidential convention Monday against a backdrop of unsettling summer violence and persistent discontent within their own party....
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (AP) -- The Latest on the fatal shooting of three law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (all times local):...
(Vatican Radio) The Jesuit apostolic administrator of the Kyrgyzstan, Bishop Nikolaus Messmer died on Monday at the age of 61. He was the only Catholic bishop in the mountainous central Asian country.Born in 1954 to a family of German descent, Messmer entered the Jesuits in 1975. After his ordination he went to serve the tiny Catholic community in the only existing church of St Michael Archangel in the capital Bishkek. The church was built in 1969 by German Catholics who had emigrated to central Asia following Stalin’s orders to relocate them from the Volga region. The original one story building was expanded in 1981 to house the growing number of worshippers.Besides St Michael Archangel, there are two other parishes in Kyrgyzstan, Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta in Jalalabad and a third in the town of Talas. Jesuit missionaries and a few sisters have been working in the region for several years, travelling from these centres to visit other small groups of Catholics scatt...
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila has called on Filipino Catholics not to be quick in condemning anybody but instead ‘find gifts’ in people often discredited by society. In his homily during the closing Mass of the 3rd Philippine Conference on New Evangelization on Sunday, he said that there many people who are being treated like worthless and no one cares for them. “Let us be careful. The person we want to discredit might be a gift of God. You don’t throw away gifts. Gifts are treasured,” Card. Tagle told the crowd gathered at the UST Quadricentennial Pavilion in Manila. The cardinal asked the people to be merciful like Jesus who sees a gift even in “wounded sheep”. “Jesus sees a gift even in Judas,” he said. “There’s hope even in someone who had betrayed Jesus.”Reflecting on the Gospel of John, the Archbishop of Manila said God does not want to condemn anybody, but rather seeks sa...
Caritas Sri Lanka organized an event last week to respond to what they say is an urgent need to reconcile individuals and communities who experienced three decades of ethnic-related civil war. Over 100 Sinhalese and Tamils from Jaffna, Mannar, Kandy and Anuradhapura dioceses gathered at Our Lady of Madhu Shrine's Retreat House on July 15 - 16 to "bring hearts and minds together for national reconciliation." "On the first day they had some fear but that vanished and they became good friends," said Father M. Jeyabalan, who works for reconciliation between the two ethnic groups. "The program helped people understand the importance of reconciliation," he said. "Such programs take place at the community level and pave the way to create sustainable peace," the priest said. "We want to promote inter-ethnic and inter-cultural harmony and create a sustainable peace in the country."The program commenced with a short walk with...
A Bangladeshi court has indicted 41 people for murder in the 2013 deaths of more than 1,100 people in the collapse of a building that housed five garment factories outside the capital. District Judge S.M. Kuddus Zaman announced Monday that the trial in the Rana Plaza collapse will begin Sept. 18. Masud Rana, who owned the building outside Dhaka, and 33 other people pleaded not guilty when the charges against them were read out in court. Another seven are accused of absconding. If convicted, the defendants could face up to death penalty. A police report submitted to the court called the deaths a ``mass killing.''Regarded as one of the world’s worst industrial disasters, the Rana Plaza tragedy highlighted appalling safety problems and factory workers’ rights in the country's US$25-billion garment industry, the world's second-largest after China's, that supplies garments to international companie...
Pope Francis has telephoned leaders of the terror-stricken French city of Nice, asking what he could do to help in the wake of last week’s attack which left 84 people dead and scores wounded.Pope Francis made his call out of the blue on Sunday evening to Paolo Celi, head of "Amitié France-Italie", a national association for Italians living in France, and to Christian Estrosi, mayor of Nice.Celi told Vatican Radio that the Pope called at about 7pm Sunday evening “apologizing because he doesn’t speak French very well”.“The first thing he said to me was, ‘What can I do for you?'” Celi said, recalling the conversation before he connected Francis to Estrosi.Celi said the Pope promised to meet “as soon as possible” with the families of the victims.But, he specified, the date is yet to be set.Speaking to Vatican Radio Estrosi said the Holy Father’s gesture has restored in him the energy he needs to go forwar...
