News

Aysha Khan 2-15-2018

Image via Taz Ahmed / RNS

As she was publicizing the book, she kept seeing people asking questions like “Can Muslim women fall in love?” and “Is love allowed in Islam?”

Dec 16, 2017; Kerns, UT, USA; Maame Biney (1) reacts to winning the A Final of the 500-meter race qualifying her for a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team at Utah Olympic Oval. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports

U.S. speedskater Maame Biney, just-turned 18, has a smile that can light up any room, a giggle that has charmed Olympic audiences and a joy that her coaches say has carried her so far in her athletic career at such a young age.

South Africa's President Jacob Zuma speaks at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa, Feb. 14, 2018. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko
 

Jacob Zuma resigned as president of South Africa on Wednesday, reluctantly heeding orders by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to bring an end to his nine scandal-plagued years in power.

Pope Francis has his head sprinkled with ashes by a cardinal during the Ash Wednesday Mass at the Santa Sabina Basilica in Rome. Feb. 14, 2018. Osservatore Romano/Handout via Reuters
 

Pope Francis, leading Catholics into the season of Lent, urged people on Wednesday to slow down amid the noise, haste, and desire for instant gratification in a high-tech world to rediscover the power of silence.

the Web Editors 2-14-2018

Image via 360b/Shutterstock.com

Van Hauwermeiren is accused of using prostitutes in a house rented with charitable funds in 2011 along with six other aid workers. Oxfam allowed him to resign without any disciplinary action on the basis that he fully cooperate with the investigation. The other aid workers left the organization after an internal investigation claimed they were engaged in general “misconduct.”

Image via MaxPixel / Creative Commons

“What are we going to do — put this out under the theme, ‘I love you; I’m sorry’?” he said he joked with church members. “But the more I thought about it the more I thought sometimes when something is odd or uncomfortable the best thing to do is to lean into the discomfort.”

Tom Heneghan 2-14-2018

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“They’re amazed how little these people realize that satire can be a form of violence that hurts them, their spirituality, their view of God and the way they pray,” he said.

Image via Rev. Andrew Roza/RNS

The priest said before the opening ceremony that he’d tune in to watch the Olympics, but he didn’t have any “extravagant big watch party plans” with others in the diocese or with students at the St. John Paul II Newman Center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where he lives. If Team USA does well, he said, he may flip on a game for the students.

President of South Africa Jacob Zuma attends the 54th National Conference of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in Johannesburg, South Africa Dec. 17, 2017. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo

South African President Jacob Zuma's days as head of state appear numbered after his own party resolved to remove him from office at a marathon meeting that ended early on Tuesday morning.

Sean Hawkey 2-13-2018

'We stand on the front line, between the protesters and the military. We take photographs of what happens. We see how people are beaten, and taken. And we know that when people are taken, they are often not taken to a police station, but somewhere else where they are beaten, often to try to get information from them, and then later, and hour or two later, they are taken to a police station. Some arrived injured, their heads or hands broken, with burns. We try to take photographs as people are being arrested, and also as they arrive at police stations, to compare the condition they leave and arrive in. The soldiers cover their identity, they all wear ski masks, but the vehicles they use can often be identified."

the Web Editors 2-12-2018

Image via Diane Herr / Flickr

The Teamsters' decision to actively protect immigrants stems from one of its members, Eber Garcia Vasquez, 54, was deported in August to Guatemala with no criminal record and two pending green card applications for him and his family. 

U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, U.S. February 8, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

"Non-citizens who receive public benefits are not self-sufficient and are relying on the U.S. government and state and local entities for resources instead of their families, sponsors or private organizations," the document states. "An alien's receipt of public benefits comes at taxpayer expense and availability of public benefits may provide an incentive for aliens to immigrate to the United States."

Ten Rohingya Muslim men with their hands bound kneel as members of the Myanmar security forces stand guard in Inn Din village September 2, 2017. Picture taken September 2, 2017. Handout via REUTERS

The Reuters report drew on interviews with Buddhists who confessed to torching Rohingya homes, burying bodies, and killing Muslims in what they said was a frenzy of violence triggered when Rohingya insurgents attacked security posts last August.

The account marked the first time soldiers and paramilitary police have been implicated by testimony from security personnel in arson and killings in the north of Rakhine state that the United Nations has said may amount to genocide.

the Web Editors 2-09-2018

Image via Kevin Cortopassi / Flickr

According to court documents, California Highway Patrol (CHP) worked with and expressed sympathy with the neo-Nazi Traditionalist Workers Party (TWP), treating them as victims and attempted to protect their identity.

Priyanka Godbole 2-09-2018

Otto Madrid at his masonry firm, JPN Masonry. Photo by Priyanka Godbole

“I was 22 years old when I was forced to leave [El Salvador] due to the earthquakes,” Madrid said. “I knew that despite this tragedy I could get ahead in terms of my career by going the U.S. so when I heard the news of TPS being canceled I immediately felt myself being put in those shoes again and it was like, 'Man, this is going to be tough for a lot of people.'”

the Web Editors 2-08-2018

Image via C-SPAN

While avoiding the policy pronouncements that marked last year, Trump at this year’s breakfast spoke of a desire to “worship without fear” —  a nod to religious freedom concerns  often expressed by evangelical leaders.

Eugenia Ji 2-08-2018

"She had to take matters into her own hands believing that if she didn’t stop her father, it was just going to get worse and eventually somebody was going to die," Ian Friedman, Bresha's lawyer, told The New York Times.  

the Web Editors 2-07-2018

Image via C-SPAN.

"The parable of the good Samaritan is one that has been used over and over again to welcome strangers," Pelosi said. "Samaritans were not friends to the person that the Samaritan saved. But he was a man of justice."

 

the Web Editors 2-07-2018

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The Copeland family has a history of discouraging their followers from getting vaccinated. In 2013, Eagle Mountain International Church, a church in Newark, Texas founded by the Copelands, came under fire after a measles outbreak was linked to members of their church. Twenty-one people contracted measles after an unvaccinated person caught the disease overseas and visited the church.

Image via Brian Pellot / RNS

Government officials have provided scant details for Day Zero logistics. Rather than communicate a clear plan of action, some are invoking fear with comparisons to World War II and 9/11.