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Despite the best endeavors of so many in so many countries, modern slavery and human trafficking continue to expand. Victims are hidden away: in places of prostitution, in factories and farms, on fishing boats, and illegal establishments, in private homes behind locked doors and in many other places in cities, villages and slums, in the world’s richest nations and poorest nations.
In a decree on Feb. 7, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints to promulgate the causes of these Catholics in the various stages of the canonization process.
According to the BBC, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan, Toby Lanzer, says $1.3 billion are needed for emergency aid to address the severe and growing crisis in South Sudan.
Pope Francis formally invested 19 new cardinals in a solemn rite at St. Peter’s Basilica on February 22, the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter. This is the first batch of collaborators that Francis has named in his year-old papacy.
Over the course of the past year, persecution against Christians has increased across the whole world and Africa is gradually becoming “a battlefield for Christian Churches,” too. This was revealed by the 2014 World Watch List, the annual report on the state of anti-Christian violence across the world, introduced in 1997 by the international evangelical NGO, ‘Open Doors.’
Pollution in China kills between 350 and 500 thousand people each year. This was revealed by an article in the British scientific journal The Lancet co- authored by Chen Zhu, president of the Medical Association of China, formerly the Minister for Health under President Hu Jintao. In the text, the authors admit that “despite best efforts, it will be difficult to control the phenomenon, since there are huge sources of pollution and of very different kinds.”
The new law on firearms has sparked heated debate in the Philippines where, in 2013 alone, over 220 thousand crimes were committed including robberies, murders, assaults, violence. The new norm is the final version of the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act, of June 2013, which allows at-risk groups to carry firearms. These include journalists, lawyers, activists and priests often victims of kidnapping, summary killings and robberies by groups of terrorists or criminals. According to the previous law, such categories were treated like any other citizen and had to show that they are “under real threat” to bear arms. Critics of the law state that while the government now allows individuals at risk to defend themselves, it still does not make any headway in preventing crimes.
With its two-trillion-dollar economy, recent discoveries of billions of dollars worth of minerals and oil, and the number of investment opportunities it has to offer global players, Africa is slowly shedding its image as a development burden. “While global direct investment has shown some decline – dropping by 18% in 2012 – in Africa, foreign direct investment rose by 5%,” Ken Ogwang, an economic expert affiliated with the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) which has a membership of over 60 businesses, said.
Richard Pulga died five days after Typhoon Haiyan rampaged across the fragile land called the Philippines. In another time, another place, the healthy 27-year-old would still be alive.
