Social Issues
Press TV | Bellinger says disturbing news of Ratajczak's death shocked some traditionalist and patriotic organizations in Poland, and concludes by asking, "Is questioning the holocaust, or holocaust 'denial' of more intrinsic worth than the life of any human being?"
IO9 | Although it seems impossible to think that anything could be left to discover after thousands of years of wind, sun, sand, and art students, finding the long lost patterns on a piece of ancient Greek sculpture can be as easy as shining a lamp on it.
Judeo Fascism | The Jewish Telegraphic Agency is reporting that the Russian government has approved a textbook issued by Moscow State University that explicitly names "the Jewish nation" as a key component of the "people of non-Russian nationality" that ruled the murderously repressive Soviet U...
Telegraph | The record executive and producer of stars such as Eminem and Snoop Dogg added: "I've been studying the planets and learning the personalities of each planet. I've been doing this for about two years now.
Telegraph | Even Roald Dahl could not have dreamt up the horrifying series of events that rocked his family in the 1960s, just as his career was taking off. In an exclusive extract from his intimate new biography, his friend Donald Sturrock reveals the extent to which Dahl’s life was sha...
This is a visual compilation of information about the children's show, Sesame Street.
11 Points | Woodstock was certainly a monumental moment in music and cultural history -- but clearly didn't include all of the biggest bands of the era. I started researching why different bands weren't included on the bill and found that a lot of them had excuses that are laughable.
Irish Times | Carmelo Abbate, an undercover reporter from weekly news magazine Panorama , provides in its latest issue graphic detail of a month-long series of gay parties and brief encounters in and around the Holy See, featuring openly gay priests.
Humanist | Last Friday the U.S. Attorney for Hawaii announced grand jury indictments of 14 people for conspiracy to distribute marijuana. Not earthshaking news, but for the fact that the individuals freely admit what they are doing, and claim their activity is protected because they are part of...
Premiere | Everything you ever wanted to know about the biggest summer blockbuster hits, stars, and directors since Jaws in a delicious graphic.
The Shark Guys | Recently, another kind of World Cup made the news, one that Maradona would probably try just as desperately to obtain – a 24-lb replica that you wouldn’t want to hoist over your head for fear of dropping it in the presence of the winners of the Colombian men’s creative carving ...
Independent | There is a cruel paradox in the career of the man who, in September, will become only the second pope in history to visit Britain. When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope in April 2005, he set about purifying the Catholic Church and returning it to its core values.
Jews Against Zionism | Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), the founder of modern Zionism, recognized that anti-Semitism would further his cause, the creation of a separate state for Jews. To solve the Jewish Question, he maintained “we must, above all, make it an international political issue.”
New York Times | One day nearly 20 years ago, Stephen Naman was preparing to help the rabbi of his Reform Jewish temple in South Carolina move the congregation into a new building. Mr. Naman had just one request: Could the rabbi stop placing the flag of Israel on the altar?
Woman's Day | Everyone knows cobras, sharks and lions are killers. But there are plenty of other animals that are just as dangerous as the usual suspects. We’ve found some rather surprising, not to mention frightening, species that if bothered, can kill humans.
ABC News | A prominent Catholic priest, praised by Pope John Paul II as "an efficacious guide to youth," Father Marcial Maciel, sexually abused not only young seminarians under his control but also abused his own children, according to a lawsuit filed today in Connecticut by a man who claims to...
Stuff.Co.Nz | Ms Dever said the church rejected her appeal to stop accepting large donations from Mr Abraham and came to the rest home to give him a donation certificate so he could claim a third of the money back from Inland Revenue.
Guardian | It was the list that would have sent thousands more Jews to their deaths in Auschwitz and other extermination camps run by Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime during the second world war, but this time the victims were to be Spaniards.
Manorama Online | The Comunita Incontro now has drug rehabilitation centres worldwide and has enjoyed the support of powerful figures in Italian politics.
NPR | It's not often that you can make traffic flow more smoothly and safely without spending significant time and money. But drivers in Springfield, Mo., are the first in the United States to use a new interchange design that transportation officials say is quick, cheap, and safe.
Globe and Mail | She had fought her parents for the right to wear Western clothing, and to jettison the hijab they wanted her to wear. She was going to apply for a part-time job, something her father refused to allow. Then she ran away from home for the second time in three months.
Entertainment Lobby | While most successful young entrepreneurs make their money building popular Web sites, Fraser Doherty built his empire using a more traditional way. Fraser started making jams at the age of 14 from his grandmother's recipes in his parents' Scotland kitchen, and by 16 l...
Consequence of Sound | If you’re Paul McCartney, you’re riding high right now. OK, you’re usually doing pretty awesome, but after being congressionally labeled an American pop icon and setting an awesome summer tour schedule, you’ve got to be especially stoked.
ABC | In April 2009, Hamilton told her boss at Southland Christian School in St. Cloud, Fla., that she was pregnant and planned to take a six-week leave in October. When asked when she conceived, Hamilton answered honestly: She became pregnant just three weeks prior to her Feb. 20 wedding.
Zimbio | Saturday Night Live's producers, especially Lorne Michaels, have famously and dramatically banned for life several celebrities from ever appearing on the television show. Reasons for these bans vary, as sometimes they can be seen as a rational response to a star's grossly innappropriate...
Daily Mail | Arrested: Jarrod Wyatt was allegedly found standing naked over his dead friend's body in a room bathed in blood
New Yorker | When we meet Jesus of Nazareth at the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, almost surely the oldest of the four, he’s a full-grown man. He comes down from Galilee, meets John, an ascetic desert hermit who lives on locusts and wild honey, and is baptized by him in the River Jordan.
TIME | According to a new study in the journal Science, that's the age at which people begin developing concepts of fairness and economic inequality — including the notion that some people deserve to make more money than others.
Telegraph | Students used to be about all about holding sit-ins and rallies in order to fight for the rights of others. But now they are too engrossed in their own lives to care, claims new research. According to psychologists, undergraduates are fast losing the ability to ...
Associated Press | Italy's bishops' conference provided the first ever statistics of clerical sex abuse in the country Tuesday, saying there had been about 100 cases over the past 10 years that warranted church trials or other canonical procedures.
Daily Mail | From the USSR's Be On Guard! map in 1921 to Google Earth, a new exhibition at the British Library charts the extraordinary documents that transformed the way we view the globe forever
CNN | He was living with his father, Joe G. Stacy, in Richlands, Virginia. Stacy and his estranged wife, Stephanie, were involved in divorce proceedings. The divorce was being adjudicated in Florida, where they had lived before she moved west.
Movie News, Movie Trailers and Reviews | His comedy, which is somewhat hectoring and loud, can be a bit much for some people to take, a new film biography on his life is still quite interesting to watch as it explores his childhood in length showing a portrait of his life that is quite believ...
CBC | A Saskatchewan father is considering suing the Prairie South School Division for failing to stop his son — who lost one of his legs in an accident — from being bullied on the school bus. Robert Coomber's five-year-old son, Ryan, lost part of his left leg in a lawnmower accident two ye...
Houston Star | Cecilia McLauchlin, 32, was a sex abuse victim of Charles Sylvestre, a Catholic priest, when she was a child. She says that victims “need to outlast” the church, as she did during a three-year civil case against the London archdiocese.
AV Club | Understatedly described as a “traditional musical comedy with untraditional subject matter,” Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s The Book Of Mormon is officially headed to Broadway in March 2011. The South Park duo have been kicking around the idea for a while, and are said to be current...
Time | Then one day Ethan's mother made him a bold offer. If he could go a full month without watching any TV, she would give him $200. None of us thought he could do it. But Ethan quit TV, just like that. His friends offered to let him cheat at their houses on Friday nights (Miami Vice nights!)...
Associated Baptist Press | A former Southern Baptist pastor in central Indiana has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for molesting a 15-year-old church member in a relationship that began with him counseling the girl because she was not getting along with her mother.
The Tribune | Former St. Catharines bishop John O'Mara was named by former Pembroke bishop Joseph Windle in a 1993 letter to the Vatican's ambassador in Ottawa. O'Mara was named as part of a group of Ontario bishops who backed Windle's recommendation that the abuse of minors by a Pembroke pries...
Daily Mail | The entire attack, - inculding an horrific sexual assault which left Fritton with fatal internal injuries - was filmed on a camcorder by Birt. She can be heard laughing and encouraging others to continue the torture in the tape.
ABC News | The announcement came after a Norwegian newspaper pressed for an explanation for why Georg Mueller, a 58-year-old German, had stepped down unexpectedly as bishop in the western city of Trondheim in June 2009. At the time, Vatican and Norwegian church officials gave only vague reasons...
The Daily Beast | Extreme as putting a child on antidepressants may sound, according to new research, parents like Morgan may have science on their side. Some experts now believe that chronic depression can affect children as young as 3 years old.
Times Online | As the faithful marked the anniversary of John Paul’s death on Good Friday, however, he was being drawn into the scandal over child abuse in the Catholic church that has confronted his successor, Benedict XVI, with the worst crisis of his reign.
Times Colonist | Soft-spoken taxi driver Nate Phelps of Cranbrook, B.C., is coming forward on Easter Sunday to speak out in a televised interview against one of America’s most outspoken anti-gay crusaders — his own father.
The Stranger | One spring afternoon in 1977, 15-year-old Rachel Mike tried to kill herself for the third time. An Alaska Native, Rachel was living in a tiny town called Stebbins on a remote island called St. Michael. She lived in a house with three bedrooms and nine siblings.
NPR | In the wake of its own scandal almost a decade ago, the U.S. church says it has reformed its policies for handling sexual abuse allegations and will remove from ministry every priest who is credibly accused of abuse.
Recluse | These words do not have direct equivalents in English. Some of them would definitely be useful for us English-speakers, what do you think?
BustBenedict.com | The pontiff did not refer directly to accusations over his handling of cases of paedophile priests, both as Archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982 and subsequently as head of doctrine at the Vatican. However, Vatican watchers said that his meaning was clear “in the current con...
Independent | Father Lawrence Murphy was a man with charm and social skills. Small of stature, he was a lively, sociable, charismatic Irishman, who also had the rare ability to communicate fluently in sign language.
Cinematical | This year marks the 20th anniversary of the MPAA's notorious NC-17 rating, a designation whose checkered history continues. It all began when, for some reason, the MPAA failed to copyright its "X" rating, which recommended that no children under the age of 17 be admitted.