Chicago, United States | AFP | Almost 700 clergymen in Illinois have been accused of child sexual assault, a far greater number than the Catholic Church had previously disclosed, the Midwestern US state’s top prosecutor revealed Wednesday. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said the Church’s revelations that 185 clergy members …
Read More »Obama delights sick children as Santa in Washington
Washington, United States | AFP | Former US president Barack Obama took on a new high-profile role as Father Christmas on Wednesday for a surprise visit to sick children in Washington. Sporting a festive Santa hat and armed with a sack of gifts, he delighted young patients at Children’s National …
Read More »Pope accepts US bishop’s resignation over ‘misconduct’ with minor
Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Los Angeles auxiliary bishop Alexander Salazar over his “misconduct” with a minor, the Vatican said Wednesday. The case is the latest in a litany of child sexual abuse scandals to have rocked the Roman Catholic Church …
Read More »I’m because I’m from here
How where you’re born influences the person you become Kampala, Uganda | SAMUEL PUTNAM & MASHA A. GARTEIN | As early as the fifth century, the Greek historian Thucydides contrasted the self-control and stoicism of Spartans with the more indulgent and free-thinking citizens of Athens. Today, unique behaviors and characteristics seem …
Read More »UNEPI: 400,000 children not immunized
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | More than 400,000 children under the age of five years were not immunized in the last three years. This is according to the Uganda National Expanded Program on Immunization-UNEPI has revealed. Records from the January 2015 to October 2018 indicate that over 100,000 children have …
Read More »Syria conflict: 2017 deadliest year for children, UN aid official reports
Damascus, Syria | UN | More than 900 children in Syria were killed last year, making 2017 the deadliest year for children in the country’s ongoing conflict, a senior United Nations official told the Geneva-based Human Rights Council on Tuesday, warning that the grim statistics may only be the tip …
Read More »Four million Syrian children have only known war since birth: UNICEF
Damascus, Syria | UNICEF | Half of Syria’s children, that’s four million, have grown up only knowing a life of violence, as the war-battered country enters its eighth year of conflict, the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday. “Every eight-year-old in Syria has been growing up amidst danger, …
Read More »Over 15,000 South Sudan children remain separated from their families: UNICEF
Malakal, South Sudan | UNICEF | The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said 15,000 children remain separated from their families or missing, five years after conflict first broke out in South Sudan. UNICEF said more than four million people have been uprooted by the fighting in the country, the majority of …
Read More »British policeman jailed for raping 13-year-old
London, United Kingdom | AFP | A British police officer was jailed for 25 years on Thursday for 37 offences that included raping a 13-year-old girl in the back seat of his car. Constable Ian Naude told the jury that the sex was consensual and that the girl “seemed to …
Read More »Mukwege saviour to dozens of ‘little sisters’ raped in DRC village
Bukavu, DR Congo | AFP | Lucie was just seven years old when the men took her. She was found the next day, naked and bleeding, on the edge of the vast forested hills of Kahuzi Biega Park, in violence-plagued eastern DR Congo. “The militants entered the family home …
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