Kisa Vaoga is hoping her new home will be the start of a new life that will see her one day become a judge. The mother of two this week moved into her new home in Taitā with partner Jaiden Ah-Waihi and children Leiloa, 5, and Jhavis, 9. Having spent time in a motel after Read more
Pope Francis recently wrote to Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, thanking him and the diocese as a whole for their work accompanying immigrants at the southern border. Straddling the U.S-Mexico border, the Diocese of Brownsville is the southernmost diocese in Texas. It has long been at the epicentre of the church’s response to migration, Read more
The German bishops’ conference unveiled the initial results Wednesday of a study measuring global support for the goals of the country’s controversial “synodal way.” The study, co-funded by the bishops’ conference, is gauging the attitude of Catholics around the world toward the four main themes of the German initiative: power, the priesthood, women in the Read more
Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes, 64, has been on “extended medical leave” off the island of Guam, Archdiocesan Vicar General Father Romeo Convocar said on Tuesday. But the archdiocese did not provide further details about the medical condition, and whether it’s something that could prolong Byrnes’ absence from Guam. “Please continue to pray for our archbishop. Read more
Afghan girls will be allowed to take their high school graduation exams this week, an official and documents from the Taliban government indicated Tuesday — even though they have been banned from classrooms since the former insurgents took over the country last year. According to two documents from the Taliban ministry of education, obtained by Read more
In the past, North Koreans were encouraged to give their children patriotic names that held some ideological or even militaristic meaning, such as Chung Sim (loyalty), Chong Il (gun), Pok Il (bomb) or Ui Song (satellite). In recent years, though, as the county has become more open to the outside world, North Koreans have been Read more
The strange case of parents wanting ‘unjabbed’ blood for their baby has reignited Covid conspiracies thought lost to 2021. Tony Wall and Nikki Macdonald explain that the family are ‘realistic’ about what lies ahead, along with the other key factors at play. The parents of the baby at the centre of the “unjabbed blood” case Read more
The number of same-sex couple households in the US has surpassed 1 million for the first time, according to recently released government data. There were more than 1.2 million same-sex couple households across the country in 2021, up from 540,000 in 2008, an increase of 120%, the data, taken from the Census Bureau’s annual American Read more
The Auditor-General is being challenged over his decision to not take any action over the need for businesses to be asked to repay billions of dollars of wage subsidies. The Gama Foundation, a Christchurch-based philanthropic organisation has today filed a Judicial Review application in Wellington’s High Court. The Foundation is run by former Christchurch businessman Read more
Indonesia’s parliament is expected to pass a new criminal code this month that would criminalise sex outside marriage and outlaw insults against the president or state institutions, prompting alarm from human rights campaigners. The deputy justice minister, Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej, said in an interview with Reuters that the new criminal code was expected to Read more