International News

Americas

The 7.0-magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks affected three million people and destroyed hundreds of thousands of buildings, leaving the national government effectively unable to operate.

Quake-ravaged Haiti reliant on private sector for help

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM) • Catholic Online • 5/16/2012

It's been more than two years after the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti. To date, non governmental organizations and private contractors are continuing to provide 80 percent of the country's social services. LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "These entities have built an alternative ...

Police and troops were combing the area and set up checkpoints after authorities received a report of the remains early Sunday morning.

Latest massacre of 49 'not an attack against the civilian population'

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM) • Catholic Online • 5/14/2012

At least 49 decapitated and dismembered bodies have been discovered along a highway in the northern border state of Nuevo Leon, authorities say. The body parts were left along the road between the cities of Monterrey and Reynosa. A message written on a nearby wall nearby referred to the ...

Wal-Mart is not the only company to have been involved in corruption scandals in Mexico. Various studies in the past few years have revealed the tangled web that is debilitating Mexico with enormous economic and social costs.

Bribery, extortion and embezzlement run rampant in Mexico

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM) • Catholic Online • 5/12/2012

In spite of several multilateral anti-corruption agreements that have been signed by the Mexican government, these agreements have yielded few concrete results in combating the rampant bribery, extortion and embezzlement. "We have the necessary legal instruments, but they are rarely used. ...

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Europe

With huge jaws and teeth about 8 inches long, this pliosaur could have ripped most other animals apart.

Prehistoric 'Loch Ness Monsters' suffered from arthritis, fossils say

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM) • Catholic Online • 5/17/2012

Ancient creatures resembling theoretical "Loch Ness Monsters" developed arthritis in their jaws, revealing that even such lethal killers could suffer from and eventually succumb to diseases associated with old age. Scientists reached that conclusion while investigating the fossil of an ...

Mladic spent 15 years on the run before being caught by Serbian Special Forces.

Ratko Mladic, the Butcher of Bosnia, in court for war crimes

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM) • Catholic Online • 5/16/2012

Ratko Mladic, accused of being behind Europe's worst killing spree of today, shows no remorse. The "Butcher of Bosnia," or the "Beast of the Balkans," caught the eye of a woman who survived the genocide and ran his finger across his throat. The gesture had Judge Alphons Orie give a brief recess due ...

Fifteen-year-old Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a prominent Vatican employee, vanished without a trace after leaving her Vatican apartment for music lessons in June 22, 1983.

Mobster's tomb at Vatican disinterred in investigation into teenager's disappearance

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM) • Catholic Online • 5/17/2012

The investigation into the disappearance of an Italian girl has led to the discovery of a mobster's body on Vatican property. Investigators at the church of Sant'Apollinare in central Rome opened the tomb of Enrico "Renatino" De Pedis in the search for clues about what happened to 15-year-old ...

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Middle East

Washington has denied any U.S. role in the killings Iranian scientists.

Iran hangs 'Mossad agent' for assassinating scientist

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM) • Catholic Online • 5/15/2012

Iran hanged a man they said was an agent for Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, who was convicted of killing one of their nuclear scientists in 2010. LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Tehran accused Israel and the United States of assassinating four Iranian scientists, as of 2010, to sabotage ...

Imprisoned Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani

Lawyer for Iranian Pastor Sentenced to Death for Being a Christian, Sentenced to Jail

By Deacon Keith Fournier • Catholic Online • 5/10/2012

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani was sentenced to death in the Islamic Republic of Iran for the crime of apostasy. He refused to convert back to Islam and recant his faith! The character and courage of Christ is evident in the heroic witness of this Pastor. Now, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, the ...

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Asia Pacific

Caritas Pakistan Karachi staff distribute dustbins yesterday in Saif-ul-Marri Goth.

Caritas launches waste recycling system

By Catholic News Agency • Catholic Online • 5/15/2012

Caritas Pakistan yesterday launched a solid waste management system in the country's most populous city Karachi to promote recycling. LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The project includes forming environmental protection groups in slums, appointing garbage collectors, distributing more than a ...

Arsala Rahmani was one of several former members of the Taliban who were removed from a U.N. blacklist in July 2011, eliminating a travel ban and an assets freeze in a move seen as key to promoting the peace effort.

Peace negotiator shot dead in Kabul

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM) • Catholic Online • 5/15/2012

Former Taliban minister turned government peace negotiator Arsala Rahmani has been shot to death while he sat in traffic in Kabul. Rahmani was the second senior member of President Hamid Karzai's high peace council to be killed in less than a year, after a suicide bomber targeted the ...

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Africa

Despite successful efforts to quell attacks in the Gulf of Aden, international navies have struggled to contain piracy in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea owing to the vast distances involved.

European navy attacks Somali pirates on land for first time

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM) • Catholic Online • 5/16/2012

Somali pirate installations in East Africa were attacked by European Union Naval forces on land, the first time since extending its remit from strictly to sea-based operations. According to the European Union Naval Force (Somalia) Operation Atalanta's web site, there were no reported ...

In the isolated Saharan town Kufra, guards order a few hundred migrants lined up at a detention center to chant

Sahara Desert teeming with refugees from Libya, Chad, elsewhere

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM) • Catholic Online • 5/15/2012

Refugees from many beleaguered African nations have found a temporary safe home in the Sahara desert. Located nearly 1,000 miles from the Mediterranean coast in Libya's desolate southeast desert, the Kufra oasis strategically lays near the long and porous borders of Egypt, Sudan and Chad. LOS ...

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