Jonny Steinberg The Guardian, Friday 24 May 2013 22.00 BST Oscar Pistorius was more than a national hero. His success came to symbolise South Africa’s triumph over apartheid. Then he shot his girlfriend and left the nation’s self-image in tatters            A couple of years ago, two journalist friends of mine […]

Social safety nets don’t handicap economies, they save lives and provide continued opportunities to grow out of poverty John Podesta and Casey Dunning “Ending extreme poverty in all its forms” is no longer a platitude or a dream for development experts – it’s the guiding vision of the United Nations High Level Panel, as well […]

The same motive for anti-US ‘terrorism’ is cited over and over Ignoring the role played by US actions is dangerously self-flattering and self-delusional Glenn Greenwald guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 24 April 2013 16.27 BST News reports purporting to describe what Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told US interrogators should, for several reasons, be taken with a huge grain of salt. […]

More than 105,000 refugees have crossed the border between Sudan’s Blue Nile state and South Sudan’s Upper Nile state since November, 2011. The journey, usually made on foot, winds through treacherous conflict zones and along back roads that are barely passable due to heavy rains. Most flee on a moment’s notice, bringing only what they […]

Christopher Brittain ABC RELIGION AND ETHICS 8 Last year, Ross Douthat caused a stir among mainline American church circles with his provocative article, “Can Liberal Christianity be Saved?” Douthat suggests that the more liberal denominations seek to be “self-consciously progressive” – accepting same-sex relationships, the legitimacy of other religions and so on – the faster they […]

March 20, 2013 Ross Gittins The Sydney Morning Herald’s Economics Editor We’re no more racist than other countries, and less racist than some. But we do need remember all of us are some combination of good and bad. Australians aren’t racist – and even if some people are, you and I certainly aren’t. It’s true, of […]

JUSTIN WHELAN MARCH 19, 2013 On the weekend of 14–16 February 2003 more than half a million Australians participated in protest marches around the country against Australia’s involvement in the looming Iraq War. This, the largest coordinated protest action in the nation’s history, was the result of months of organisation and campaigning by coalitions of anti-war […]

Paul Syvret From:
The Courier-Mail March 19, 2013 TONY Abbott’s Liberal Party is attempting to lie its way into government, nothing more nothing less. They are lying to you about the state of the economy when they talk about restoring growth (we haven’t lost it thank you very much), restoring jobs (unemployment is at a historically […]

Omar Sacirbey | Mar 11, 2013 (RNS) Together, Islam and Catholicism represent about 40 percent of the world’s population, so the estimated 1.6 billion Muslims in the world have more than a passing interest in the new pope who will shepherd the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. Too often, relations between the two groups have been […]

Posted: 15/03/2013 2:32 pm  Fr. Richard Rohr Center for Action and Contemplation As a Franciscan, I was, of course, elated that one of the the first decisions of the new pope was to take a name that has not been taken by a pope before — “Francisco” — which in itself says an awful lot. Francis of […]

By DAVID RISING 13/03//13 BERLIN — A Jesuit priest whose kidnapping by the Argentine military junta decades ago led to strong criticism of the newly elected pope said Friday that he and the pontiff have reconciled. The Rev. Francisco Jalics, who now lives in a monastery in southern Germany, said in a statement that he […]

Everybody’s talking about Pope Francis, but nobody’s asking about his role in Argentina’s bloodiest war. By Robert Parry March 14, 2013 If one wonders if the U.S. press corps has learned anything in the decade since the Iraq War—i.e. the need to ask tough question and show honest skepticism—it would appear from the early coverage […]