Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
Friday, December 05, 2025
Alleged Haitian gang leader sentenced to life in prison in kidnapping of 16 American missionaries
December 3, 2025 / 5:29 PM EST / CBS/AP
A man alleged to be the founder and leader of a Haitian gang was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison for orchestrating the 2021 kidnapping of 17 people — 16 of them Americans — including five children, who were on a missionary trip to the Caribbean country.
Joly Germine declined to say anything before U.S. District Judge John Bates in Washington, D.C., sentenced him.
"No remorse has been shown by Mr. Germine. No acceptance of responsibility," the judge said.
Some of the kidnapping victims chose to speak in court, telling Germine they forgive him for his role in their ordeal.
Ray Noecker, whose wife, Cheryl, and five children were held hostage, said it was a "life-changing experience" for their family. He turned to Germine and told him that he hopes he finds "God's peace."
"True freedom is not found outside of prison walls. True freedom is found inside your own heart," Noecker said.
The victims — 16 U.S. citizens and one Canadian citizen — were kidnapped by gang members near Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Oct. 16, 2021. Two hostages were freed in November 2021 and three more were released in early December. The remaining 12 escaped later in December after being held at gunpoint for 62 days.
Friday, November 07, 2025
Thursday, January 16, 2025
Saturday, August 05, 2023
Friday, January 20, 2023
Wednesday, November 16, 2022
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Sunday, July 07, 2013
35,000 march in Dublin against Irish abortion bill
Shawn Pogatchnik
Anti-abortion protesters holding placards walk through Ireland's capital, Dublin, in an anti-abortion protest Saturday, July 6, 2013. More than 35,000 activists marched to the parliament building to oppose Irish government plans to enact a bill legalizing terminations for women in life-threatening pregnancies. The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill is expected to be passed into law next week. (AP Photo/Shawn Pogatchnik)
3 hours ago • Associated Press
Bearing rosary beads and placards declaring "Kill the bill! Not the child," more than 35,000 anti-abortion activists marched Saturday through Dublin to demand that the Irish government scrap plans to legalize terminations for women in life-threatening pregnancies.
Demonstrators from across Ireland, a predominantly Catholic island of 6.5 million, marched for two hours through the capital to Leinster House, the parliament building, where lawmakers next week are expected pass the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill. Speakers demanded that the government put its bill to a national referendum. "Let us vote!" the crowd chanted.
The two-year-old coalition government of Prime Minister Enda Kenny drafted the bill following last year's death of a miscarrying woman in an Irish hospital. Three investigations since have determined that Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old Indian dentist, died from blood poisoning one week after admission for a miscarriage. Doctors denied her pleas for an abortion, even though her uterus had ruptured, because the 17-week-old fetus still had a heartbeat. By the time it stopped, investigations concluded, Halappanavar already had contracted a lethal dose of septicemia.
Justice Minister Alan Shatter said Saturday that, had the bill been law last year, Halappanavar might have received a prompt abortion and survived. He appealed to anti-abortion rebels in the main government Fine Gael party to accept the bill or abstain from the final vote expected Wednesday night. The bill received overwhelming backing in an initial vote this week.
Ireland outlaws abortion, a position underscored by a 1986 referendum amending the constitution to declare that the unborn have a right to life. But the Supreme Court in 1992 ruled that the constitution equally defends the pregnant woman's right to live, therefore life-saving abortions were legal.
Crucially, Ireland's highest court said this meant a woman should receive an abortion even if the only threat to her life was caused by her own suicide threats. Six governments since have refused to pass legislation backing that 1992 judgment, leaving obstetricians divided and confused over whether certain life-saving abortions can be performed legally.
In 2011, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Ireland's failure to legislate meant pregnant women in dangerous medical conditions were forced to travel overseas, chiefly to neighboring England, for abortions. It said travel and bureaucratic delays meant some women's medical conditions worsened unnecessarily.
The government bill would permit an abortion for a suicidal woman if a panel of three doctors _ one obstetrician and two psychiatrists _ unanimously agree that the woman's threats are real. Abortion rights advocates say this rule means women in such circumstances still will travel to England, where abortion was legalized in 1967.
But those marching Saturday warned that women would conspire with sympathetic doctors to fake suicide threats, putting Ireland on a slippery slope to wider abortion access. Ireland is just one of two European Union members, alongside Malta, that outlaws the practice.
Before the march, Catholic Archbishop Diarmuid Martin led a central Dublin church in prayers for Ireland to keep abortion illegal. But in a nuanced sermon Martin told the crowd, among them families sitting on the floor beside packed pews, that pro-life campaigners must be careful not to come across as heartless to those on the other side of the debate.
Martin said those seeking to keep abortion out of Ireland must make their case "not through slogans but through the witness of life that we give." If not, he said, "what we say will appear, to quote Pope Francis, as being cold, impersonal and oppressive for people's day-to-day lives."
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Sunday, May 13, 2012
UK report: Dalai Lama fears poison plot by fake believers
Alex Domanski / ReutersTibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama greets a woman in Germany in August.
By Gil Aegerter, msnbc.com
The Dalai Lama says he fears that Chinese agents might send fake devotees to poison him, the Sunday Telegraph reports.
According to the UK newspaper, the Tibetan Buddhist leader said he had received reports from inside Tibet warning that Chinese agents had trained Tibetan women to administer the poison. The Dalai Lama said the women supposedly would have poison in their hair or head scarves and when he touched them to give a blessing, it would be passed to him.
He said that his aides couldn't confirm there was such a plot but that on advice of Indian security officials he was living with increased security in his temple grounds in Dharamsala in the Himalayan foothills, according to the Sunday Telegraph.
The report did not specify if the supposed Chinese agents were from China's government or some other group.
The report comes at a time of heightened tension between Tibetans and Chinese authorities.
Tenzin Gyatso, 76, is the 14th Dalai Lama. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. He recently won the $1.7 million Templeton Prize for his work linking science and wider questions of faith and religion -- and plans to give the money away when it's awarded on Monday in London.
The Dalai Lama says he fears that Chinese agents might send fake devotees to poison him, the Sunday Telegraph reports.
According to the UK newspaper, the Tibetan Buddhist leader said he had received reports from inside Tibet warning that Chinese agents had trained Tibetan women to administer the poison. The Dalai Lama said the women supposedly would have poison in their hair or head scarves and when he touched them to give a blessing, it would be passed to him.
He said that his aides couldn't confirm there was such a plot but that on advice of Indian security officials he was living with increased security in his temple grounds in Dharamsala in the Himalayan foothills, according to the Sunday Telegraph.
The report did not specify if the supposed Chinese agents were from China's government or some other group.
The report comes at a time of heightened tension between Tibetans and Chinese authorities.
Tenzin Gyatso, 76, is the 14th Dalai Lama. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. He recently won the $1.7 million Templeton Prize for his work linking science and wider questions of faith and religion -- and plans to give the money away when it's awarded on Monday in London.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
How the Internet is making us stupid
Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows, asks if the Internet is changing the way we think.
Is the Internet changing the way we think? Photo: ALAMY
By Nicholas Carr
11:00PM BST 27 Aug 2010
Although the world wide web has been around for just 20 years, it is hard to imagine life without it. It has given us instant access to vast amounts of information, and we’re able to stay in touch with friends and colleagues more or less continuously.
But our dependence on the internet has a dark side. A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the net, with its constant distractions and interruptions, is turning us into scattered and superficial thinkers.
I’ve been studying this research for the past three years, in the course of writing my new book The Shallows: How the Internet Is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember. But my interest in the subject is not just academic. It’s personal. I was inspired to write the book after I realised that I was losing my own capacity for concentration and contemplation. Even when I was away from my computer, my mind seemed hungry for constant stimulation, for quick hits of information. I felt perpetually distracted.
Could my loss of focus be a result of all the time I’ve spent online? In search of an answer to that question, I began to dig into the many psychological, behavioural, and neurological studies that examine how the tools we use to think with — our information technologies — shape our habits of mind.
The picture that emerges is troubling, at least to anyone who values the subtlety, rather than just the speed, of human thought. People who read text studded with links, the studies show, comprehend less than those who read words printed on pages. People who watch busy multimedia presentations remember less than those who take in information in a more sedate and focused manner. People who are continually distracted by emails, updates and other messages understand less than those who are able to concentrate. And people who juggle many tasks are often less creative and less productive than those who do one thing at a time.
Source.
By Nicholas Carr
11:00PM BST 27 Aug 2010
Although the world wide web has been around for just 20 years, it is hard to imagine life without it. It has given us instant access to vast amounts of information, and we’re able to stay in touch with friends and colleagues more or less continuously.
But our dependence on the internet has a dark side. A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the net, with its constant distractions and interruptions, is turning us into scattered and superficial thinkers.
I’ve been studying this research for the past three years, in the course of writing my new book The Shallows: How the Internet Is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember. But my interest in the subject is not just academic. It’s personal. I was inspired to write the book after I realised that I was losing my own capacity for concentration and contemplation. Even when I was away from my computer, my mind seemed hungry for constant stimulation, for quick hits of information. I felt perpetually distracted.
Could my loss of focus be a result of all the time I’ve spent online? In search of an answer to that question, I began to dig into the many psychological, behavioural, and neurological studies that examine how the tools we use to think with — our information technologies — shape our habits of mind.
The picture that emerges is troubling, at least to anyone who values the subtlety, rather than just the speed, of human thought. People who read text studded with links, the studies show, comprehend less than those who read words printed on pages. People who watch busy multimedia presentations remember less than those who take in information in a more sedate and focused manner. People who are continually distracted by emails, updates and other messages understand less than those who are able to concentrate. And people who juggle many tasks are often less creative and less productive than those who do one thing at a time.
Source.
Friday, August 13, 2010
If a man die, shall he live again?
Job 14
1Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.
2He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
3And doth thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?
4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
5Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;
6Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.
7For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
8Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;
9Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.
10But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?
11As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:
12So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.
13O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!
14If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
15Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.
16For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin?
17My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity.
18And surely the mountains falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place.
19The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man.
20Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.
21His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.
22But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.
King James Version (KJV)
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Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?
13And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.
14And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?
15And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
14And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?
15And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
Luke 12:13-15.
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Sunday, March 14, 2010
Remember how short my time is
How long, LORD? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy wrath burn like fire?
Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?
What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.
Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?
What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.
Psalms 89:46-48.
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Friday, August 29, 2008
Jesus, 'The Bread of Life'
25And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither?
26Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.
27Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.
28Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
29Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
30They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?
31Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
32Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
33For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
34Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
35And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
36But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not.
37All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
38For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
39And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
40And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
41The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
42And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?
43Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.
44No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
45It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
46Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.
47Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
48I am that bread of life.
49Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
50This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
51I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
52The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
53Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
54Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
55For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
56He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
57As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
58This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.
John 6:25-58.
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