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

Spanish government denies run on bank

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

The Spanish government is denying a report that said customers withdrew over one billion euros, or $1.3 billion, from the nationalized lender, Bankia, over the last week. LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Bankia said that deposit activity was normal. However, the government's denial has ...

Mladic is accused of ordering the systematic round up and death of some 8,000 Muslim boys and men.

UN suspends Mladic war crimes trial

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

The Yugoslav war crimes court has adjourned indefinitely the trial of Ratko Mladic over what it calls errors in the disclosure of evidence. The trial was supposed to start later in the month, and now may not happen at all. THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS ( Catholic Online) - The trial came to a halt ...

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 ...

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Middle East

Head of Syrian opposition to resign

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM) • Catholic Online • 5/19/2012

Syria's main opposition council is falling over the issues that cut to the source of the revolution, which includes accusations that the movement is as domineering as the regime it wishes to drive out. LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The deterioration of the Syrian National Council could ...

Israel's decision on whether to attack Iran draws closer

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

One of the decade's most important military decision could soon be made. That is to launch an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear program. The time to make that decision is running out, fast. LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Despite international warning, Iran is continuing to enrich uranium for ...

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Asia Pacific

China is especially interested in gleaning how best to defend its own computer networks from cyberattacks, but China is also improving its offensive abilities.

Pentagon reports that China is the lead cyberattacker of U.S. military computers

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM) • Catholic Online • 5/18/2012

China has always been considered a dangerous threat to the Pentagon when it comes to cybersecurity. LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - A report from the Department of Defense warns that not only is China responsible for many cyberattacks on the U.S. military computer systems, but that it plans to ...

Chen wheeled by a window in the hospital where he is under house arrest

Chris Smith Holds More Hearings to Free Chinese Human Rights Hero Chen Guangcheng

By Deacon Keith Fournier • Catholic Online • 5/18/2012

Chen defended thousands of women from the ongoing, most egregious systematic state-sponsored exploitation and abuse of women in human history-pervasive forced abortion and involuntary sterilization as part of China's one child per couple policy-and has suffered torture, cruel and degrading ...

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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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