News/International

{mosimage}CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy - Pope Benedict XVI met with Israeli President Shimon Peres and expressed hope that new diplomatic moves can bring peace in the Middle East.

{mosimage}Eighteen years into a sometimes divisive debate, the Vatican has put a final stamp of approval on the Canadian lectionary — granting a recognitio to the inclusive language of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible in English.

{mosimage}As Peruvians punch their way out of the rubble left by an 8.0 Richter Scale earthquake that struck the nation Aug. 15, the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace is collecting money the South American nation will need to rebuild.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Catholic emergency relief dollars are once again headed out to help victims of extreme weather associated with global warming.

{mosimage}The president of the Philippines is getting an earful from corporations with money to invest worried about the human rights record of Filipino police.

{mosimage}WASHINGTON - The United Nations’ decision July 31 to send a peacekeeping force to the Darfur region of Sudan drew cheers from Caritas Internationalis, the Vatican-based confederation of Catholic relief, development and social service organizations.

{mosimage}BELFAST, Northern Ireland - A Belfast-based Passionist priest said Northern Irish Catholics feel “joy and relief” that British military operations in the region have come to an end.

{mosimage}WASHINGTON - A recent Florida court case in which a jury awarded $23.5 million as compensation for the “wrongful birth” of a child is the latest sign that “society is moving toward designer children” who are not valued if they are not perfect, an official of the Florida Catholic Conference said July 30.

{mosimage}The highly publicized accusations of adultery against Bulawayo Archbishop Pius Ncube, Zimbabwe’s well-known opponent to the harsh regime of President Robert Mugabe, are just another part of the president’s campaign to discredit one of his most powerful critics.

{mosimage}ROME - Anoverwhelming victory for Turkey’s ruling Islamic-oriented party should be a “positive thing” for the nation’s Catholics, said Bishop Luigi Padovese, apostolic administrator of Anatolia, Turkey.