In his first Easter Sunday message in front of a crowd in St Peter’s Square, Pope Francis prayed for Syria, the Korean peninsula and issued an appeal for hostages held by militants in Nigeria.
We’ve lost a colourful world leader who genuinely seemed to have the best interests of his people at heart. But the facts don’t lie – Chávez’s economic legacy is a warning against statist socialism, writes Aaron McKenna.
Dr Oliver Moore travelled to the Latin American country with Trócaire to see local communities becoming empowered to fight for a clean environment, and for sustainable development.
The move will likely strengthen President Cristina Kirchner’s hopes of retaining control of the legislature and potentially change the constitution to allow her to run for a third term.
Correa said the alleged actions against the WikiLeaks founder were ‘not crimes in 90 to 95 per cent of the world’ but they had played no part in Quito’s decision to grant Assange asylum.
The Venezuelan president insisted he was merely thinking aloud. It follows news that Argentina’s president is the latest Latin Americna leader to be diagnosed with cancer.
Five people suspected of being members of the notorious Zetas drug cartel in Mexico have been arrested over an arson attack on a casino killed 52 people earlier this week.
DESPITE PROTESTS and lobbying from the Catholic church, Argentina has become the first Latin American country to allow gay couples to get married.
The Senate passed the proposal at 33-27 votes after 14 hours of debate. It was passed in the lower chamber in May.
Thousands of people took to the streets in Buenos Aires, both in support for and protest against the law.
Senator Miguel Pichetto, head of the ruling party, called it an “historic day” and added, “This is a very significant step on the way to equality.”
However, InfoBae.com quotes Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio saying, earlier this month, that the opposition saw the proposal not as “a political fight but an intention to destroy God’s plan.”
President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who supports gay marriage, will now need to ratify the law.
Buenos Aires has allowed gay couples to enter into civil unions since 2003, which allowed couples to enjoy many benefits of partnership. However, civil unions did not give couples the right to adopt or inheritance rights.
This new law will give couples full marriage rights, which will include the rights of children of gay parents. Gustavo Lopez, of the Argentine Anti-Discrimination office, says that the law “recognizes families that already exist and protects them,” adding, “The state has an obligation to protect all families.”
A MOTION OF no confidence in the Minister for Justice will be debated in the Dáil next week with Fianna Fáil claiming Alan Shatter’s position is now “untenable”.
The opposition party has been fiercely critical of the Fine Gael deputy’s handling of an ongoing row with Independent TD Mick Wallace.
“The Minister has shown extremely poor judgement of late. In particular, he used private information he received from the Garda Commissioner to undermine an opposition TD on Prime Time last week,” Niall Collins charged.
Shatter is currently facing two investigations by the Data Protection Commissioner and the Standards in Public Office Commission over his actions. He was also forced to clarify the nature of an incident where he was breathalysed by gardaí but could not complete the test because of asthma.
Although the motion of no confidence is unlikely to pass (as the government can table a counter-motion), TheJournal.ie wants to know what you think. Is Alan Shatter’s position as minister untenable?
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