Natural Disaster News

Gale-force winds lashed Malta early on Sunday morning, uprooting trees, demolishing walls and damaging power lines, but no injuries were reported. There occurred several destruction across the country as a result of these high winds.

The wind had a high speed of 101km/h. Trees were uprooted, walls got toppled and seafronts flooded in the violent gusts. It caused damage to electricity networks and forced road closures across the whole island.

The Civil Protection Department officials were sent to around 300 sites for clearing roads, removing dangerous walls and evacuating people from flooded residences. People advised to stay indoors.

The Maltese Islands Weather site said on Sunday morning that the northeast wind was appeared to be the strongest in many years. The 101 km/h (Force 10, almost Force 11) gusts measured by the site’s weather station in Għarb were an all-time record. The storm had gradually died down as the night fell.

Sunaya Paison
Photo Courtesy: Binoy Krishna

News

Vandals have decapitated an 800-year-old Crusader at St Michan’s Church in Dublin. It was found that the Crusader’s head was “severed from his body and taken away”, as per reports.

This famous Church of Ireland site of worship is located on Dublin’s Halston and is home to mummies, and the remains of the Sheare Brothers, executed by the British for their part in the 1798 rising. Some also says that this is the final resting place of Robert Emmet.

A tour guide was preparing to open the church for visitors on Monday afternoon, and then this was discovered. Archdeacon Pierpoint was found upset and disappointed that the church has been targeted again by vandals.

Photo courtesy: Google / images are subject to copyright

Crime News

George Pell, Australia’s most senior Catholic cardinal found guilty for child sexual assault after a trial in Melbourne. A jury found that he had sexually abused two 13-year-olds in 1996 and 1997, in the rooms of a Melbourne cathedral. George Pell, the Vatican treasurer is the third most senior Catholic in the world.

The verdict was handed down in December but due to some existing legal reasons, it could not be reported till now. Pell, is on leave from his role in Rome as Vatican treasurer. The abuse was happened months after Pell was inaugurated as archbishop of Melbourne.

George Pell is due to be sentenced next week but may be taken into custody at a plea hearing on Wednesday, having been out on bail since the verdict and recovering from knee surgery.

Pope Francis had not yet been revealed his response in public, regarding this issue. But just two days after the unreported verdict in December the Vatican announced that Pell and two other cardinals had been removed from the pontiff’s council of advisers.

Photo Courtesy: Google/ images are subject to copyright

News

Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General launched a new global strategy to combat whatever the global body considers hate speech, a growing scourge he said “poisoned” debate on crucial issues. In a speech at the opening of the council’s 40th session, he said ““Hate is moving into the mainstream — in liberal democracies and authoritarian systems alike” .

Governments across the world have watched with concern as racist and other hate speech have coarsened the political climate. France and Germany have raised particular alarm in recent weeks over resurgent anti-Semitism.

Guterres targeted his rebuke at widespread criticism of the UN’s Global Compact on Migration, a non-binding text that is said to set out best practices for managing refugee and migrant flows. The UN chief marked the campaign “failed”.

Photo courtesy: Google / images are subject to copyright

News

“Our work has made us realise once again that the gravity of the scourge of the sexual abuse of minors is, and historically has been, a widespread phenomenon in all cultures and societies,” said Pope Francis on Sunday. “I am reminded of the cruel religious practice, once widespread in certain cultures, of sacrificing human beings – frequently children – in pagan rites,” he added.

Pope was speaking at the close of the summit of the church’s top bishops and leaders. The summit aimed at how to deal with the priests, who are sexually abusing children and adults for years. The sex abuse survivors and members of ECA (Ending Clergy Abuse), held banners in front of St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Feb. 24, 2019.

Bishops would now review and strengthen their guidelines to prevent abuse and punish perpetrators, Pope said. He also said that the child sexual abuse was a universal problem – “a widespread phenomenon in all cultures and societies”.

Photo courtesy: Google / images are subject to copyright

Entertainment News Trending

The 91st Academy Awards, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, honored the best films of 2018. The ceremony was held on February 24, 2019, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 24 categories. The ceremony was televised in the United States by American Broadcasting Company and produced by Donna Gigliotti and Glenn Weiss, with Weiss also serving as director.

Lets check out the list of 2019 Oscar winners:

  • Best picture : Green Book
  • Directing : Alfonso Cuarón (Roma)
  • Actress in a leading role : Olivia Colman (The Favourite)
  • Actor in a leading role : Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody)
  • Actress in a supporting role : Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk)
  • Actor in a supporting role : Mahershala Ali (Green Book)
  • Animated feature film : Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse
  • Cinematography : Alfonso Cuarón (Roma)
  • Costume design : Ruth Carter (Black Panther)
  • Documentary (feature) : Free Solo
  • Documentary (short subject) : Period. End of Sentence
  • Film editing : Bohemian Rhapsody
  • Foreign language film: Roma (Mexico)
  • Makeup and hairstyling : Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe, and Patricia DeHaney (Vice)
  • Music (original score) : Ludwig Göransson (Black Panther)
  • Music (original song) : “Shallow” by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt (A Star Is Born)
  • Production design : Hannah Beachler and Jay Hart (Black Panther)
  • Short film (animated) : Bao
  • Short film (live action) : Skin
  • Sound editing : John Warhurst and Nina Hartstone (Bohemian Rhapsody)
  • Sound mixing : Bohemian Rhapsody
  • Visual effects : Paul Lambert, Ian Hunter, Tristan Myles and J.D. Schwalm (First Man)
  • Writing (adapted screenplay) : Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott and Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman)
  • Writing (original screenplay) : Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly (Green Book)

Photo courtesy: Google / images are subject to copyright

Entertainment Lifestyle News

Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, who are expecting their first child, arrived in Casablanca on Saturday night. The royal couple is having a three day tour, which intends to promote the education and mental awareness of girls.

Meghan Markle appeared to be dazzling in her gorgeous red Valentino dress. This royal visit aimed at strengthening the UK’s links with Morocco – which is one of the few stable countries in the region.

The royal suit of the Casablanca airport welcomed the royal pair with the traditional food of milk and dates.

Photo courtesy: Google / images are subject to copyright

Crime News

Severely bad clashes had been broken out at the border towns across Venezuela as opposition activists try to bring aid into the country across government blockades.

It is reported that two people have been killed in these clashes between the soldiers and opposition supporters after Maduro closed the border with Brazil and Colombia. The trucks loaded with humanitarian aid tried to cross over from Brazil and Colombia.

The Venezuelan soldiers fired tear gas at opposition supporters who were trying to unload the goods in the trucks. This caused harm to hundreds of people.

Demonstrators set up barricades and burned tires in the Venezuelan border town of Urena, as attention turned to whether National Guard troops stationed at the border crossing would fulfill Maduro’s orders to block humanitarian aid from reaching a sick and hungry population.

Photo courtesy: Google / images are subject to copyright

Crime News

The district court of Eskilstuna announced on Friday that a swedish man sentenced to prison for four years and six months, for stealing seventeenth-century crown jewels from a cathedral in broad daylight.

The crown jewels had been stolen at the end of July 2018 from the Cathedral of Strängnäs, about 70 kilometers West of Stockholm. It is the funeral crown, and the Orb of in 1611, died Charles IX. of Sweden, as well as the crown of his 1625 deceased wife, Queen Christine of Holstein-Gottorp. Do you have an estimate of the equivalent of more than six million euros – for the Church, but not in money defined value.

The robbery had an eye witness. Tom Rowell was sitting in sight of the Cathedral at lunch, when he saw two men out of the building race. They were rushed to a near Malaren lake, waited for the motor boat, he reported to the newspaper “Aftonbladet”.

Photo Courtesy: Google/ images are subject to copyright

News

Julian Assange gets a new Australian passport, clearing one of several hurdles keeping the wanted WikiLeaks publisher from exiting the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and returning home.

The new passport that allows Assange to return to Australia was issued in September 2018, but it was unreported till Saturday. The previous passport of Assange, who is weakening in health, had been expired.

On Thursday, the officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) told that that Assange had a valid passport, reiterating a statement from last October.

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade official confirmed in a Senate estimates hearing on Thursday that Mr Assange’s 2018 application for a new passport had been accepted. Consular and Crisis Management Division first assistant secretary Andrew Todd said, “Mr Assange does have an Australian passport”.

Mr. Assange, 47, was born in Townsville, Australia, in 1971. He has lived in the Ecuadorian Embassy since 2012, however, when he sought asylum in the face of the U.S. investigating his WikiLeaks website over its publication of classified State and Defense Department material. British authorities issued a warrant for his arrest in the interim, and he fears he will be apprehended if he leaves the embassy and extradited to the U.S. to face charges related to releasing hundreds of thousands of secretive documents.

Photo Courtesy: Google/ images are subject to copyright