Foreigners investing in South African property must consider the accompanying tax implications, an accountant has warned.

Jose, an Argentinian worker serving in Southeast Asia, tells of how he entered overseas service and what he has seen God do through his not-so-typical ministry.

Come May 18, College of Education student Gabriela Marsh will commission as second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. She graduated from Officers Candidate School in August 2019, completed her senior year at Penn State in the Navy ROTC program and commissions with the Marines in mid-May.

Jose, an Argentinian worker serving in Southeast Asia, tells of how he entered overseas service and what he has seen God do through his not-so-typical ministry.

An OM France couple works among trafficked women and fights for justice before government officials.

In the wake of falling reading scores on the test known as the Nation's Report Card, 12 major education groups are calling on schools to adopt evidence-based reading instruction.

Mathematics Vision Project has dismissed the lawsuit after the surprising move the company made this summer to take legal action against one of its most vocal parent critics.

As schools apply more scrutiny to the methods and materials they use to teach early reading, educators and parents in some states have started to form new advocacy efforts—trying to pressure states and districts to adopt new approaches to teacher training and evaluating materials.

Penn State researchers have developed a comprehensive online tutor to educate the general public about the science behind COVID-19 and appropriate steps anyone can take to help reduce its transmission.

After months of hard work and preparation, nearly a dozen Penn State Hazleton seniors are now one step closer to graduating after presenting their Capstone Research and Design Thesis projects.

Customer relationship management spent the last couple of years going social. Make sure your CRM strategy incorporates this important new capability in 2020.

CNA Staff, Apr 24, 2020 / 11:31 am (CNA).- The bishops of Togo called for peace and respect for the rights of citizens after the violent arrest of an opposition leader from his home on Tuesday.

“[E]very citizen has the right and duty to express his/her disapproval in the face of manifest injustice and oppression,” the Catholic bishops of Togo said in a statement, according to English Africa Service.

“The physical violence and other inhuman and degrading treatment inflicted on citizens on this occasion is, therefore, a negation of their rights and freedoms…the Conference of Bishops denounces and condemns them, and calls on authorities to exercise restraint.”

In their statement, the bishops said they were dismayed to learn that opposition leader Agbeyome Kodjo had been arrested at his home this week, “in circumstances of brutality and violence perpetrated by the Defence and Security Forces.”

News reports indicated that police had broken into Kodjo’s home to arrest him for failing to appear before the nation’s intelligence police force. The opposition leader previously served as prime minister of the country, but his diplomatic immunity was removed last month by Parliament.

Kodjo, who heads the Patriotic Movement for Democracy and Development, came in a distant second to incumbent President Faure Gnassingbé Eyadéma in the nation’s February presidential elections.

Kodjo called the results a farce and declared himself the rightful president of the country. He said his calculations showed that he had received some 60% of the nation’s votes, while official tallies put him at about 18%.

Gnassingbé has been president of Togo since 2005 and is entering his fourth term. His father previously ruled the country after a 1967 coup.

Togo has seen political instability and widespread poverty in recent years. Protests in 2017 called for the resignation of Gnassingbé and resulted in harsh crackdowns.

Last month, 90-year-old Archbishop emeritus Philippe Fanoko Kpodzro of Lome was placed under house arrest briefly, after he encouraged protests following the presidential election.

Intel has released some benchmarks for its next-gen Core i9 'Cascade Lake-X' processors, which will be arriving next month with a big price cut. The company is also slightly dropping prices on Core S-series chips that lack GPUs, and preparing to launch the Xeon W-2200 series.

AMD is on a roll this year, and in the spirit of striking while the iron is still hot, the company will add four more processors to its swelling lineup of killer CPUs.

MediaTek announces a competitor to Qualcomm's Snapdragon 765 for sub-$500 5G phones, but its success in the US will depend on whether carriers are okay with dropping millimeter-wave support.

A new study finds that extracurricular activities have differing positive effects for rural boys compared to girls.

Jose, an Argentinian worker serving in Southeast Asia, tells of how he entered overseas service and what he has seen God do through his not-so-typical ministry.

Ajax, Atlético, Barcelona, Hoffenheim, Liverpool, Manchester United, Porto and Real Madrid topped their groups to reach the last 16.

By Bishop W. Shawn McKnight

The November General Assembly of Bishops in Baltimore was a difficult but perhaps unavoidable experience for us to move forward as a Church. I was very disappointed to learn that the Holy See found it necessary to insist that the USCCB not take action at this time on the proposals presented by our conference leadership. My frustration, shared with many other people, is this: We have known about the scandal of Archbishop McCarrick since the end of June, and our Church must take immediate, decisive and substantive action in light of the deep wound the scandal has caused.

I am not so concerned about the time it is taking to punish the perpetrator. Pope Francis immediately required the Archbishop to resign from the College of Cardinals when Cardinal Dolan announced the New York review board found a credible and substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against him. I’m okay with the fact that further penalties (which could include McCarrick’s return to the lay state) will take more time for a complete canonical process. McCarrick isn’t going anywhere and he is already living a life of imposed prayer and penance.

But much more is needed than simply meting out a just punishment. How could his rise to such an influential position in the Church have happened? I am concerned how the national conference of bishops and the Holy See answer that question. An internal investigation of the McCarrick scandal without the use of competent and qualified lay investigators will hardly be considered transparent and credible. We need and must utilize the best and brightest people to do a top-notch investigation and study of the problem. Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta is the most qualified Catholic clergy to lead such an investigation, but without knowing that his collaborators include competent laity, the public may not perceive his eventual report as independent and complete enough to be believed.

At the time of this writing, there has not been one bishop, archbishop or cardinal in either the Holy See or the United States who has come forward on his own to repent publicly of his sins of omission or commission with regard to Archbishop McCarrick’s series of promotions over decades. Please, be men, not cowards, and come clean on your own! There doesn’t have to be a formal and long, drawn out investigation for a bishop to exercise a little compunction and concern for the well-being of the whole Church. An independent and transparent investigation is all the more necessary when culpable hierarchs exhibit an incapacity to do the right thing on their own.

The laity are the only ones who can keep the hierarchy accountable and get us out of the mess we bishops got ourselves into. My singular focus throughout the Baltimore meeting was to advocate and push for greater public involvement of the laity at all levels of the Church. Why can’t we have well qualified, nationally known and trusted lay experts named to the special task force announced by the president of the USCCB? We are too insular and closed in as a hierarchy, and so are some of our processes at the USCCB. The Second Vatican Council gave us not only the freedom but the obligation to utilize and engage the gifts and talents of the laity in the life and mission of the Church.

Beyond the McCarrick scandal, we have more work cut out for us with regard to putting into place protocols and institutional structures to build credibility in the hierarchy’s handling of sexual abuse cases going forward. History proves that we bishops are not capable of policing ourselves adequately on the issue of clergy sexual abuse. Why not include the laity to assist us with this problem? The document the Missouri Province of Bishops presented to the Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People on Oct. 6 was intended to offer a set of principles for the USCCB to consider as it was developing proposals for the full body of bishops, including the involvement of the laity. We Missouri bishops wanted something valuable to come from our November meeting.

And so, I was disappointed that even the mild proposals up for consideration at the Baltimore meeting had to be pulled from a vote. It was a rather harsh reminder to me of what many lay people have been saying throughout our Diocese: We bishops are ineffectual in our attempts to address the problem of abuse of power by the hierarchy. The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People has had a marked impact on lowering the number of incidents of abuse by clergy since 2003. But with the aggravation of the McCarrick scandal, the laity and clergy are now rightfully asking that we get it all out, once and for all, and respond with an urgency that this crisis deserves. We literally have people dying because of the harm caused by predator clergy, and survivors of abuse are further victimized when we fail to take swift action. Seeing certain retired bishops who were notoriously responsible for covering up clergy sexual abuse at this year’s General Assembly in Baltimore as welcome guests was a slap in the face to all who have been wounded by the clergy. This example of episcopal arrogance and clericalism evidences the fact that we still don’t get the problem.

The whole Church is needed to solve our problem which the whole world knows about. What more do we have to hide? If we are going to move forward, we need to have authentic communion and a genuine synodal process. And this requires transparency and better communication between the clergy and the laity, between the USCCB and its own members, and between the USCCB and the Holy See. We need to become the Church Christ founded us to be.

Some of the most poignant comments I heard during the listening sessions in our Diocese were in response to the question asking for people’s dreams for their children and grandchildren. People spoke of a Church where their children and grandchildren would find the love, mercy and hope of Jesus Christ, a community filled by God’s graces and led by holy priests. Despite our current lethargy, I believe we are witnessing the rebirth and renewal of our Church in our day. And I feel very blessed to be part of that renewal with each of you. We are better together.

 

 

Bishop McKnight's column was first published at Making Connections, his column on the website of the Diocese of Jefferson City.

By Bishop Arthur Serratelli

Beneath the soil of every continent lie buried the ruins of fallen civilizations. The Sumerians, Akkadians, Mayans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Minoans, Romans: all of them, faded memories of past grandeur and glory. History records the collapse of at least thirty-two major civilizations that once thrived and prospered before our time. 

No great civilization is built in a day. No great civilization disappears in a single instant. Historians try to explain how these civilizations once so great have slowly vanished into the dustbin of history. Weather, economics, population decline, wars, politics are some of the reasons that they offer. But, ultimately, a civilization disappears when it loses its identity, forfeits its unity and jettisons its commitment to the common good.

Today’s relentless front-page news reports of scandal and sin (many times, stale news served up as current), the incessant discord of our politicians, the unending string of acrimonious tweets, and the rage of angry voices make one wonder whether or not we are facing the decline of our own civilization. Has our unity as a nation become so fragmented that it cannot be repaired?

The TV sitcoms, the talk shows, the din of warring cable news channels do little to promote serious discourse. Rather, they seem at times to make us despair of receiving unbiased reporting. They hardly inspire us to respond to the gospel’s clarion call for truth, justice, compassion and charity. Have we lost our commitment to the common good? Are we in the midst of an unstoppable decline of our nation? 

Some say this is the age of tolerance. As a result, good and evil, right and wrong, vice and virtue, truth and error are accepted as equally valid. But, this is not the age of tolerance. Those who are pro-life are marginalized. Those who cherish and protect the life of the child waiting-to-be-born, the elderly and the terminally ill are branded as bigots, unwilling to show compassion to those suffering. Those who accept the sanctity of marriage and human sexuality as designed by the Creator are vilified. We live at a time when some are not only intolerant to our basic Christian values, but are actively engaged to silence Christians, target the Church and reduce her to ruins. 

In an age of relativism, has it become almost impossible to dialogue rationally on the major issues that face us, such as poverty, migration, and the sanctity of life itself ? “Relativism is the order of the day. Good and evil, right and wrong, innocence and guilt – all these binaries are deliberately confused as antipodal extremes are brought into artificial congruence. Moral clarity is muddled and logical cogency diluted. All inherent preference is suspended out of a misguided attempt to achieve balance where there is none” (Brandon Marlon, “The Decline and Fall of Modern Civilization: 8 Simple Steps to Squandering It All,” The Algemeiner, January 22, 2015).

From the Church, we receive a rich heritage of truth, morality and charity. We have solid and clear moral principles given to us by Jesus. These are the solid building blocks with which to construct a just and peaceful society. Could it be that we ourselves are slowly abandoning these principles? How is it possible that those trained in the Catholic faith assume leadership roles in government and then jettison their Catholic morals? How is it that any one of us can remain complacent to the slow moral deterioration of our country? 

Our country will not collapse if we refuse to hand over our future to those who deny the existence of God and live as if this world is all that there is. Our society will not collapse if we are courageous enough to draw on our moral and spiritual heritage to solve the issues that divide us. Our nation will not collapse if we remain true to our identity given to us by our Founding Fathers as a nation founded on Judeo-Christian principles. Our courage as moral individuals to stand for justice, truth and compassion is the antidote to the collapse of our country.
 

The team in Bangladesh comprises mainly national believers in Jesus, one of whom brings vocational training and God’s light into a refugee camp.

Jose, an Argentinian worker serving in Southeast Asia, tells of how he entered overseas service and what he has seen God do through his not-so-typical ministry.

Consumers must be careful simply to assume their fortune lies in investment property, cautions Steven van Rooyen, Principal at Leapfrog Milnerton.

Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan briefed a joint meeting of Parliament's Portfolio and Standing Committees on Public Enterprises on Wednesday evening.

An Epyc server can contain up to 4TB of memory and 128 lanes of PCIe, making it a worthy Intel Xeon competitor.

Bloomberg says People's Liberation Army operatives added tiny, nefarious microchips to server motherboards made by Super Micro and used by Apple and Amazon, among others. All three companies pushed back hard on the story.

Dell has some Doorbuster Deals that will not last long. Also, the Instant Pot DUO60 is back at $49.99. Plus, Prime members can grab a Ring Video Doorbell Pro and Echo Dot for $169.

There are many ways to add more "visual impact" to your maps. Some techniques grab the users' attention, but often don't add anything useful to the message the map is trying to convey (such as 3D tricks, or flashy/gratuitous images and infographics). I encourage you to design maps that have [...]

The post Giving your maps more visual impact! appeared first on Graphically Speaking.

Gianluigi Buffon won his 175th and final Italy cap on Monday, a record for a European. Could that soon be under threat, though? We check out the top ten.

Loans for Heroes, which provides veterans with reduced mortgage rates, has funded $3.3 million in mortgage loans since it launched in May of 2012.

DOVER — Delaware homeowners who face foreclosure, have fallen behind on their mortgage payments, or have questions about their mortgage can meet with lenders and housing counselors at two upcoming workshops in Dover on May 15 and Wilmington on May 16. At each free workshop, homeowners can also get information from the Attorney General’s Office […]

DOVER — Delaware homeowners who face foreclosure, have fallen behind on their mortgage payments, or have questions about their mortgage can meet with lenders and housing counselors at two upcoming workshops in Dover on November 13 and Wilmington on November 14. At each free workshop, homeowners can also get information from the Attorney General’s Office […]

A district in Washington state has halted all international field trips over concerns students in the country illegally wouldn't be able to get back in.

The United States has gained ground against other countries in a global assessment of teenagers' reading, math, and science skills. That's ironic, though, considering this country has been running in place for years in all three subjects.

Google Assistant Scheduled Actions lets you schedule actions in advance—so you can tell your coffee maker to start at 6 a.m. or your air conditioner to stop at 10 p.m.

The highly portable Epson EX3260 delivers solid data-image quality and very good video quality in a projector that's a fine fit for offices and schools.

What's thin, light, and bright, with 1080p resolution? Epson's PowerLite 1795F Wireless Full HD 1080p 3LCD Projector, a highly portable model good with data-heavy images and excellent with video, but packing soft audio.

The Nebula Capsule II by Anker is an unusual entertainment projector: It runs the Android TV operating system, and can double as a Bluetooth speaker.

The Apple Watch Series 4 smartwatch is back at $359, matching its Prime Day price. Plus, Dell is offering an extra 15 percent off select XPS laptops. Finally, the Roomba 891 is just $380.

Kate Donald had a seizure while home alone. Luckily, she was wearing an Apple Watch Series 4, which can automatically call emergency services if it detects a hard fall followed by inactivity.

Three students received scholarships in industrial and mechanical engineering from the Material Handling Education Foundation for the 2020-21 academic year.

Today's low-cost laptops can handle everyday computing (and often more) with aplomb, and many of our top picks ring up below $400. Here's how to achieve the perfect balance of price and features in a budget laptop.

Virtual reality demands powerful hardware, but not everyone wants a big desktop PC. Plenty of laptops have the chops to handle VR, and these 10 are the top performers in our testing.

Can't decide between a laptop and a tablet? Get both with a 2-in-1. Our shopping advice and product recommendations will help you find the convertible or detachable that is right for you. (We've tested loads of them.)

After choosing the college or university you'll be attending, your next most important decision is which notebook you'll carry around campus. Start your "best laptops" short list with these top-rated, value-focused models.

Shopping for a notebook is more than just poring over spec lists. Whether you want a simple budget PC, a productivity workhorse, or a screaming machine for gaming, our guide has the advice you need to find the best laptop to fit your needs.

Need a featherweight laptop that lasts all day on a single battery charge? Thin, light, and power-efficient, these ultraportables are our top performers in testing.

Don't be left without juice just when you need it most. We've tested hundreds of laptops to find the ones that last the longest between charges. These battery-life champs will take you through a day of work, as well as a night on the couch.

Who has time to check baggage anymore? Whether you're running to the conference room or catching a flight cross-country, you need the lightest laptop possible. We've tested, well, tons of them and have all the buying advice and recommendations you need to help you land the right one.

Got work to do? Laptops built for business are thinner and more powerful than ever. Our buying advice and product recommendations will help you find your next mobile work companion. Check out our favorites, along with our deep-dive reviews.