Almost one million people in Johannesburg, South Africa’s commercial hub, are in need of food aid due to movement restrictions imposed to curb the coronavirus pandemic, according to its mayor.

Rome, Italy, May 7, 2020 / 11:00 am (CNA).- Dioceses in Italy can resume the celebration of public Masses beginning Monday, May 18, under conditions issued Thursday by the head of Italy’s bishops and by government officials.

The protocol for Mass and other liturgical celebrations states that churches must limit the number of people present – ensuring a one-meter (three feet) distance – and congregants must wear face masks. The church must also be cleaned and disinfected between celebrations.

For the distribution of the Eucharist, priests and other ministers of Holy Communion are asked to wear gloves and masks covering both the nose and mouth and to avoid contact with communicants’ hands.

The Diocese of Rome suspended public Masses March 8 due to the coronavirus outbreak. Several dioceses in hard-hit northern Italy, including Milan and Venice, had suspended public liturgies as early as the last week of February.

All public religious celebrations, including baptisms, funerals, and weddings, were prohibited during the Italian government’s lockdown, which went into effect March 9.

Funerals were allowed again beginning May 4. Public baptisms and weddings may now also resume in Italy starting May 18.

The protocol issued May 7 lays out the general directions for complying with health measures, such as the indication of a maximum capacity in a church based on maintaining at least one-meter distance between people.

Access to the church must be regulated to control the number present, it says, and the number of Masses can be increased to ensure social distancing.

The church should be cleaned and disinfected after every celebration and the use of worship aids such as hymnals is discouraged.

Church doors should be propped open before and after Mass to aid traffic flow and hand sanitizer must be available at entrances.

Among other suggestions, the Sign of Peace should be omitted, and holy water fonts kept empty, the protocol states.

The protocol was signed by Italian bishops’ conference president Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, Prime Minister and President of the Council Giuseppe Conte, and the Minister of the Interior Luciana Lamorgese.

A note says the protocol was prepared by the Italian bishops’ conference and examined and approved by the government’s Technical-Scientific Committee for COVID-19.

April 26 Italy’s bishops had criticized Conte for failing to lift the ban on public Masses.

In a statement, the bishops’ conference denounced Conte’s decree on “phase 2” of Italy’s coronavirus restrictions, which it said, “arbitrarily excludes the possibility of celebrating Mass with the people.”

The prime minister’s office responded later the same night indicating that a protocol would be studied to allow “the faithful to participate in liturgical celebrations as soon as possible in conditions of maximum security.”

The Italian bishops issued a statement May 7 stating that the protocol for restarting public Masses “concludes a path that has seen collaboration between the Italian Episcopal Conference, the Prime Minister, the Minister of the Interior.”

ANDY MURRAY may need to have another operation as he continues his bid to return to top-level tennis.

OM Costa Rica holds a children's celebration dedicated not to the Mexican war victory but to the victory of Jesus.

OM Director's Update from Lawrence Tong, International Director

OM Director's Update from Lawrence Tong

In his new book, “The End of British Party Politics?”, the political scientist Roger Awan-Scully captures the paradox of last year’s general election in Scotland.

To say that amateur golf in Scotland has been slow to adapt to change is putting it kindly. But where the rise of the nomads, the Equality Act, the credit crunch and repeated faltering reform efforts have failed, perhaps Covid-19 will finally be the shock that thrusts the sector into a meaningful if seriously belated overhaul.

THE SNP is so rotten it may have to be replaced by a new independence party, its former deputy leader has said.

The answer is unclear but "the threat is real," English-language-learner advocacy groups say. The advocates say the Education Department has evaded their questions about the future of the office of English-language acquisition.

Two football players from John Jay High School in San Antonio, Texas, could be facing criminal charges after appearing to intentionally tackle a referee during a game on Friday night.

A collection of news stories from this week.

The mental health of school counselors, nurses, school leaders, and teachers are at risk, and they may only need 10 minutes to help alleviate their stress.

Community groups and sports not connected to school can help students stay more connected academically during a critical transition period, according to a study of low-income students in New York City.

Education Week catches you up on the week gone by with a thoughtful look at recent news in K-12 education.

Docosahexaenoic acid is important for fetal brain development and visual acuity in infants. Infants born prematurely are at particular risk for docosahexaenoic acid insufficiency because they may not have benefited from a full trimester of the mother's lipid stores.

This is the first study in which the administration of fish-oil lipid emulsion in very low birth weight infants from the first day of life is described. The influence of fish-oil lipid emulsion on the regression of retinopathy seems to be worthy of further investigation. (Read the full article)

Three-fourths of US preschool-age children are in child care; many are not achieving recommended levels of physical activity. Daily physical activity is essential for motor and socioemotional development and for the prevention of obesity. Little is known about physical-activity barriers in child care.

Injury and school-readiness concerns may inhibit children’s physical activity in child care. Fixed playground equipment that meets licensing codes is unchallenging and uninteresting to children. Centers may cut time and space for gross motor play to address concerns about school readiness. (Read the full article)

The demographics of trials that use antenatal consent may not be representative of the populations that they are intended to study.

This study analyzes the difference in clinical outcomes between the enrolled and eligible but not enrolled populations of a trial that required antenatal consent. (Read the full article)

National asthma treatment guidelines include the recommendation that all asthma patients receive a written asthma action plan. No previous study has sought to examine the readability, suitability, and content of asthma action plans within a nationally representative sample.

Although variability was found across written asthma action plans, and improvements in readability, suitability, and content are needed, there were also many common elements that would support a move to a single universal standard action plan. (Read the full article)

Are you in your twenties and wonder how you can use the current market crash caused by fears related to the coronavirus pandemic as a way to get into the investment market?

Adolescents show mixed opinions over gender equality in recent survey.

Source: theweek.com - Saturday, May 09, 2020
1. The Labor Department on Friday said that 20.5 million jobs were lost in April, and the unemployment rate climbed to 14.7 percent. The staggering report showed that a decade of job gains were wiped out in just one month. The report also notes that if it included workers classified as furloughed or temporarily laid off, "the overall unemployment rate would have been almost 5 percentage points higher than reported." The Labor Department's March report showed the unemployment rate climbing to 4.4 percent, from 3.5 percent in February. Weekly data previously showed that more than 33 million Americans have filed initial jobless claims over the course of seven weeks, a number that's equivalent to about 21 percent of the labor force. The ADP National Employment Report also said earlier this week that 20.2 million private sector jobs were lost from March to April. President Trump, who was live on Fox & Friends the moment the report was released, described the unemployment numbers as "fully expected" and "no surprise." [ U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics , The Washington Post ] 2. The Office of Special Counsel is recommending that ousted vaccine official Dr. Rick Bright be reinstated while it investigates his case, his lawyers announced Friday. Bright, while leading coronavirus vaccine development, was recently removed from his position as the director of the Department of Health and Human Services' Biomedical Advanced Research and Devel

The Institutes of Energy and the Environment, in collaboration with Stewarding Our Planet's Resources, announced two separate community forums aimed at providing reports on existing energy and environmental activities and strategic opportunities as well as soliciting community input and recommendations for the future.

A virtual Senior Week, the first "We Are Penn State Virtual 5K" and the College of Engineering's Learning Factory Capstone Design Showcase are among the virtual highlights at Penn State this weekend and next week.

Happy Valley LaunchBox powered by PNC Bank is accepting applications through May 15 for its Idea TestLab that will now be hosted virtually in June. Open to the community, the four-week Idea TestLab program is designed to help teams evaluate the viability of their business ideas by coaching them through a proven method of customer discovery and problem analysis.

Research firm IHS Markit expects the display panel factories in Wuhan, China, to struggle to resume full production when the Chinese New Year holiday ends on Feb. 2. As a result, supplies for panels for TVs and PCs are expected to be tight in the ensuing months.

Perhaps there were some who had hoped for a dossier of lurid juiciness.

Penn State Berks will hold a series of webinars throughout the month of May for both accepted and prospective students, providing participants with an opportunity to ask questions and connect with campus experts.

Penn State Extension is extending its free online courses offer through May 10.

Penn State President Eric J. Barron will host a virtual Town Hall at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 19, to answer the University community’s questions regarding how the Penn State continues to manage the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, including the recent announcements on workforce changes, plans for summer and work being done by the task groups to return students to campus and employees to work.

Zoom-bombings have been making headlines across the country this spring, and Penn State is no exception to the increase in security threats and breaches. To address these recent incidents in Zoom meetings, University-wide Zoom default setting changes will be implemented on May 11.

CNA Staff, Mar 31, 2020 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- Local media in Nicaragua are reporting that despite the nation’s bishops’ conference suspending Mass and prohibiting large gatherings, the mayor of Granada is going ahead with an annual pilgrimage that the bishops had canceled.

For more than 150 years, Catholics in Nicaragua have venerated an image of Jesus del Rescate (Jesus of the Rescue) in Popoyuapa, near the city of Rivas. The image represents the crowning of thorns and the flogging of Christ.

Normally there is an annual pilgrimage to the image, which pilgrims make by wagon and on foot, during the "Week of Sorrows" that marks "the final stretch" of the time of Lent, according to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language news partner.

However, the bishops have said that this year it will not be possible to carry it out in the traditional way, given the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Nevertheless, Julia Mena, mayor of Granada, has organized and funded a group of pilgrims to do the pilgrimage, providing them with food and personal hygiene supplies, according to the Nicaraguan news website Confidencial. The priest at the shrine told Confidencial that he has “no plans to receive the pilgrimage.”

The Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference has not commented publicly on the matter.

Nicaragua has five confirmed cases of COVID-19. The government has not yet decreed any kind of alert or emergency regarding the pandemic, nor has it ordered a suspension of classes, Confidencial reports.

The country’s Ministry of Health has maintained that the internal movements of travelers arriving from countries with outbreaks of coronavirus would not be restricted, La Prensa reports.

President Daniel Ortega has been president of Nicaragua since 2007, and oversaw the abolition of presidential term limits in 2014.

The Church had suggested that elections, which are not scheduled until 2021, be held this year, but Ortega has ruled this out.

Ortega was a leader in the Sandinista National Liberation Front, which had ousted the Somoza dictatorship in 1979 and fought US-backed right-wing counterrevolutionaries during the 1980s. Ortega was also leader of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990.

On Monday, Pablo Escobar's brother started to take orders for a second foldable phone at the low price of $399. However, users who bought the first foldable phone from the company say their orders have yet to arrive. Instead, what they got was a book and a pamphlet.

In a study published in the latest Proceedings of Computer-Human Interaction, a team of Penn State researchers identified a dozen subtle — but powerful — reasons that may shed light on why people talk a good game about privacy, but fail to follow up in real life.

A supercell thunderstorm pelted a city center in Argentina a few years ago with hailstones so large scientists suggested a new category to describe them — gargantuan hail.

If warming continues unabated in the Midwest, in 50 years we can expect the best conditions for corn and soybean production to have shifted from Iowa and Illinois to Minnesota and the Dakotas, according to Penn State researchers.

The Penn State Law, Policy and Engineering initiative is hosting a virtual speaker series — titled, “Technology, Policy and Law during COVID-19” — that will consist of six sessions throughout the month of May.

Penn State Law, Policy and Engineering's "Technology, Policy and Law during COVID-19" virtual speaker series, a Penn State Extension webinar about food system disruptions, and a number of virtual exhibits at the Palmer Museum of Art and HUB-Robeson Galleries are among this weekend's and next week's cultural highlights at Penn State.

Penn State York graduates will celebrate their achievements on Saturday, May 9 during the University-wide virtual commencement ceremony and with videos honoring them.

An education professor at Penn State is investigating how educators can adopt mindfulness practices to keep stress and anxiety at bay.

Americans overwhelmingly believe civics should be taught in school, and almost 70 percent of them think it should be a requirement to graduate, a new survey finds.

A new Penn State study found that life may be more stressful now than it was in the 1990s, especially for people between the ages of 45 and 64.

Rome Newsroom, Apr 22, 2020 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- For Iraqi Christian and Yazidi communities still recovering from the destruction wreaked by the Islamic State, the coronavirus poses significant risks, NGOs have said in a joint statement. 

“The public health system in Sinjar and the wider Nineveh Governorate was decimated by ISIS during its brutal occupation and genocidal campaign in Iraq, beginning in 2014,” the letter stated.

“An impending humanitarian and security disaster looms large in Iraq. … There is a significant attendant threat to global security if ISIS uses this opportunity to regroup and return, but it does not have to be this way. Iraqi authorities and the United Nations must act now,” it continued.

Twenty-five NGOs working in northern Iraq issued a joint statement April 16 calling on the World Health Organization to undertake an assessment mission in the area, where testing has been limited, and urging Iraqi authorities to prevent the Islamic State from regrouping.

Signed by the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, Free Yezidi Foundation, Genocide Alert, and the Religious Freedom Institute, the statement described how the pandemic is exacerbating existing security, humanitarian, and health risks among displaced and rebuilding Iraqi minority communities. It highlighted, in particular, the global risk of a potential resurgence of the Islamic State.

Security threat

“COVID-19 and the precipitous drop in oil prices have caused the Iraqi economy to collapse, leaving a dangerous security vacuum for ISIS to exploit. Indeed, the resultant political turmoil and social strife recall the very conditions that earlier incarnations of ISIS and its supporters capitalized on during its initial surge almost a decade ago,” it stated.

“According to International Crisis Group, ISIS in its weekly newsletter Al-Naba called on its fighters to attack and weaken its enemies while they are distracted by the pandemic,” it added.

U.S. military officials have expressed concern that the Islamic State could use adverse conditions to its advantage in it recruitment efforts.

“COVID-19 has also hastened the departure of some coalition forces from Iraq, weakening counter-terrorism operations, while some ISIS detainees have recently escaped prison in Syria,” the letter stated.

On March 30, Islamic State fighters imprisoned in northwestern Syria revolted. The rioting prisoners took over one wing of the prison before Kurdish forces intervened.

“There is an urgent need for reform in the civilian security sector, in order to integrate regional militias into a unified Federal Police that upholds the rule of law and protects all citizens, regardless of religion or clan affiliation,” the letter said.

Health infrastructure needs

The economic strain has also hindered Iraqi minorities’ efforts to rebuild their communities, including medical infrastructure needs.

“Many Yazidis (Ezidis/Yezidis) want to return to Sinjar, but security, reconstruction and basic services are still lacking to allow a dignified return. There are currently only two hospitals and just one ventilator to assist the current population of around 160,000 people in the region,” the NGOs’ statement explained.

Iraq’s healthcare system, which has suffered for decades from the effects of sanctions and war, currently faces a critical shortage of doctors and medicine, according to a Reuters investigation. Hospitals in Iraq are already overcrowded and doctors overworked, while the healthcare situation is slightly better in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which has its own health ministry.

There have been at least 1,600 cases of COVID-19 documented in Iraq, which is under pressure to reopen its border with Iran, which has had more than 85,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

Humanitarian workers have also had trouble reaching those in need due to movement restrictions, and have raised concerns about the risk of an outbreak in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps.

Social distancing is very difficult in these high-density IDP camps in Iraq, where 1.8 million people remain displaced due to insecurity and reconstruction needs, according to the UN.

The 25 NGOs called for the government of Iraq and the United Nations to provide testing capacity in the IDP camps in Sinjar, Tel Afar and the Nineveh Plains.

“At present, it is impossible to apprehend the extent of the spread of the virus because no testing for the disease is taking place in the camps, while restrictions of movement impede the work of humanitarian actors who provide basic essentials such as food, water and medicine,” they stated.

Psychological risk for trauma survivors

Genocide survivors with trauma also face increased personal risk of psychological harm amid isolation imposed by coronavirus measures.

As in much of the world, authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan have ordered people to stay home, imposed a curfew, and have closed places of worship, schools, restaurants, and most businesses. 

“Another alarming corollary of the COVID-19 pandemic in Iraq is the psychological impact on at-risk communities, including Yazidis, Turkmen and Christians, such as Assyrians,” it said.

This is a particular concern for the Yazidi communities in which thousands of women were victims of sexual violence by the Islamic State.

“Prior to the outbreak, Médecins Sans Frontières reported on a debilitating mental health crisis among Yazidis in Iraq, including a rising number of suicides,” it stated.

Suicides in this community have already been reported since social distancing measures were put into place, the NGOs reported. They called on the World Health Organization to address this “acute mental health crisis.”

In their appeal to the WHO and Iraqi government, the NGOs insisted that the stakes were high: 

“COVID-19 is a pandemic the likes of which we have not seen before. Survivors of genocide and other mass atrocity crimes are now waiting for this silent death to pass through the camps and their homes, unable to fight back.”

And in some districts, shorter school weeks hurt the bottom line.

While there's a chance for SA to be downgraded to non-investment grade in November, rating firms may wait for the outcome of the ANC elective conference, says economist Kim Silberman.

With Ramaphosa sworn in as president, the SA public will be watching closely to see if, and when, he reshuffles Jacob Zuma's last Cabinet.

Americans overwhelmingly believe civics should be taught in school, and almost 70 percent of them think it should be a requirement to graduate, a new survey finds.

Education Week catches you up on the week gone by with a thoughtful look at recent news in K-12 education.

Your swift action will solve your longstanding problem. Today, seek the blessings of your elders before going out of the house, as it will benefit you. Joyful time with family and friends Erratic behaviour of your darling might make your mood upset. Travel undertaken for business purpose will prove to be beneficial in the long run. You might feel annoyed by your spouse due to off mood. Today, you can feel good by helping a friend.

Starting May 11 through June 26, a section of Pollock Road between Shortlidge Road and Bigler Road will be closed for facade repair on the Millennium Science Complex at University Park.