Author: Gospel Order

Indian drought ‘affecting 330 million people’ after two weak monsoons

4096About 330 million people are affected by drought in India, the government has said, as the country reels from severe water shortages and desperately poor farmers suffer crop losses.

A senior government lawyer, PS Narasimha, told the supreme court that a quarter of the country’s population, spread across 10 states, had been hit by drought after two consecutive years of weak monsoons.

Narasimha said the government had released funds to affected regions where a crippling shortage of rainfall had forced the rationing of drinking water to some communities.

As summer hits India, reports of families and farmers in remote villages walking long distances to find water after their wells dried up have dominated local media. Source

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USDA says OK to genetically modified mushrooms that don’t bruise or turn brown

mushroomIn a surprise decision, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) just announced that it won’t regulate the cultivation and sale of a genetically altered mushroom. The mushroom was modified using the CRISPR gene-editing tool, and it’s the first of its kind to get the go ahead from the federal government.

The particular fungus in question stems from the common white button mushroom, known to the scientific community as Agaricus bisporus. Penn State plant pathologist Yinong Yang used CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology to introduce a genetic modification that reduces browning, which pretty much anyone who’s ever sliced a mushroom will have experienced. Genetically-speaking, Yang targeted the gene group that encodes an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase, which is known to cause browning. By removing just a few base pairs from the mushroom’s genome, Yang was able to reduce the browning enzyme’s activity by 30%…

In the meantime, Yang is considering starting a commercial venture to support his effort to genetically remove the browning enzyme from a variety of fruits and vegetables. Genetically-modified apples and potatoes engineered by other researchers have already been approved for market sale, since reducing browning increases shelf-life. So while the United States scurries to reimagine its regulations and rules surrounding GMOs, geneticists continue to plough on with developments that could revolutionize the way we eat.  Source

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Christians buried alive defending church

The Week That Was in Asia Photo GalleryWife of Chinese Church Leader Reportedly Buried Alive and Killed After Protesting Church’s Demolition.

Two members of a church demolition team in China’s central Henan province buried a house church leader and his wife alive Thursday when the pair tried to prevent the destruction of their church, according to local news sources. Though the church leader managed to escape, his wife suffocated to death before she could be freed.

The couple had petitioned the destruction of their church, China Aid reported Monday.

 On April 14, a government-sponsored company sent workers to bulldoze Beitou Church in Zhumadian. The order came after a local developer expressed interest in the church’s valuable land.

When the demolition crew showed up, Li Jiangong, the church leader, and his wife, Ding Cuimei, stepped in front of the bulldozers to protest the demolition.

“Bury them alive for me,” one of the workers said, according to China Aid. “I will be responsible for their lives.”

The couple was reportedly pushed into a pit with a bulldozer, which proceeded to cover their bodies with soil, suffocating Ding and nearly killing Li.  Source

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Cops bust ‘baby farm’ where you can buy an infant for $1,400

india-babies-1A hospital is persuading women who want to terminate their pregnancies to have the babies so it can sell them for $1,400 each to childless couples.

The shocking “baby farm” has been exposed at the 30-bed Palash Hospital in the Gwailor district of India. Two of the sold babies have since been rescued by police.

Prateek Kumar, from the ASP crime branch, told Times of India: “Three others have been sold to childless couples in Uttar Pradesh and Chattisgarh.”  Source

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U.S. House docs: Profits from baby body parts real

plannedparenthood207Documents being revealed by the U.S. House Select Panel on Infant Lives, set up to investigate the abortion industry after David Daleiden and his Center for Medical Progress released videos in 2015 documenting Planned Parenthood officials negotiating for higher pay for baby body parts, confirm the profit in the trade.

“This barbarism degrades our nation and violates federal laws against such profiteering. We commend the Select Panel for its investigative work thus far and call on the Department of Justice to take immediate action,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony List.

“The abortion industry sells baby hearts, livers, brains, hands and other organs procured by a middleman company inside their facilities at no cost or effort to the facilities themselves,” she continued. “The facility receives upfront fees that can amount to five-figure sums every month and then the procurement companies resell organs for tens of thousands more – depending on the child’s characteristics.

“Was the developing baby 18 weeks old? 24 weeks? Was the mother a smoker? What is the child’s ethnicity? All of these factors might make the heart, foot, eyeball or limbs more expensive,” she said in a statement released Tuesday. Source

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Shake ‘n’ bake: Quakes, volcanoes in sudden eruption spree

ecuador-earthquake-1A flurry of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions wreaked havoc around the globe in the past week and reignited widespread interest in the natural time bombs beneath humanity’s feet.

A volcanic eruption near Mexico City on Monday and an earthquake in Ecuador on Saturday followed a pair of earthquakes that rocked Japan last week. In short, Mother Nature dealt millions of victims five days terror that involved collapsed buildings, soot-filled streets, tsunami warnings and emergency workers searching through rubble.

Filerma Rayo, 33, told Reuters she spent five hours trapped under debris in Pedernales, Ecuador, after Saturday’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Nearly 300 people and at least 2,000 were injured. Hundreds of corpses were consolidated at a nearby stadium to be identified. Source

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Utah ceremonially declares porn a ‘public health crisis’

utah-banning-porn2__optUtah Gov. Gary Herbert wants the world to know the state’s position on pornography: It’s a public health crisis.

“We realize this is a bold assertion and there are some out there who will disagree with us,” Herbert said at a Tuesday news conference. “We’re here to say it is, in fact, the full-fledged truth.”

Herbert ceremonially signed the resolution, sponsored by Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, Tuesday at the Utah State Capitol.

But that resolution has no real or practical effect.

It “is non-binding: we’re not spending money and we’re not banning anything,” Weiler said.

Weiler said kids as young as 12 are being exposed to porn in places such as the library and McDonald’s, using their unprotected, free Wi-Fi.

He previously has said he would like the government to work with Internet providers to allow pornography only on an opt-in basis.

For now, though, Weiler’s not advocating action by the government.

“I’m asking businesses and governmental agencies that cater to children to do the right thing,” he said.  Source

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Unusual quake cluster worries Japan

20180418_quake1_article_main_imageTOKYO — Seismic activity in southern Japan is mystifying geologists and keeping the nation on edge.

The island of Kyushu has been struck by a series of significant earthquakes, with the epicenters moving progressively further inland. The cluster started with the deadly quakes that hit Kumamoto Prefecture last Thursday and Saturday. Temblors subsequently rocked the Mount Aso region and neighboring Oita Prefecture.

There is a known concentration of faults in the area. Still, experts say it is highly unusual to have a string of quakes measuring around magnitude 6 and stretching over such a vast area. The epicenter of the Oita jolt was about 100km away from the first Kumamoto quake.

“I don’t quite understand what is happening with the recent earthquakes, because it’s an unfamiliar phenomenon,” said Yoshihisa Iio, a professor at Kyoto University’s Research Center for Earthquake Prediction.  Source

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Pentagon misled lawmakers on military sexual assault cases

James A. Winnefeld, Jr.WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon misled Congress by using inaccurate or vague information about sexual assault cases in an effort to blunt support for a Senate bill that would make a major change in how the military handles allegations of sexual misconduct, an Associated Press investigation found.

Internal government records that summarized the outcomes of dozens of cases portrayed civilian district attorneys and local police forces as less willing than senior military officers to punish sex offenders. The documents buttressed the Pentagon’s position that stripping commanders of their authority to decide which crimes go to trial – as the Senate legislation proposes – will mean fewer victims will get justice because there will be fewer prosecutions. Source

 

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Pope hailed as savior for opening Vatican to refugees

web-pope-mytilene-getPope Francis, during a trip to the Greek island of Lesbos, chose 12 Syrian refugees to come live at the Vatican – all clean-cut, two-parent families with children, one of which is headed by a microbiologist and another, by a tailor and teacher.

NBC News reported one of the families, Hasan and Nour Essa, are simply like any other in the world, hoping to find a decent preschool for their son, 2, Riyad, and are thankful for the pope’s intervention.

“What’s happening with us, it’s like a dream,” said Nour Essa, who’s a microbiologist, to NBC News. “It’s like a beautiful dream.” She later called Francis a “real human being” who’s “more important than any Muslim religious mans,” the news outlet reported.

The pope, in what he described as a “last minute decision,” let the Essas and two other Syrian families join him on his flight back to Rome over the weekend. Vatican officials say the three families were chosen simply because their papers were in order.  Source

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