Vice President Joe Biden, who has traveled to some America’s leading medical centers in recent weeks as part of what he has called his moonshot to cure cancer, will soon take his quest to the Vatican.
Biden will address a major conference on the progress of regenerative medicine in Vatican City on April 29, the vice president’s office said Wednesday.
The gathering, hosted by the Stem for Life Foundation and the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture, will also draw leading physicians, ethicists and philanthropists to discuss the potential of emerging research to treat cancer and other diseases. The initiative has been championed by Pope Francis, who worked as a chemist before he entered the priesthood and has written in support of scientific progress.
Biden, the nation’s first Catholic vice president, attended Francis’ papal inauguration in 2013 and attended multiple events during the Catholic leader’s visit to the U.S. last fall, including his address to Congress and departure from Philadelphia after the World Meeting of Families there. Source
Norway is a progressive country. It has already adopted policies and legislation to support minority rights, women’s rights, and LGBT rights. It was the first country to pass an anti-discrimination law to protect the rights for same-sex couples.
The European Parliament has backed a re-authorization of a pesticide believed to be carcinogenic for another 7 years, despite a widespread protest campaign calling for a full ban instead of a downsized “compromise” deal.
Last week, 
Dixie Catholics credit the strong Southern sense of community, and dialogue with faithful Protestants, with helping to power the Church’s growth there.
On Wednesday the Bishop Of Rome addressed 11,000 ticketed guests on the South Lawn of the White House, during which he pontificated on the dire importance of exhibiting religious tolerance. During his hour-long speech, a smiling Pope Francis was quoted telling the White House guests that the Koran, and the spiritual teachings contained therein, are just as valid as the Holy Bible, and should therefore be respected as such.
President Obama urged students to open up their digital life to the federal government, if they wanted to be protected by the government, calling the current privacy expectations from Americans unrealistic. “People have a whole new set of privacy expectations that are understandable. They also expect though that since their lives are all digitized, that the digital world is safe, which creates a contradictory demand on government,” he said. 
Apple has quietly bought and leased a bunch of buildings and named them after Greek deities, according to a report today in the Silicon Valley Business Journal based on documents filed with city governments. A lot of the buildings seemingly relate to Apple’s reported plans to build an electric, possibly self-driving, car. 
Meet the teenage ‘werewolf’ who is covered from head to toe in thick, three inch long black hair. Hirsute Muhammad Raihan, 13, has turned down medical treatment for his ultra rare condition because he thinks it’s a blessing from God. The boy is revered as a Hindu deity in his Indonesian village because of his unusually hairy physique. 
Rwandan buses are among the first in Africa to switch to cashless payment. Chris Matthews asks what will become of the bus conductor. Snaking through the green streets of Kigali, as a stream of motorbike taxis, known as motos, fly along the hilly roads, the 109 bus is making its familiar route west to the suburb of Gikondo.