A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – French officials say President Emmanuel Macron and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are talking about working on a “diplomatic road map” for Syria in the “coming weeks.”

France’s presidency said in a statement on Sunday that the two presidents spoke by telephone Saturday about the security, political and humanitarian situations in Syria — including Turkey’s military offensive in the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin.

Eight Turkish soldiers were killed there on Saturday, making it the deadliest day for Turkey since the country launched its operation targeting Kurds Syrian last month. [ Source: Fox News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A crash between an Amtrak passenger train and a CSX freight train near South Carolina’s capital killed two people and injured nearly 90 early Sunday, authorities said. It was the third deadly wreck involving Amtrak in less than two months.

Amtrak’s Silver Star was on its way from New York to Miami with eight crew members and about 140 passengers when the crash happened around 2:45 a.m. near Cayce, authorities said.

Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher said the two people killed were on the Amtrak train. [ Source: CBNC (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The U.S. flu outbreak worsened over the past week as more people headed to doctors’ offices and emergency rooms, with hospitalizations at the highest in nearly 10 years, U.S. health officials said on Friday.

Sixteen children died of the flu in the week ended Jan. 27, bringing total pediatric deaths to 53 for the season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly report.

Out of every 100,000 people in the general population, an estimated 51.4 have been hospitalized for the flu, surpassing the rate in the last severe season of 2014-2015, when 710,000 were hospitalized and 148 children died. Adults aged 65 or older had the most hospitalizations, followed by those aged 50 to 64 and children below 5. [ Source: Yahoo (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Egypt has permitted Israel to conduct over a hundred aerial raids on the Islamic State group affiliate in Sinai, the restive desert peninsula that shares a border with Israel, the New York Times claimed Saturday.

The report details what it calls a “covert war” in Sinai in which “unmarked Israeli drones, helicopters and jets” have been allowed to carry out over 100 raids inside Egyptian territory for over two years, at times more than once a week.

According to the report, American officials credit the wave of Israeli airstrikes — which the Times said began at around the time that the Sinai Province branch of Islamic State brought down a Russian charter plane over the peninsula, resulting in the deaths of the 224 people it carried — “with killing a long roster of militant leaders” in Sinai. [ Source: Ha’aretz (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Under instruction from Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, the Israel Defense Forces is planning to create a vast network of medium-range surface-to-surface missile systems, the Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported on Friday.

This planned missile corps is reportedly meant to act as the offensive counter to the Hezbollah terrorist group’s own vast arsenal of more than 100,000 short- and medium-range rockets, to complement the military’s existing defensive multi-tiered missile interceptor network.

The notion of forming such an arsenal of ground-based missiles and a dedicated corps responsible for it has been bandied about in the IDF General Staff for years, but ultimately these types of missiles have remained in limited use and under the purview of the air force, which also reportedly operates long-range varieties, like the Jericho. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A delegation of senior Russian security officials visiting Israel this week reportedly sought to dissuade Jerusalem from striking Iranian and Hezbollah weapons facilities in Syria and Lebanon.

According to the London-based Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat, quoted by Israel’s Channel 10 news, the purpose of Wednesday’s visit, headed by Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, was Moscow’s desire to discourage Israeli intervention across the border, Channel 10 news reported.

The Russian delegation, which also included deputy ministers, army generals and intelligence officers, held talks with Israel’s National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat as well as heads of Israel’s National Security Council and top military, defense and intelligence officials. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The economy added 200,000 new jobs and the unemployment rate held steady at 4.1 percent in January, the Department of Labor reported Friday, as job creation bounced back to a robust pace.

Economists had expected job growth to pick up to about 175,000.

In recent months job growth has run at about double what would be necessary to keep up with population growth, even as the jobs recovery has stretched past the seven-year mark. With revisions, the past three months have averaged 192,000 monthly payroll jobs, adjusted for seasonal fluctuations. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The economy added 200,000 new jobs and the unemployment rate held steady at 4.1 percent in January, the Department of Labor reported Friday, as job creation bounced back to a robust pace.

Economists had expected job growth to pick up to about 175,000.

In recent months job growth has run at about double what would be necessary to keep up with population growth, even as the jobs recovery has stretched past the seven-year mark. With revisions, the past three months have averaged 192,000 monthly payroll jobs, adjusted for seasonal fluctuations. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Conservative Christian singer and TV anchor Fabricio Alvarado held a strong lead in Costa Rica’s presidential election on Sunday, after galvanizing the campaign with his sharp opposition to gay marriage, but a run-off vote looked certain.

With results in from nearly 70 percent of ballot boxes, Alvarado had won 25.2 percent, the electoral tribunal said.

His lead was diminishing slightly as more results came in and he is likely to face a run-off vote against the second place candidate, to be held on April 1. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The evangelical church in Puerto Rico won’t be the same after Hurricane Maria.

Even congregations that have resumed their regular gatherings after repairing buildings and regaining power are still missing a major part of church life: some of their members.

An estimated 400,000 of the island’s more than 3 million residents have left the US territory for the mainland since the record-setting September storm. Like every other aspect of Puerto Rican life, church attendance has taken a hit. [ Source: Christianity Today (Read More…) ]