A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Jihadist militant organization Boko Haram confirmed a 15-year-old schoolgirl, kidnapped by the group in February, is still alive this week. The terrorist group released an audio recording yesterday of Leah Sharibu asking Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to work for her release.

Sharibu’s parents confirmed the voice in the recording belongs to their daughter, according to the nonprofit International Christian Concern. They also said the Nigerian government has not contracted them about the situation. “The government has not contacted [us] ever since she has been abducted and even today they have not contacted [us],” they said.

Sharibu remains in captivity after refusing to renounce her faith, according to her freed classmates. In the recording, she asks for help to secure her release and assist her family:

I am Leah Sharibu, the girl that was abducted in GGSS Dapchi. I am calling on the government and people of goodwill to intervene to get me out of my current situation. I also plead to the members of the public to help my mother, my father, my younger brother, and relatives. Kindly help me out of my predicament. I am begging you to treat me with compassion, I am calling on the government, particularly the president, to pity me and get me out of this serious situation. Thank you.

[ Source: Washington Free Beacon (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – The United States is experiencing a “steep and sustained” spike in sexually transmitted diseases, a new government analysis shows.

Cases of gonorrhea, syphilis and chlamydia all increased in 2017, making it the fourth straight year in which STD infections continued to rise.

CDC records show that in 2017:

Gonorrhea cases increased 67 percent, rising from 333,004 to 555,608 diagnoses. Infections among men nearly doubled, and cases among women increased for the third year in a row.

Syphilis diagnoses increased 76 percent, from 17,375 cases to 30,664 cases. Nearly 7 in 10 infections occurred among men who are gay or bisexual.

Chlamydia remained the most common STD with more than 1.7 million cases diagnosed, up from around 1.6 million the year before. About 45 percent of cases were among young women aged 15 to 24. [ Source (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Israel is entering its sixth official year of drought, the Water Authority said Sunday.

Many of Israel’s lakes, riverbeds and aquifers are at unprecedented 100-year lows, with the Sea of Galilee dangerously close to its “black line,” the level below the intake pipes of the water pumps that send the lake’s water to nearby towns.

Israelis have not felt the current drought as acutely as past dry spells because Israel in recent years constructed five massive desalination plants on the Mediterranean coast that now provide some 70 percent of the country’s drinking water directly from the sea. The state also recycles some 86% of its wastewater for agriculture. Two more desalination plants are in the planning stages. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – In a dramatic move vastly expanding previously announced foreign aid cuts, the Trump administration has reportedly decided to end all funding to UNRWA, the international body’s agency responsible for Palestinian humanitarian assistance.

The decision to cut all aid to the UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees was made at a meeting earlier this month between US President Donald Trump’s adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Foreign Policy reported Tuesday night.

Since then, the administration has informed “key regional governments” of its plan, the report said. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Russia will flex its military muscles and hold the biggest war games since the Cold War era next month, including almost 300,000 troops and 1,000 aircraft, the Russian defense ministry said Tuesday, leading NATO to warn of a “more assertive Russia.”

The Vostok-2018, or East 18, exercises simulating large-scale warfare, which the Kremlin called “justified,” will be carried out from September 11 to 15 in the country’s east, with troops from China and Mongolia also taking part.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the exercises would be similar in size to those held in September 1981 by the Soviet authorities, called Zapad-81, or West 81. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – President Donald Trump doubled down on threats against Facebook, Twitter and Google Tuesday afternoon, saying the social platforms are “treading on very, very troubled territory and they have to be careful.”

“Google has really taken advantage of a lot of people and I think that’s a very serious thing and it’s a very serious charge,” Trump told reporters after a meeting with the president of FIFA. “They better be careful because they can’t do that to people.”

Trump earlier Tuesday accused Google of altering search results to prioritize negative coverage and left-leaning outlets and warned that the issue “will be addressed.” [ Source: CNBC (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – With more and more states legalizing marijuana, whether for medical use, recreational use, or both, increasing numbers of Americans are using cannabis. A new survey finds that one in seven had used marijuana in 2017, with smoking being the most common manner of consumption, according to a report published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

People were more likely to vape or to consume marijuana as an edible in states where recreational use has been legalized, researchers found in the nationally representative survey of 16,280 U.S. adults.

Overall, 14.6 percent said they had used cannabis in the past year, while 8.7 percent said they had used the drug in the past 30 days. A greater proportion of people, 20 percent, reported using marijuana in the past year if they lived in a state where recreational use was legal, as compared to just 12 percent in states where it was completely illegal. In states where medical marijuana was legal, 14 percent of those surveyed said they had used in the past year. [ Source (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that, as the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha concluded, a series of four attacks struck Upper Egypt from August 22 to 25, 2018. In each of these incidents, security forces either delayed providing protection to Christians or attempted to instigate violence.

On August 22, in the village of Esna in Luxor Governorate, Muslim extremists gathered to protest Christian worship in a church that was seeking legalization. The Christians were gathered to celebrate the Assumption of Mary and their church is one of an estimated 3,730 churches that are seeking official recognition.

Following Friday prayers on August 24, the mob gathered a second time. While the police prevented this second gathering from escalating, local sources report that they have arrested five Christians and 12 Muslims. It is unclear on what charges the Christians remain detained. A villager told Wataninet, “We were surprised by the arrest of five Copts by the police, despite the fact that the Copts did not participate or were involved with any group.” [ Source: ICC (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – The Russian Ministry of Defence said on Monday it had noticed Washington was building up its military forces in the Middle East in preparation for what Moscow feared was a possible strike on Syrian government forces, Russian news agencies reported.

Major-General Igor Konashenkov was quoted by agencies as saying that the USS Ross, a guided-missile destroyer, had entered the Mediterranean on Aug. 25 armed with 28 Tomahawk cruise missiles capable of hitting any target in Syria.

Up to 13 Russian warships have crossed the Bosphorus toward Syria so far this week as tensions between the U.S. and Syria continue to rise, according to ship spotters based in the Bosphorus Strait. [ Source: Ha’aretz (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – President Trump on Monday announced two new appeals court nominees and two more picks for district court judges, continuing to fulfill his promise of reshaping the federal bench with a conservative bent.

The president tapped Allison Jones Rushing, a North Carolina attorney, to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and Bridget Shelton Bade, a magistrate judge for the District of Arizona, for a seat on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The district judges would serve on courts in Georgia and Louisiana.

The new nominations come as the Senate prepares to vote on a dozen district court judges who’ve already been approved by committee. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

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