Month: August 2020

 

At least 10 people including children were killed in an attack Sunday on a church in eastern Burkina Faso where places of worship have already suffered several Islamist assaults, security sources said.

The victims were attending a service at a Protestant church in the town of Hantoukoura, one of the sources told AFP, putting the death toll at "more than 10".

Around 10 "heavily armed individuals" carried out the attack in the village near the border with Niger, "executing the faithful including the pastor and children," the source said.

Another source said 14 worshippers were killed, all of them male.

Soldiers in the region were hunting down the assailants, who fled on scooters, the second source said.

The poor West African country has suffered a series of attacks on Christian targets since February, leaving 21 dead before Sunday’s attack.

Burkina Faso’s population is around two-thirds Muslim and one-third Christian.

Jihadist groups target Christian clerics as well as Muslim ones they do not consider sufficiently radical in a country where traditionally the two religions have co-existed peaceably.

 

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French hunters are facing calls for compulsory breathalyser tests before bearing arms amid fears that a spike in the number of deaths this year could be drink-fuelled.

Eight people have already died in hunting accidents since September and the season still has another three months to run. 

The death toll has already surpassed the seven who were killed last year out of a total 131 recorded accidents.

The spike prompted a plea from environment minister Emmanuelle Wargon for hunters to fully implement new safety regulations.

Last year, French parliament passed a bill tightening security for hunters, who are obliged to wear high-visibility vests, post signs to warn walkers about “collective hunting actions”, and take a security training test every ten years.

In the past, they were briefly shown hunting guidelines over an induction course lasting a day or two and then handed a permit for life.

But animal welfare groups say the new measures are clearly insufficient, in particular as they fail to address the issue of alcohol consumption.

“Today, you can hunt drunk in France, it’s perfectly legal,” said Marc Giraud of the wildlife protection group ASPAS and author of How to Walk in the Woods Without Being Shot.

“There are no breathalyser tests for hunters as it is not a crime to hunt in an inebriated state nor is being drunk considered an aggravated circumstance in case of homicide,” he told the Telegraph.

“As a result, state rangers do not have the right to conduct breathalyser tests. That should change.”

The problem, he said was that being “merry, a bon vivant who likes to drink and eat well” was part of the hunter’s image “but there is a price to be paid that can be someone’s life”.

The National Hunters Federation, FNC, in France stresses it has improved security, making it harder to get new licences and that the deaths have generally dropped from an annual average of around 20 over the past 20 years.

It insists that accidents are generally down to “fatigue” rather than drink and has baulked at stricter drink controls, saying that alcohol consumption is “more a question of judgement” on a par with “deciding to drive home or not”.

But the FNC slammed as unacceptable the number of deaths this year. 

Two of the victims killed were not even taking part in a hunt. One man in the Charentes-Maritime was shot dead while mushroom picking in September.

“Enough is enough,” said Nicolas Rivet, director general of the FNC, who said the majority of deaths were down to “failure to respect security measures”.

“The problem is you can create as many rules as you like and drum them into people but some will continue to do stupid things. It’s like when you’re driving and send a text message behind the wheel despite the dangers for others,” he said.

Errors occur when hunters fail to respect a 30 degrees rule meaning you shoot downwards to avoid hitting a colleague and only shoot once you have identified the prey. Numerous fatal accidents happen when hunters forget to disarm their rifles while climbing obstacles.

Anti-hunt groups are also calling for a national hunting on ban on Sundays, when the majority of accidents occur but say the powerful hunting lobby, which represents around a million hunters, holds sway over politicians. 

They point to the fact President Emmanuel Macron recently agreed to halve the price of hunting permits.

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Hunters say they are making efforts but that the sport does carry risks by definition.

Thierry Coste, lobbyist for the FNC, said that carelessness was “intolerable” but “with ricochet, (an accident) is totally possible.”

“Zero risk doesn’t exist.”

Hunting has been the subject of fierce debate this week after a pregnant woman was killed by dogs in northern France while walking her own pet in a wooded area during a deer hunt. Prosecutors have launched an investigation and taken DNA tests from all dogs in the local hunt’s hound pack and others in the area.

Her funeral is to be held on Saturday.

Two South Korean conscientious objectors who claimed they could never hold a gun were taken to court by the government, who pointed out that both men enjoyed playing violent first-person shooter games on their computers. 

Prosecutors representing the South Korean government said the computer records of the two men, identified in court only by their family names, Kim and Kwon, showed they had accessed games such as “Sudden Attack”, in which players are required to kill on-screen enemies with guns and other weapons. 

During the hearing, the men had claimed that they refused to accept mandatory conscription on the grounds that holding a weapon and killing another person was against their religious convictions. 

In its case against the two men, aged 23 and 24, the prosecution argued that their record of online wargaming meant they could not be considered “true” conscientious objectors, The Korea Times reported. 

The Seoul Southern District Court on Saturday disagreed, however, ruling that a person can enjoy a violent computer game and still be a conscientious objector.

The court added that Kim and Kwan, both Jehovah’s Witnesses, could therefore legitimately refuse to serve in the military on the grounds of their religious beliefs. 

“The accused were in the process of growth [when they played the games] and, considering that the games are played in a virtual world and not in reality, playing the games does not necessarily mean they had a propensity for violence or that their religious convictions were weak”, the court said. 

Under South Korean law, all able-bodied men must serve around two years in the armed forces, although the Supreme Court ruled in November of last year that forcing an individual who claimed that carrying a weapon was against their religious beliefs to join the military was a contravention of the constitution. 

Since the Korean War of 1950-53, around 19,000 conscientious objectors have been arrested and served prison sentences of up to 18 months for their beliefs. As a result of the court’s ruling, all those still serving time were released. 

The government has found alternative compulsory employment for those who refuse to serve in the forces, with many working in prisons for 36 months, significantly longer than the amount of time they would be required to be in the military.

Moon Jae-in, the president of South Korea, has said that he is aiming to abolish conscription and move to a professional army of volunteers. 

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The traditional sight of an Italian couple stepping out of a church under a shower of confetti while being blessed by a priest is becoming ever rarer, with the number of civil ceremonies overtaking church weddings for the first time in the country’s history.

Last year, 50.1% of weddings were conducted in town halls, registry offices or other civil locations, while 49.9% took place in churches, according to ISTAT, Italy’s national statistics agency.

Back in 1970, civil ceremonies made up just 2.3% of all marriages in Italy. They have leapt in popularity, with couples getting married in castles, on the beach and in unique locations such as a centuries-old house in Verona that purportedly has links to Romeo and Juliet.

The historic shift represents the increasing secularisation of Italy, a once staunchly Catholic country where these days less than a quarter of the adult population regularly attends Mass.

Despite the drop in church attendance, nearly 75% of Italians still identify themselves as being Catholic, according to a 2017 study by the polling agency Ipsos MORI.

The change is also a reflection of the increasing number of divorces and second marriages in Italy – divorcees who want to remarry cannot do so in church and have no choice but to choose a civil ceremony.

“The meaning of marriage has changed. In the past, it was religion that sanctioned all the rites of passage of people’s lives, from baptism to marriage, which marked the entry into adult life,” said Caterina Tabasso, a psychoanalyst from the Italian Association of Psychologists.

“But these days, marriage has become a more private and personal affair, where there is more freedom. Given that young people leave home at a later age, they feel less constrained by family pressures. Marriage has become something that should more closely represent the couple. That explains the choice of many to choose a friend as the celebrant,” she told La Repubblica newspaper.

There remains, however, a wide gulf between the secular, industrialised north of Italy and the economically struggling south, where the sway of the Catholic Church is stronger.

In the north, civil ceremonies make up 64% of all marriages, whereas in the south the figure is just 30%.

“The further north you go, the more secular Italy becomes. Faith has always been traditionally stronger in the south,” said Edward Pentin, a Vatican expert and the author of a book on a Vatican synod which examined contentious issues such as divorce, remarriage and same-sex relationships.

“This is another thing to add to the litany of problems that the Church is facing in the face of secularism. But faith is still steeped in the culture – it is there, even if people are not going to church as much.”

The Istat report reveals a country that is changing radically from its pious, conservative, homogenous past.

There are more marriages between Italians and foreigners, a growing number of same sex civil unions and an increase in the number of children born to parents who are not married.

Last year there were 2,800 same sex civil unions, with two-thirds of them between men.

The proportion of marriages involving an Italian marrying a foreigner has risen from 15% a decade ago to more than 17%, reflecting the country’s increasingly multi-cultural society.

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Couples are getting married at a later age, in large part due to economic uncertainty and the difficulty of finding a steady job – many Italians live at home with their parents until their thirties.

The average age of Italian grooms is now 33.7, while for first-time brides it is 31.5.

Italians’ faith in the institution of marriage remains strong – there was a 2.3% increase in the number of marriages celebrated in 2018 compared to the year before.

Kaye Young Open results. November 2, 2013 at Mason City, Iowa.

Brackets/Results on TrackWrestling.com

College – 125
1st: De`Shun Brown (Unattached) won by decision over Bo Bettinson (Waldorf (Iowa)) (Dec 6-3)
3rd: Kyle Larson (Iowa State) won by decision over Da`Wayne Robertson (Unattached) (Dec 3-1)
5th: Michael Ruffino (North Iowa Area Comm College) won by injury default over Jewell Webb (Lincoln College) (Inj. 0:00)

College – 133
1st: Joao Vicente (William Penn (Iowa), IA) won by decision over Alfredo Rodriguez (Iowa Lakes Community College) (Dec 7-4)
3rd: Austen Schott (Unattached) won by decision over Raymond McQueen (Waldorf (Iowa)) (Dec 6-3)
5th: Adam Habeil (unattached, William Penn) won by fall over Robert Hallman (Iowa State) (Fall 2:27)

College – 141
1st: John Meeks (Iowa State) won by decision over Blake Spotts (North Iowa Area Comm College) (Dec 9-4)
3rd: Mike Stewart (Ellsworth) won by decision over Dillon Spates (Waldorf (Iowa)) (Dec 7-1)
5th: Marshawn Lacy (William Penn (Iowa), IA) won by decision over Kendall Love (unattached, NIACC) (Dec 6-1)

College – 149
1st: Nosomy Pozo (North Iowa Area Comm College) won by decision over Miguel Calixto (Iowa Lakes Community College) (Dec 5-4)
3rd: John Stetzel (Iowa State) won by fall over Lane Colwell (William Penn (Iowa), IA) (Fall 2:55)
5th: Jay Fresh (William Penn (Iowa), IA) won by decision over Martin Lopez (Waldorf (Iowa)) (Dec 7-5)

College – 157
1st: Yoanse Mejias (North Iowa Area Comm College) won by major decision over Colin Strickland (Iowa State) (Maj 21-8)
3rd: Blayne Briceno (Iowa State) won by fall over Luke Dunn (Lincoln College) (Fall 4:01)
5th: Bryon Pierson (Lincoln College) won by injury default over Anthony Cimorosi (Ellsworth) (Inj. 0:00)

College – 165
1st: Ishmael Rempson (William Penn (Iowa), IA) won by decision over Elijah Dennis (Iowa Lakes Community College) (Dec 3-2)
3rd: Ritchie Guillaume (Ellsworth) won by fall over Tristin Luther (North Iowa Area Comm College) (Fall 1:35)
5th: Max Krieger (Iowa State) won by injury default over Ben Swalla (Iowa State) (Inj. 0:00)

College – 174
1st: Cameron Thomson (Iowa State) won by decision over David Frazier (Lincoln College) (Dec 6-1)
3rd: Brandon Sorenson (Iowa Lakes Community College) won by decision over Thomas Daniels (North Iowa Area Comm College) (Dec 4-3)
5th: DMonte Aursby (Waldorf (Iowa)) won by fall over Aaron Sorenson (Iowa State) (Fall 0:00)

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College – 184
1st: Matt Hurford (Ellsworth) won by decision over Dakota Downs (Lincoln College) (Dec 3-1)
3rd: Andy Glaser (North Iowa Area Comm College) won by decision over Deonte Adams (Lincoln College) (Dec 4-3)
5th: James Gomez (Waldorf (Iowa)) won by decision over Edwin Wilson (Ellsworth) (Dec 3-1)

College – 197
1st: Jacyn Goebel (Iowa State) won by decision over Sharod Wilson (Ellsworth) (Dec 11-8)
3rd: Stephon Rudicil (Lincoln College) won by fall over Marcus Smith (Ellsworth) (Fall 1:29)
5th: Dirk McOmber (Waldorf (Iowa)) won by injury default over Kyle Soderblom (William Penn (Iowa), IA) (Inj. 0:00)

College – 285
1st: Shakheim Chapman (North Iowa Area Comm College) won by decision over Skip Conner (William Penn (Iowa), IA) (Dec 4-2)
3rd: Tyler Swope (Iowa State) won by fall over Nathan Veverka (William Penn (Iowa), IA) (Fall 0:36)
5th: Ryan DeWitt (Waldorf (Iowa)) won by injury default over Joshua Ferguson (Lincoln College) (Inj. 0:00)

Based from wrestlinginc, Johnny Mundo comments on a possible WWE Return 

“I don’t know. You’re gonna for sure see John Morrison or Johnny Mundo back in pay-per-view style main events before my career is over. Whether that is what Lucha Underground grows into, or Wrestle Kingdom, or Triple Mania, or WrestleMania, I don’t know. Wrestling is a crazy business, and it is hard to predict the future.”