When a Jewish boy turns 13, he heads to a temple for a deeply meaningful rite of passage, his bar mitzvah. When a Catholic girl reaches about the same age, she stands in front of the local bishop, who touches her forehead with holy oil as she is confirmed into a 2,000-year-old faith tradition.
Tag Archives: people
Leftist claims El Salvador presidency
Mauricio Funes, a member of a political party that waged guerrilla war against the government 17 years ago, has claimed the presidency of El Salvador. “This is the happiest night of my life,” Funes told a jubilant crowd at his election headquarters Sunday night. “It’s also the night of greatest hope for El Salvador.” The FMLN party’s Funes had 51.12 percent of the vote, while the ARENA party’s Rodrigo Avila had 48.87 percent with 84 percent of the national ballots counted, the electoral commission said on its Web site
Murder-suicide leaves 5 people dead in Miami
A man shot and killed four people before turning the gun on himself in Miami, Florida, early Sunday morning, police said. Police responding to reports of gunshots shortly after midnight found four bodies behind a house
More arrests in N. Ireland over killings
Authorities in Northern Ireland say they have arrested three more people in the killings of two soldiers and a police officer in the province last week. A total of four people are now in custody over the killing of soldiers Cengiz “Pat” Azimkar, 21, and Mark Quinsey, 23, at the Massereene barracks March 7. Five people have been detained over the shooting of policeman Stephen Carroll, 48, in Craigavon on March 10.
South Carolina student wants stimulus money to rebuild school
Ty’Sheoma Bethea felt she had to speak up. Her school was crumbling, and Congress was not going to approve money that could be used to rebuild it. So she wrote a letter to lawmakers begging for help
Transcript: ‘This is your victory,’ says Obama
Sen. Barack Obama spoke at a rally in Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois, after winning the race for the White House Tuesday night. The following is an exact transcript of his speech
Can Marijuana Help Rescue California’s Economy?
Could marijuana be the answer to the economic misery facing California? Democratic State Assembly member Tom Ammiano thinks so.
CNBC Under Fire: Sticking Up for the Big Guy?
On the March 9 edition of CNBC’s Squawk Box, Becky Quick was interviewing Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett when the Oracle of Omaha expressed support for the Obama Administration’s mortgage bailout. “Becky,” co-host Joe Kernen broke in, “tell Warren you’re mad that you’ve done all the right things and all these other people are going to get bailed out.” Buffett replied, “There’s nothing wrong with being mad, Joe.
Three aid workers snatched in Darfur
Three Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) staffers have been abducted in the war-torn Sudanese province of Darfur, the group said Thursday. A Canadian nurse, an Italian doctor and a French coordinator were abducted Wednesday night
Japan: GDP shrinks 12.1 percent in fourth quarter
Japan’s economy shrank more than 12 percent last quarter, the government said on Thursday, in another sign of how severely the global economic downturn has affected the world’s second-largest economy. “It has been a core belief of ours that every nation must not only live by, but help shape global rules that will determine whether people enjoy the right to live freely and participate to the fullest in their societies,” she said after a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, adding the United States itself “must continually strive to live up to our own ideals.” Both of them discussed China’s human rights record and situation in Tibet on the 50th anniversary of Tibet’s national uprising