Global Quickies 29/06/13

It’s time for your weekly world news roundup!

The Bad

WORLD
Starting with global news, new estimates of violence against women find that 3/10 women worldwide have been “punched, shoved, dragged, threatened with weapons, raped, or subjected to other violence from a current or former partner”.

BRAZIL
There’s an old saying that claims “God is Brazilian”. If he is, he’s not doing a great job keeping his home country in check: I became an atheist while living there. Still, many Brazilian atheist have to stay closeted and are discriminated against.

ITALY
Convicted pedophile priest tells authorities that an underage prostitution ring has been operating inside the Catholic Church in Rome.

MUSLIM WORLD
Muslim women who engage in armed conflicts are described as victims or aberrations, without realizing they could have their own reasons for participating in armed struggles.

THE GOOD, COOL, INTERESTING OR JUST WEIRD:

ITALY
Former prime minister and eternal sleazeball, Silvio Berlusconi gets sentenced to 7 years in prison for paying for sex with a minor. He can (and will) appeal, but maybe now people will stop voting for him.

AUSTRALIA
The senate passed a motion urging the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN), to cease its harmful and unscientific scare campaign against vaccines and to disband. (from Jack99)

IRELAND
The government will pay survivors of the Magdalene Laundries, the Catholic-run workhouses where “fallen women” (unmarried mothers, women with learning difficulties and abuse victims) were forced to work.

THE VATICAN
A senior cleric working for the Vatican Bank and two other people were arrested suspected of plotting to move 20m euros illegally from Switzerland to Italy. If you’re interested in this subject, here’s an interesting post about the history of the Institute for the Works of Religion (AKA: Vatican Bank).

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