Sunday Post

Happy Mother's Day!

A train derailment in Greece has claimed the lives of three people:

Three people died and 10 more were injured when a train derailed in northern Greece on Saturday night and ripped through a house, police said.

The train carrying 70 passengers and five crew was heading from Athens to the second-biggest city of Thessaloniki when it derailed in the town of Adendro, 37 km (23 miles) from Thessaloniki, railway company TRAINOSE said.

At least two carriages crashed into the ground floor of a house, ripping through its walls. Others toppled on to their sides, their windows smashed. It was unclear what caused the accident.

Oh, I'm sure the pro-Kim President Moon is up to the task: 

North Korea on Sunday test-launched a ballistic missile that flew for half an hour and reached an unusually high altitude before landing in the Sea of Japan, the South Korean, Japanese and U.S. militaries said. The launch, which Tokyo said could be of a new type of missile, is a direct challenge to the new South Korean president and comes as U.S., Japanese and European navies gather for joint war games in the Pacific. ...

South Korea, Japan and the U.S. swiftly condemned the launch, which jeopardizes new South Korean leader Moon Jae-in's willingness for dialogue with the rival North.

"The president expressed deep regret over the fact that this reckless provocation ... occurred just days after a new government was launched in South Korea," said senior presidential secretary Yoon Young-chan. "The president said we are leaving open the possibility of dialogue with North Korea, but we should sternly deal with a provocation to prevent North Korea from miscalculating."

I have no doubt he will. 

Also:

Emmanuel Macron took power as president of France on Sunday, vowing to restore the country's status in Europe and the world and heal divisions in society -- a nod to the bitter campaign the pro-EU centrist fought to defeat a far-right leader.

Macron isn't the first empty-suit to promise that. 

What a cringe-worthy platitude it is.

Thousands in Moscow protest a resettlement plan:

Thousands of Muscovites joined a protest rally in the center of the Russian capital on Sunday against government plans to resettle millions of citizens from shoddy Soviet-era apartment blocks.

The draft law on renovation envisages moving some Muscovites into modern flats but has also fueled concerns about property rights, a year after city authorities provoked an outcry among small businesses by bulldozing many street kiosks.

They aided and abetted illegal immigration. Jail the SOBs:

Three Plattsburgh, New York, taxi cab companies will pay financial penalties for taking advantage of illegal immigrants fleeing the United States for Canada, the New York Attorney General's office said on Wednesday.

It said in a statement the fines came as part of a settlement after the three companies, Northern Taxi, Town Taxi and C & L Taxi, "admitted to not posting rates as required by law." A driver from Northern Taxi was also accused of charging an undercover investigator $300 for a fare that should cost no more than $77.50. The same investigator was charged $100 by a C & L Taxi driver, while a Town Taxi driver charged $85, the attorney general said in a statement.

Illegal crossings from the United States into Canada have become increasingly common in the months since U.S. President Donald Trump, who campaigned on a pledge to crack down on undocumented immigrants, took office in January.

“It’s no secret that we’ve seen intense fear in immigrant communities across New York in recent months. To take advantage of that fear for financial gain is simply unconscionable,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in the statement.

“My office won’t hesitate to crack down on those seeking to take advantage of this climate of fear.”

Perhaps Mr. Schneiderman can start with the truth.

The illegal immigrants flooding into Manitoba were previously rejected for residency and citizenship under Obama. Obama was wont to let in virtually anyone but once Trump was elected, Somali migrants didn't wait to be ejected as they would have done anyway.




One hundred years ago, the Virgin Mary appeared to three children in Fatima, Portugal. She showed them visions of hell.

On Saturday, Pope Francis canonised Francisco Marto and his sister, Jacinta:

Our Lady foretold, and warned us about, a way of life that is godless and indeed profanes God in his creatures.  Such a life – frequently proposed and imposed – risks leading to hell.  Mary came to remind us that God’s light dwells within us and protects us, for, as we heard in the first reading, “the child [of the woman] was snatched away and taken to God” (Rev 12:5).  In Lucia’s account, the three chosen children found themselves surrounded by God’s light as it radiated from Our Lady.  She enveloped them in the mantle of Light that God had given her.  According to the belief and experience of many pilgrims, if not of all, Fatima is more than anything this mantle of Light that protects us, here as in almost no other place on earth.  We need but take refuge under the protection of the Virgin Mary and to ask her, as the Salve Regina teaches: “show unto us… Jesus”. 

Dear pilgrims, we have a Mother, we have a Mother! Clinging to her like children, we live in the hope that rests on Jesus.  As we heard in the second reading, “those who receive the abundance of the grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:17).  When Jesus ascended to heaven, he brought to the Heavenly Father our humanity, which he assumed in the womb of the Virgin Mary and will never forsake.  Like an anchor, let us fix our hope on that humanity, seated in heaven at the right hand of the Father (cf. Eph 2:6).  May this hope guide our lives!  It is a hope that sustains us always, to our dying breath.

A new necropolis has been discovered in Egypt:

Egypt's antiquities ministry says it has found a necropolis with at least 18 intact mummies near the southern city of Minya, the first such find in the area.

A further 12 mummies in "medium condition" were also discovered.

The discovery was made in the village of Tuna al-Gabal, a vast archaeological site on the edge of the western desert. The area hosts necropolises mainly for animals and birds.

The ministry said they belonged to the Late Period, which spanned almost 300 years up to Alexander the Great's conquest of Egypt in 332 BC.

But a spokeswoman said they could also date from the Ptolemaic Dynasty, founded by Alexander the Great's general Ptolemy.

 
(Sidebar: Mummies' Day?)