MONTECRISTI, Ecuador — The earth shook and the steeple fell, taking most of the bell tower with it. A white facade gave way, leaving the pews open to the street.

But amid the wreckage at the basilica, one object remained untouched: Our Mother of Monserrate, the statue of the Virgin Mary for which the church was named.

Dressed in gold robes and wearing a tiny crown, she is only about three feet tall. But the statue, which landed on these shores from Spain in the 16th century, has long played an outsize role in the history of Montecristi. MORE

SEOUL, April 20 (UPI) — China is deploying troops along its border with North Korea, as Pyongyang could be preparing a fifth nuclear test ahead of its Seventh Party Congress in May. MORE

I lucked out, those 80 and over will not be effected. They can just die off, ha.

More than a quarter of a million active and retired truckers and their families could soon see their pension benefits severely cut — even though their pension fund is still years away from running out of money. MORE

The science of global warming is settled. At least, this is what politicians keep insisting. Why should they care? Well, it turns out that global warming has provided a pretext for massive increases in political control over the public. The science of global warming has been used to justify the banning of lightbulbs, shutting down coal-fired power plants, and even a possible sighting of the holy grail: increased taxation without end (to save the planet). MORE

Putin: Russia hopes to see Donald Trump in the White House as he fully understands the impending threat of terrorism emanating from Saudi Arabia, Clinton is a termagant wife who bears the disgrace of supporting terrorists in Syria

Sun, 17 Apr 2016 (Vladivostok, Russia) — Speaking to annual international forum in the Pacific port city of Vladivostok, President Vladimir Putin lashed out at Obama’s foreign policy , saying Russia won’t tolerate Washington’s belligerent expansion in the Baltic Sea and shall defend its sovereignty. MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a stark warning to the government of Turkey, saying that if they do not leave Syria alone he will restore Istanbul to Christendom. 

Addressing a delegation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Putin began by reiterating that nothing can severe the alliance Russia has with Ukraine, despite efforts by the ruling junta in Kiev.

“Rising neo-Fascism in Ukraine is like the infectious Gangrene which can spread across the European continent , and we, the people of the Russian Federation and descendents of the Soviet Union , we are determined to stop this plague,” Putin told the crowd. MORE

FPIW visited the campus of the University of Washington to see if students would affirm or reject Joseph Backholm’s new chosen identity: a 6’5″ Chinese woman.

The approach to homosexual unions in the synod documents

1. The Extraordinary Synod’s interim Relatio post disceptationem affirmed “that unions between people of the same sex cannot be considered on the same footing as matrimony between man and woman”. This implies that there is some footing on which same-sex unions can be considered legitimate. MORE

BUFFALO, New York, April 15, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Senator Ted Cruz came out in favor of a North Carolina law prohibiting biological males from using the restrooms, showers, and changing facilities of the opposite biological sex during a town hall meeting in Buffalo last night.

Cruz was asked to comment on a law signed by North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory that restricts intimate settings based on biology, rather than “gender identity.” The law has come under intense fire from entertainers, filmmakers, and a powerful coalition of corporate interests threatening to boycott the state until it is reversed. MORE

In 2011, Army Sgt. Charles Martland, a decorated Green Beret deployed to Afghanistan, beat up a local Afghan police commander who Martland learned was sexual assaulting local Afghan boys. While American troops were working there with the Afghan police in efforts against the Taliban, they were advised to not intervene with Afghan cultural customs. This also meant turning a blind eye to the sexual abuse of young Afghan boys brought onto the American bases. PETITION

Actually, the kingdom’s involvement was deliberately covered up at the highest levels of our government. And the coverup goes beyond locking up 28 pages of the Saudi report in a vault in the US Capitol basement. Investigations were throttled. Co-conspirators were let off the hook. MORE

After 10 months of urban conflict in Turkey’s war-torn southeast, the government has expropriated huge sections of property, apparently to rebuild and restore the historical centre of the region’s largest city, Diyarbakir.

But to the dismay of the city’s handful of Christian congregations, this includes all its Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches. Unlike the state-funded mosques, Turkey’s ancient church buildings – some of which pre-date Islam – have been managed, historically, by church foundations. MORE

More than two thousand crosses have now been forcefully removed from churches as part of a government campaign to regulate “excessive religious sites”. MORE