VATICAN CITY
No phones at Mass: pope
Pope Francis on Wednesday took snap-happy bishops, priests and pilgrims to task, telling them Mass was a time for prayer, not an opportunity to whip out camera phones. “At a certain point the priest leading the ceremony says: ‘Lift up our hearts.’ He doesn’t say: ‘Lift up our mobile phones to take photographs,’” the pope told those gathered in Saint Peter’s square for his weekly audience. “It’s so sad when I’m celebrating Mass here or inside the basilica and I see lots of phones held up — not just by the faithful, but also by priests and bishops. Please.” The 80-year old Argentine pontiff is no stranger to the world of social media, with more than 14 million followers on his English-language Twitter account alone, and often posing for selfies with enthusiastic young pilgrims. He has called the Internet, social media and text messages “a gift of God” if used wisely, but has also tried to persuade today’s youth to swap their smartphones for pocket-sized Bibles.
UNITED KINGDOM
Sheep recognize faces
Sheep have been trained to recognize the faces of celebrities, including former US president Barack Obama, by University of Cambridge scientists who hope it may help with understanding neurodegenerative diseases, such as Hungtington’s disease, that develop over time and affect cognitive abilities. In a specially equipped pen, sheep were shown pictures of people on two computer screens, on one side would be an unknown person and on the other would be one of four celebrities. The animal would receive a reward of food for choosing the photograph of the celebrity by breaking an infrared beam near the screen displaying it. If they chose the wrong photograph, a buzzer would sound and they would receive no reward. The sheep eventually managed to identify the familiar face eight times out of every 10. “We’ve shown that sheep have advanced face-recognition abilities, comparable with those of humans and monkeys,” professor Jenny Morton, who led the study, said in a statement.
CANADA
F-word no longer banned
It may be still be too blue for English speakers, but authorities have ruled that the F-word is no longer taboo on French language broadcasts as its use is so commonplace. The Canadian Broadcasting Standards Council had previously classified the word as being suitable only for adults in both French and English, banning its use on radio and television to beyond the evening watershed and even then, only with a warning. However, after complaints from listeners that the French-language Montreal radio station CKOI-FM had twice aired clips with the word this year, it changed its mind in a ruling released on Wednesday.
UNITED STATES
Man ticketed for honking
A St Louis man is feeling pretty ... pretty ... pretty ... pretty miffed over a recent traffic ticket. In an instance of life imitating art — in this case a recent episode of HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm — computer programmer Scott Smith said he was ticketed for honking his horn at a police officer. Smith told the St Louis Post-Dispatch that he repeatedly honked at the officer in an unmarked car on Friday last week because the light had turned green and the officer was not moving. He was pulled over and used his cellphone to record the heated exchange with the plainclothes officer, who asked: “Is your horn stuck?” Smith replied: “Is your brake stuck?” Smith was ticketed for excessive noise from a vehicle. He plans to file a formal complaint.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number