Over 100,000 people gathered at St. Peter’s Square Saturday following Pope Francis’ call for a day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria.
“Forgiveness, dialogue, reconciliation – these are the words of peace, in beloved Syria, in the Middle East, in all the world! Let us pray for reconciliation and peace,” the pope said, addressing the crowd during the four-hour vigil on Saturday evening.
(READ the story from the Christian Post)
Social worker Connie Going has helped to match more than 1,000 foster kids with adoptive parents, but one boy was especially difficult. His anger problems started after he was neglected by his drug-addicted parents.
She placed the Tampa, Florida boy with one foster family, but they gave him back. She placed him with a second family, and they gave him back, too.
He said he was testing them, to see if they would also abandon him.
Throughout the whole process, Connie never gave up believing there was someone out there for Taylor — someone who could see his potential and help him realize it.
A South Carolina man who carried a sign for a year seeking a kidney for his wife finally got word of an organ match from a woman in Virginia Beach.
Even better news, he also found donors for more than 100 other people using his ‘sandwich board’ approach, the hospital says.
Jimmie Sue Swilling, 76, will get a new kidney next Wednesday, according to the Medical University of South Carolina.
“I knew it was going to happen because I know him. He wouldn’t have stopped until he got me one,” said his wife.
(WATCH the video from CBS News or READ the story from UPI)
A city in northern Italy especially noted for its elite stringed-instrument makers, such as Guarneri and Stradivari who began crafting there in the 16th century, will get its own museum thanks to a generous grant.
Cremona, a town of unassuming proportions and northern Italian elegance, remains a hub of musical excellence, with around 200 luthiers crafting new violins there.
And now, after years of waiting, Cremona has a showcase worthy of its illustrious heritage.
A new museum featuring some of the most exquisite violins ever made will throw open its doors, as the Museo del Violino.
(READ the story from The Guardian)
Entrepreneurs provide a key engine to propel growth in any healthy economy.
“They have the power to create jobs and drive growth – but first we need to give them the tools and the environment that will enable them to succeed,” said Maria Pinelli, of the global organization Ernst & Young, which created a barometer to gauge how well countries are fostering entrepreneurship.
A leaky roof that’s been plaguing a Kansas City women’s group home is no longer a problem, thanks to the generosity of two Kansas City businesses, and, as odd as it might sound, the consumer review site Angie’s List that brought everyone together.
The Princess House, a safe haven for abused women and those who are striving to turn their lives around, desperately needed a new 8000 square foot roof on the Victorian residence near 22nd and Benton. But with quotes to replace the roof coming in as high as $60,000, Princess House’ founder and director, Dr. Sarita Lynn Graham, knew it would take a miracle.
And, miracles in this economically challenged northeastern part of the city involving that kind of money are hard to find. But now, she says, that’s exactly what has happened.
Roosevelt elk are back in the Lower Mainland after an absence of a hundred years.
The huge elk subspecies was hunted out of southwestern B.C. near the turn of the last century.
Beginning seven years ago province officials, with funding assistance from conservationists, began re-locating small herds back to this coastal region.
Of the nearly five thousand personnel that have bravely battled the massive 19-day-old Yosemite Rim Fire, more than 550 are California inmates.
They’re the “work horses”, cutting lines alongside the elite “hot shot” civilian crews, according to an article in National Geographic.
Sentenced for non-violent offenses, 4,100 such inmates are stationed around the state as part of a partnership with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).
Barcelona has captured the lead in cities with hip, sustainable transportation after its launch of a new electric scooter sharing program that allows rentals by the hour, or by the month arranged via mobile app.
Starting with 50 bright purple scooters that can go up to 40 miles per hour, Motit, as the project is called, plans to offer 500 such bikes next year in more locations.
Debbie Sexton was half way home in the car after her cancer treatment when she realized she left her phone somewhere in the hospital.
When they realized the phone’s GPS could lead them to the phone, Sexton’s friends drove to the location, a nearby town from Riverside, Cal.
When they arrived, the door was opened by a young man who looked frail but had a smile on his face. Without a word, Patryck Livers, 21, said, “That GPS really works!”
Livers suffers from cancer too, and on August 23 he had just finished a treatment when he found the phone in the cafeteria. When he called Verizon to report it, they told him to leave the phone on and the GPS might lead the owner to the device.
Most importantly, a friendship blossomed and animals were part of the resulting mutual compassion.
(READ the story in the Press-Enterprise)
Israeli soldiers were caught by cell phone cameras as they boogied alongside Palestinians while on patrol in the West Bank.
The soldiers were making their rounds in the city of Hebron last week when they entered a dance hall and joined dozens of Palestinian men dancing to the hit Gangnam Style.
Footage aired on Israeli Channel 2 TV shows the solders in uniform, flak jackets and carrying guns, dancing with abandon among the Palestinian civilians.
This fall, 75 pianos will be installed in public locations across Boston – freely available for anyone to play, thanks to British artist Luke Jerram.
Jerram’s “Play Me, I’m Yours” public piano installation has been touring internationally since 2008. More than 1,000 pianos have been installed, reaching some four million people across 37 cities worldwide, organizers said.
(READ the story from the Boston Globe)
Kanye Ortiz loves the football players on the Houston Texan team, so his family showed up at their practice field to try to get an autograph. They had no idea the nine-year-old’s spontaneous act of kindness would melt hearts across the city.
It all started when one of them asked, “What would J.J. Watt do?”
Endangered sea turtles are nesting in record numbers along the southeast Atlantic Coast this summer, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said on Friday.
For instance, Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge on the Florida coast reported nearly 1,150 green sea turtle nests by August, more than double the record it set two years ago — a sure sign for officials that 35 years of conservation efforts are paying off.
In the province of Verona, an artist, who says he uses his plough as a painter would a brush, created a giant portrait of the pope with just a tractor and farmland belonging to his parents.
The crop-art took six hours to complete with no prior planning. He simply has an innate sense of proportion when carving the land with his tractor.
Generous Chinese CEO Yang Yuanqing will again give away his own $3 million annual bonus to workers at his electronics company after another season of record sales.
About 10,000 workers will get payments this month to recognize their contributions.
A Florida family who spends their time together hunting for treasure struck it rich over the weekend, hauling up an estimated $300,000 worth of gold from a historic wreckage in the Atlantic Ocean.
“What’s really neat about them is they are a family, they spend family time together out there and the most amazing part about them is they always believed this day would come,” said a fellow treasure hunter.
With six children and eight grandchildren who live 3000 miles apart, Colorado toy inventors Charlie and Maria Girsch dreamed up a better way to communicate with their family.
Their app for iPads brings families together for more than just talking. With FamZoom, you are reading, doodling, shopping, chatting and doing homework together in real time. Whatever you draw or move on the iPad in your lap shows up on their screen, too.
A 6th grade boy, Gerry Orz, persuaded the California state government to declare December 12 as a “Day of Silence” to officially honor the victims of bullying who cannot speak for themselves. He’s calling on schools and people everywhere to mark twelve seconds of silence at 12 o’clock on 12-12.
The eloquent student from Rancho Palos Verdes produced a short bully-prevention movie last year tailored to younger school children. He says there is more bullying in the younger grades than people realize.
A family in Rowan County, North Carolina got dinner paid for by an unexpected stranger who also sent an inspiring note to their table Friday.
When their 8-year-old special needs child started getting loud and banging the table, a waitress walked over with tears in her eyes and a note.
A photo of the note, which is being shared on social media, shows the message, “God only gives special children to special people.”
(READ the story, w/ photos, at WBTV)
