American country singer and legend, Dolly Parton says her upcoming holiday musical, “Christmas on the Square,” teaches that forgiveness, and asking for forgiveness, are essential to blossoming both emotionally and spiritually.
Hitting Netflix on Nov. 22, “Christmas on the Square” follows Regina Fuller (Christine Baranski), a curmudgeonly and wealthy woman who returns to her small hometown after her father’s death.
It’s not long before her intentions are clear: She plans to evict everyone from the town and sell the land to a mall developer.
“The deadline to be out of your homes is now Christmas Eve,” Regina tells heartbroken townsfolk as they huddle in the local church.
But after listening to stories of the local townsfolk — including a young pastor and his wife — reconnecting with an old love, and accepting the guidance of an angel, Regina’s heart begins to soften.
In an interview, Parton, who plays an angel in “Christmas on the Square,” said the film’s message of restoration and forgiveness, although relevant at all times, is “certainly” needed in today’s divided society.
“There’s a lot to be said about forgiveness; it cleans you for other good stuff to come in,” Parton said. “If you go around with a bunch of hate and anger and bottled up stuff in you, you can’t blossom, as a person, you’re not doing yourself any favors or anyone else. It’s just so much better to forgive.”
“And of course, we can’t forget; we still remember things. But I think when they say ‘forgive and forget,’ that just means to forget about that now and move on,” she added. “I really think that that’s so important to cleanse your own heart and your own soul, to be able to forgive and to ask forgiveness. You never should be too proud to ask for forgiveness.”
“Christmas on the Square” features 14 original songs, all penned by Parton, a nine-time Grammy Award-winner. The songs touch on topics of love, the power of prayer, and caring for others.
The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) has backed the position of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) over the growing security challenges in northern Nigeria, saying President Muhammadu Buhari has failed to address his most primary responsibility of providing security.
The spokesman for the coalition, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, while reacting on Tuesday, said communities in northern Nigeria must mobilise to protect themselves.
The ACF had on Monday expressed the anger and frustration of northerners to President Buhari on the growing security challenges in the region.
The ACF National Publicity Secretary, Emmanuel Yawe, said northerners had expected much more from the present administration.
The presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, did not react to message sent to him by our correspondent.
Similarly, the Northern Elders Forum has said there is no doubt that the administration of President Buhari does not care about the people of the north, their economy and security.
Diego Maradona has died at the age of 60 after suffering a cardiac arrest, according to multiple reports.
The football legend had a heart attack at his home just two weeks after leaving hospital where he underwent surgery on a blot clot in his brain.
Maradona, regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, helped Argentina win the World Cup in 1986, the pinnacle of an illustrious career.
He played club football for Boca Juniors, Napoli and Barcelona among others and was adored by millions for his brilliant skills.
Maradona was responsible for the infamous ‘Hand of God’ that eliminated England from the 1986 tournament. +2
Argentine football legend Diego Maradona has died at the age of 60, according to reports+2
Maradona’s Hand of God was responsible for England’s elimination from the 1986 World Cup
The Argentine news outlet Clarin broke the news on Wednesday afternoon UK time, describing the news of Maradona’s passing as having a ‘worldwide impact’.
Soon, tributes were pouring in from all over the world of football.
Maradona left hospital on November 11 just eight days after being admitted for emergency brain surgery.
The iconic former Argentinian footballer was driven away from the private Olivos Clinic just before 6pm on Wednesday as hundreds of fans of photographers tried to get a glimpse of him.
Maradona was hospitalised the previous week and had to have an emergency operation to remove a blood clot from his brain.
Argentinian TV reporters travelling on motorbikes filmed the ambulance carrying him leaving before following the vehicle to transmit every inch of his journey.
His lawyer, Matias Morlahas said that the 60-year-old would continue to receive treatment for alcohol dependency.
Maradona was expected to stay in a house near his older daughters.
Maradona, who won the World Cup with Argentina in 1986 and was the coach of Gimnasia y Esgrima in his home country, had been admitted to hospital on several occasions since his retirement. He almost died of cocaine-induced heart failure in 2000 and underwent years of rehabilitation.
Maradona, who was well known for having a wild lifestyle during and after his playing days, had a gastric bypass operation to lose weight in 2005 and was once more hospitalised two years later for alcohol-induced hepatitis.
He also fell ill at the last World Cup in Russia, where he was filmed passing out in an executive box when Argentina took on and beat Nigeria in Group D.
More to follow
MARADONA’S LONG HISTORY OF DRUG AND ALCOHOL ABUSE
Maradona began taking cocaine in the mid-1980s – during the height of his playing days, going on to develop an addiction to drugs and alcohol over the next two decades.
His drug use began in 1982 and reportedly grew worse in 1984 when he moved to Napoli and had connections with the Comorra.
In 2014, Maradona said of his drug use: ‘I gave my opponents a big advantage. Do you know the player I could have been if I hadn’t taken drugs?’
His first real punishment came in 1991 when he was banned for 15 months by Napoli after testing positive for cocaine. Later in the same year he was arrested in Buenos Aires for possessing half a kilo of cocaine, and was given a 14-month suspended sentence.
In 1994, Maradona was back in the fold with the Argentina national team, making headlines around the world for a now-famous screaming celebration into the camera lens after a goal against Greece. His tournament was to come to an early end, though, after he was expelled days later for testing positive for five variants of ephedrine, a banned substance. He was banned for 15 months, ending his international career.
In 1995, he moved to Boca Juniors but two years later he failed a drugs test for the third time in six years, putting an end to his playing career. Officially, a ‘prohibited substance’ is all that has been revealed about that test, but Boca president Mauricio Macri has said in interviews that cocaine was found in a urine sample.
In 1996, Maradona said publicly: ‘I was, am and always will be a drug addict.’
In 2000, the footballing legend suffered an overdose, and in 2004 he had a heart attack. A year later, he was forced to have gastric bypass surgery, and in 2007 he was back in hospital again, this time suffering hepatitis.
It is then understood he stopped taking drugs, telling a journalist in 2017 that he hadn’t taken drugs for 13 years and was feeling ‘great’.
He has been drinking alcohol since 2004, though, hitting the headlines at the 2018 World Cup for his bizarre antics at a number of Argentina games. A video emerged of him drinking tequila on a plane, and he claimed he ‘drank all the wine’ ahead of their win over Nigeria.
The Parliament of the United Kingdom on Monday held a debate following e-petitions received accusing the Nigerian government and security officials of human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings.
The debate opened by Theresa Villers, stemmed from a petition started by Silas Ojo. The petition garnered more than 220,000 signatories, crossing the 100,000 mark needed for a petition to be debated by the lawmakers.
Villers said the petition was prompted by disturbing violence in Nigeria over recent weeks and the petitioners have a credible case.
While condemning the suppression of peaceful protesters through travel ban and asset freezing, Villers said the plight of the Nigerian youths must never be forgotten.
Following the debate, the lawmakers demanded the UK government to consider imposing sanctions on officials who are found culpable of human rights abuses of Nigerian citizens.
The lawmakers said any individuals found responsible for these atrocities following investigations by the Nigerian government must face sanctions.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed has disclosed that the Federal Government would soon reopen the land borders that were closed as part of measures to curtail illegal importations into the country.
Nigeria, the largest economy and the most prosperous of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), last year August closed its land borders on account of the proliferation of illegal importation of drugs, small arms and agricultural products coming from neighbouring West African countries.
The Finance Minister while reacting to a question on when Nigerian borders closed since August last year would be reopened at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Buhari, said the committee constituted by the President on the matter had done an assessment of the gains of the closure and had recommended that the borders be reopened.
Members of the committee are ministers of finance, budget and national planning, interior and foreign affairs.
She said once members of the committee sign the report, it will be submitted.
The finance minister was however silent on the day of submission and date of the reopening.
The alliance of parties that support incumbent president Roch Marc Christian Kaboré called on all candidates to “respect the results” of Sunday’s presidential and legislative elections, after an earlier announcement from opposition parties that alleges fraud and irregularities took place during the vote.
“The APMP (Alliance of the parties of the presidential majority) invites all the actors to respect the results of the ballot boxes”, said Benewende Sankara, during a press conference in Ouagadougou on Tuesday.
He also suggested that those candidates with a grievance should take it to court.
On the eve of Sunday’s vote, opposition parties had already claimed that a “massive fraud” was being prepared, and reiterated this on Monday, citing polling stations that did not open or opened late, ballot boxes that weren’t secured during transport, and lack of polling materials or even personnel to run the polling station.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has condemned the recent arson attacks affecting the road freight industry.
A truck driver was shot and killed, another one injured, and a truck set alight in Leondale, east of Johannesburg, on Monday evening.
This is the latest incident of attacks that has engulfed the industry, which saw at least 30 trucks targeted last week.
The President has offered his sincere condolences to the families and colleagues of drivers who have lost their lives through the intimidation and violence perpetrated by criminals.
President Ramaphosa also expressed his concern about the effect of this violence on owners and employees of the affected trucking companies and the economic disruption caused by these acts as the country focuses on rebuilding the economy.
He has since commended and welcomed the arrest of suspects in Gauteng in the past 24 hours following deadly assaults on truck drivers.
The President has since directed Ministers of Employment and Labour, Transport, Home Affairs and Police to submit a report on this matter.
The Desert Locust crisis, which struck the greater Horn of Africa region earlier this year, could re-escalate as recent strong winds carried small mature yellow swarmlets from southern Somalia into eastern and northeastern Kenya, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has said.
Although some of the swarmlets that reached Kenya may have already laid eggs before their arrival, there remains a risk of further egg-laying in sandy areas that saw recent rainfalls, according to FAO.
Breeding also continues in central Somalia and eastern Ethiopia where bands of hoppers – non-flying, nymphal stage locust – are present, and a new generation of immature swarms could start forming by the end of November.
Swarm formation is expected to continue throughout December due to widespread hatching and band formation that occurred mid-November. From the second week of December, several waves of numerous swarms can be expected to move south in Somalia and Ethiopia, reaching northern Kenya, FAO added.
The federal government has apologised over the breakdown of some passenger trains on the busy Abuja – Kaduna rail corridor.
Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, tendered the apology to Nigerians, Monday, during The minister spoke during his routine inspection of the Lagos- Ibadan rail project.
Amaechi expressed worries that the locomotives that were brought in by the Chinese firm as brand new, would develop fault at this early stage of their operations.
Consequently, the Chinese operators have since been recalled to either fix the locomotives, or return them to the Asian country.
To demonstrate the concerns of the federal government, the minister threatened to bring back old locomotives, which were phased out, to accommodate the new ones from China.
In the past five years, the number of priests in Asia and Africa has increased, but their number worldwide has decreased, albeit by very little, this according to the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae (Statistical Yearbook of the Church).
The Central Office of Church Statistics looked at the evolution in the number of priests in the world between 2013 and 2018 and found slight drop of 0.3 per cent, to around 414,000.
During that period, 43,000 new priests were ordained, half of whom in Africa and Asia, evenly split between the two continents.
The publication of the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae for 2018 makes it possible to see the demographic and statistical evolution of the clergy and local Churches between 2013 and 2018.
By looking at the geographic and functional distribution of priests (diocesan and religious), some interesting points of reflection emerge.
As noted, the total number of priests in the world decreased from 415,348 in 2013 to 414,065 in 2018, mostly in the latter part of the period.
However, in Africa and Asia, the trend was positive, +14.3 per cent and + 11.0 per cent respectively, with a net gain of 2,200 priests in 2018 alone.
Conversely, in the Americas, the number did not change with around 122,000 priests. Europe and Oceania explain the worldwide drop, with a loss of more than 7 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively.
In Europe, where the clergy is old, the number of deaths (23,365) far exceeded the number of new ordinations by almost 15,000.
This decline was offset by gains in Asia, but especially Africa, where the average age of priests is lower. In the Americas, the demographic balance is almost in perfect parity. In the period under review, mortality varied considerably.
Africa, Central America, and South East Asia have similarly lower mortality rates than all the other areas.
Almost 6,000 priests left the priesthood in 2014-2018, mostly in the Americas and Europe (81 per cent), while the other areas saw fewer losses.
And in North and Central America, Europe and Oceania gained priests through immigration from other continents, whilst Africa, Asia and South America experienced a net loss due to outmigration.
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