Desperate attempts by refugees to flee to Europe from the political crises in several North African nations are ending in disasters at sea. In response to the rising number of fatalities, “The European Union proposed doubling the size of its Mediterranean search and rescue operations on Monday, as the first bodies were brought ashore of some 900 people feared killed in the deadliest shipwreck while trying to reach Europe” (Reuters, April 21, 2015).

China’s influence is spreading politically and militarily around the globe. China’s president Xi Jinping recently visited Islamabad to promote $46 billion in Chinese investments in Pakistan’s infrastructure, and Pakistan’s prime minister commented, “Friendship with China is the cornerstone of Pakistan’s foreign policy… Today, we have planned for the future” (Wall Street Journal, April 20, 2015).

“Divorcees are more likely to have a heart attack than their peers who stay married, US research suggests” (BBC, April 15, 2015). According to a Duke University study of over 15,000 people, “Women who divorced once were 24% more likely to have had a heart attack in the study than women who were continuously married. The figure was 77% for those having multiple divorces” (ibid.).

My parents have always been given to hospitality. They would encourage their children to bring friends “over to the house.” This invitation would enable us, their children, to have an opportunity to share enjoyable times with our friends and allow our parents to become better acquainted with our peers. We, as teenagers lacking the understanding of the physical effects a houseful of youngsters placed on two adults, would invite the “whole gang” to spend the night, and to leave from our home when we would be traveling with a group to an out-of-town event. Good times for everyone, right?

Less than two years after he was appointed head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis made news by acknowledging the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide (2015). Armenians and their supporters welcomed the statement, but it angered Turkish leaders who reject using the label “genocide” to describe the murders of nearly two million Armenians from April 1915 until the end of World War I.