McDonald's enters The Vatican with an outlet near St. Peter's Square

McDonald's, the fast-food chain has gained entry into The Vatican by opening a restaurant around the corner from St. Peter's Square, on the ground floor of a Vatican-owned building. The new location offers WiFi, accommodates birthday parties and serves the "Sweety," a burger bun filled with Nutella.
McDonald's has rented the 1,765-square-foot space from the Vatican for about $31,000 a month, as understood from media reports.
This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 5 January 2017.

A number of cardinals live in the apartment building where the restaurant is located and, even though most of the 36000 outlets of McDonald's (about 85 percent) are franchises, the one near the Vatican is company-owned. It is located in a popular tourist area outside the Vatican. Already there are many other restaurants, bars and retail shops in the area.
Incidentally, McDonald's is not the only American company to make inroads into the Vatican. Pope Francis rides a Ford Focus, and Hard Rock Cafe, the Orlando-based chain, has recently got approval to open a nearby franchise - this would displace a religious bookstore.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Vladimir Putin is 6th most popular person of 2016

As per polls conducted by YouGov of people across 30 different countries, the Russian leader Vladimir Putin has raced up the popularity charts of world figures jumping past Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama. He has been voted sixth in a list of the most admired men in the world during 2016. Last year, he was 11th on the list, behind former Preston North End loan signing David Beckham.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 7 May 20116.

In spite of backing the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, the Russian President Vladimir Putin has literally stormed up the list of most admired men.
Of course, the top five are Microsoft boss Bill Gates is the most admired man in the world followed by US President Barack Obama, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and actor Jackie Chan, physicist Stephen Hawkin in that order. Putin is sixth.
In the women's section, Angelina Jolie is the most admired female, then comes Queen Elizabeth II and Hillary Clinton. Sandra Bullock comes tenth. Nobel peace prize winner Malala Yousafzai has fallen in popularity from second in the female list to seventh, behind Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama and Canadian singer Celine Dion.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Pope Francis in the White House - talks on climate change and religious liberty

#popefrancis #WhiteHouse #barackobama #ClimateChange While speaking from the White House lawn with President Obama beside him and in front of thousands, Pope Francis dwelt on the controversial topics of climate change and religious freedom.
In his first message to the United States, he said that being the son of an immigrant family he was looking forward "to these days of encounter and dialogue" and he hoped to listen to, and share, many of the hopes and dreams of the American people.
This has been reported in foxnews.com dated 23 September 2015.

Pope Francis was all praises for President Obama for his work in combating climate change and trying to reduce air pollution. He went on to add that climate change is a problem which cannot be passed on to future generations.
As per officials, there was 11,000 ticketed guests present on the occasion excluding the press, staff, military or volunteers.
Pope Francis had arrived in Washington, the first stop on his six-day, three-city tour of the U.S. and was greeted at Andrews Air Force Base by Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, their wives, and Obama's daughters. He was then driven to the diplomatic mission where he will spend his time in the nation's capital.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Pope Francis cuts short his visit to Tacloban due to approaching tropical storm Mekkhala

#PopeFrancis #Tacloban #Haiyan #Philipines Pope Francis is currently on a visit to the Philippines but was forced to cut short his visit to Tacloban because of the approaching storm Mekkhala – the city of Tacloban had been devastated by typhoon Haiyan and over 7350 people perished in that storm.
Pope Francis had celebrated mass with survivors of Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban on Saturday morning. The storm that happened 14-months back was believed to have been the most powerful storm ever recorded on land and the worst natural disaster of the Philippines.
He had come on a five-day visit to the Philippines and, even though his visit to Tacloban was cut short because of the approaching Tropical Storm Mekkhala, he made use of his first major speech to call on authorities in the Philippines to resist corruption and end "scandalous social inequalities". Incidentally, Catholics make up nearly 80% of the country's population.
He is scheduled to conduct a mass on Sunday in Manila and the organizers expect up to six million people to attend it in a Manila park. It the crowd does reach that figure, it would pass the previous record for a papal ceremony of 1995 – at that time, nearly five million attended the mass by John Paul II.

Pope Francis to focus his attention, in 2015, to climate change

#PopeFrancis #ClimateChange #CatholicBishops Pope Francis has shown that he is made of a different material and he is unhappy that no one is taking climate change seriously. People call him the “superman pope”, and President Obama has cited him as a key player in the thawing of relations with Cuba. Pope Francis has also lectured his cardinals on the need to clean up Vatican politics. And, his focus is now on climate change.
Among his plans for 2015 are to issue a lengthy message on the subject to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, give an address to the UN general assembly and also call a summit of the world’s main religions. His basic intention is to influence the 2015 crucial climate meeting in Paris. On that occasion, the countries will try to conclude 20 years of fraught negotiations with a universal commitment to reduce emissions.
In March last Pope Francis had visited Tacloban – this was the city in the Philippine that had been devastated in 2012 by typhoon Haiyan. The pope would be publishing a rare encyclical on climate change and human ecology. He would also urge all Catholics to take action on moral and scientific grounds. He plans to send the document to the world’s 5,000 Catholic bishops and 400,000 priests, who will be expected to distribute it to parishioners.
He has very rightly remarked that the monopolizing of lands, deforestation, the appropriation of water, inadequate agro-toxics are some of the evils that tear man from the land of his birth. In this connection he has added that climate change, the loss of biodiversity and deforestation are already showing their devastating effects in the great cataclysms that are being witnessed.
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Donkey milk is good for its anti-aging properties

#donkeymilk #popefrancis #antiaging #cleopatra The donkey’s milk has been identified by the ancients as a cure for a variety of ailments and an anti-aging skin tonic and this milk is believed to be enjoying a revival. Its popularity is on the rise because one than Pope Francis himself has recently revealed that, as a baby, he was fed this milk in Argentina to supplement his mother’s milk.
As an expert has admitted, the flavor of this milk is pleasant, odorless and looked and tasted just like skimmed cow’s milk, although a tad sweeter. And, it is a veritable elixir.
The medicinal value of donkey’s milk were first realized by the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates – it seems he had recommended it to combat a host of bodily woes, including liver problems, fevers, infectious diseases, poisoning, joint pains and nose bleeds. Subsequently, the Romans added constipation to that list.
Cleopatra used donkey milk as a moisturizer in cosmetics. The Egyptian queen used to take a daily bath in it, with a steady stream of milk supplied by more than 700 lactating asses. The stuff is said to have powers to erase facial wrinkles, make the skin more delicate and maintain the whiteness. These are remarks of Pliny the Elder, an ancient Roman know-it-all.
Just for the records - fresh donkey milk used to be widely available in 19th-century London as an alternative to the highly adulterated cows’ milk that used to be sold by dairies.