Christian Breaking News Alert:
Every year, approximately 175,000 Christians are martyred for their faith, and countless others endure torture, discrimination and hardship. We are blessed to live in a country without such persecution, but we should not forget about those less fortunate. Not only can we stay aware of their situation, but in many cases we can help ease their suffering. And in all cases, we can pray for them!
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Prayer is one of the most powerful weapons we have to help those who are persecuted for
their faith. God hears our prayers and is answering them in ways we may never know.
Thank you for lifting up our persecuted brothers and sisters in prayer as they suffer for
the sake of Jesus Christ.
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1) Solidarity rally for religious freedom
The 'All Pakistan Minorities Alliance' is organising a rally for August 11 to draw attention to the violence and discrimination minorities suffer. About 100,000 Christians and people from other confessions are expected.
Lahore : – The All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) is going to hold a 'National Solidarity Rally' on August 11 at the Mīnār-ĕ Pākistān in Lahore. A huge gathering of people from minority communities, including Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsees, should come. Organisers expect about 100,000 people from all over Pakistan, brought together by the same desire to see discriminatory laws abolished, including the blasphemy law, as well as the protection of equal rights and religious freedom.
In announcing the event APMA chairman, Shahbaz Bhatti, quoted from Pakistan's founding father, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who in his address to the Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947, said: "You are free; you are free to go to your temples. You are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste or creed—that has nothing to do with the business of the State . . . . We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and citizens of one state""
Despite Ali Jinnah's dream for a modern secular Pakistan (in which Muslim clergy played no role), the founder's successors paid no heed to his wishes. They used religion to centralize power and divide society, adopting in the end inhuman legislation and laws that persecute and victimise minorities.
"Today," Mr Bhatti said, "Christians and religious minorities in Pakistan are facing serious challenges on different fronts. Their basic rights are denied and religious freedom is curtailed. They are persecuted, victimised, terrorised and hated due to their faith. The blasphemy and other discriminatory laws violate all standards of human rights and democratic norms; they are naked swords hanging over our heads. There is a greater need for unity among Christians and religious minorities to overcome these challenges, including extremism, terrorism and religious intolerance."
With this purpose in mind APMA has been organising for some time seminars, conferences and public demonstrations in various cities to focus public attention on the issue of persecution and atrocities committed against Christians and members of other religious minorities.
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2) Orissa: two nuns accused of ill-treatment released
Both women religious are accused of inflicting physical violence and coercion on two girls in a school in Baghmara, but the real charge is attempted forced conversion. No evidence in either case has been produced.
Mumbai :– Two nuns, who were arrested on Saturday charged with ill-treating two female students at a residential school run by the Catholic Church at Baghamara, were granted bail by a local court on Monday.
Sister Mary, 57, and Sister Prema, 62, from the Bangalore-based congregation of St Ann's Sisters were released after three days in jail on a personal bond of Rs 10,000 (US$ 250) each.
Both women religious have not gone to trial yet because the police needs more evidence to back the charges. So far it has failed in this task.
In reality unsubstantiated allegations of forced conversion underlie this case.
In the meantime Sub-Divisional Judge Moonrani Mishra granted bail on condition they try not to change the faith of others, co-operate with investigators, and try not to tamper with evidence or leave the court's jurisdiction without permission.
According to the papers filed in the case, two girls—14-year-old Sarojini Murmu of Nachipur village and 11-year-old Anjana Behera of Titia village—fled their school on July 20 alleging that the two nuns had physically tortured them and made them clean toilets and the school poultry.
The two women religious are charged with voluntarily causing harm, intimidation and attempt at forced conversion.
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3) Evangelical Christians oppose Catholic candidate
Evangelicals smear Senator Brownback, a pro-life Catholic. A letter, circulated among evangelicals in Iowa, asks them not to split Christian vote. Pastor wants Protestants to vote solely for Protestants.
A letter is being circulated among evangelicals in Iowa asking them not to split the Christian vote between former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and Kansas Senator Sam Brownback; they are urged to vote for Huckabee, an evangelical, over Brownback, a Roman Catholic.
The letter stems from Walnut Creek Community Church in Windsor Heights. It says that unlike President George W. Bush, and his father, both of whom had to learn "how to speak to evangelicals," Governor Huckabee is "one of us." The missive continues as follows: "I know Senator Brownback converted to Roman Catholicism in 2002. Frankly, as a recovering Catholic myself, that is all I need to know about his discernment when compared to the Governor's. I don't know if this fact is widely known among evangelicals who are supporting Brownback."
This issue was addressed by Catholic League president Bill Donohue:
"Discernment. Evangelicals have it, and Catholics do not. But are those evangelicals who express themselves this way capable of discerning the difference between persuasiveness and abrasiveness? Do they really think all Catholics are rote-minded robots who let the Vatican do their thinking for them? We thought we'd gotten beyond such nonsense, but apparently some stereotypes are proving hardier than others.
"Like Sam Brownback, Mike Huckabee is a man of character, and as such he would never choose to be associated with such bigotry. The blame for this incident lies squarely with Rev. Tim Rude, pastor of the church. Unfortunately for him, he has now compounded his problem by saying that he did not intend his e-mail to be made public, and that in any event, 'All I was trying to say is that Protestants should vote for Protestants.' Great. But now that his gig is up—everyone knows about his stealth campaign against Brownback—the time has come for Rev. Rude (what a great name!) to fess up and apologize. He might also take this opportunity to explain his lack of confidence in the ability of Protestants to discern whom they should vote for in the election."
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4) Church Group Wants Bibles In Newspapers
Bible Society Has Trouble Raising Money
A Christian ministry plans to deliver New Testaments to newspaper subscribers around the country, but has raised only a small fraction of the money needed to pay for them.
International Bible Society-Send the Light plans to distribute the Scriptures through 11 newspapers between November and May.
The New Testaments would be packaged in pouches on the outside of newspapers, much like soap or other sample products
But fundraising has been slow. None of the city projects has raised even half the money needed.
And there have been objections from non-Christians who say they would be offended and from some Christians who worry that people who already own Bibles will just throw the packets away.
A ministry official discounted the objections, saying people can "do with it what they want."
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5) Italy faces high risk of attack by Muslim radicals
August 1, 2007
ROME -- Italy faces "heightened risks" of attack and an influx of Muslim radicals, an intelligence services report said Wednesday, citing 60 threats in the first half of 2007.
The semi-annual report, unveiled at a news conference, said that the threats aimed at Italy from within or abroad were of "variable credibility and magnitude."
But the threats by international jihadist groups pose "heightened risks for our country," said the report covering January through June.
Italy saw a "rise in Islamic meeting places, which, even if they are primarily organized and frequented by law-abiding people, remain potentially exposed to infiltration by radicals," the report said.
It highlighted "networks of north African origin" while stating that "interactions or contacts with other radical milieu from the Balkans, the Middle East, or central Asia" were also possible.
The intelligence services also outlined risks facing Italian personnel taking part in overseas missions.
"The attack on the Spanish contingent of [the UN peacekeeping force] FINUL in Lebanon [in late June] requires being alert to the possibility of similar risks concerning the Italian contingent," the report said.
Italy took over command of FINUL, a force of some 13,000 peacekeepers including some 2,500 Italians, in February.
The intelligence agencies also pointed to a risk of attack within Italy by anarchists whose "designs remain unchanged" despite the arrests in February of 15 people suspected of belonging to a far-left cell of the Red Brigades.
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6) Taliban threaten hostages as deadline passes
August 1, 2007
RALLY: Protestors shout slogans during an anti-war rally demanding the safe return of kidnapped South Koreans and the withdrawal of its troops from the country, in front of the US embassy in Seoul August 1.
(REUTERS)
GHAZNI, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan's Taliban threatened to kill more of its 21 South Korean hostages after a Wednesday deadline expired, as helicopters dropped leaflets asking people to leave the area where they are held.
By evening, hours after the noon (0730 GMT) deadline, there appeared to have been little movement, with negotiators unable to provide new information and the Taliban saying that there had been no developments.
The extremist group repeated, however, that it was ready to kill more members of the aid mission seized in the southern province of Ghazni two weeks ago. Two have already been shot dead - a 42-year-old pastor and a 29-year-old.
"After the deadline passed, one or more hostages could be killed any time," Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said earlier.
Military choppers dropped leaflets in the province, including the Qarabagh district where the South Koreans were captured, asking residents to leave ahead of a planned operation but officials denied that this would be a bid to free the captives.
The operation was a routine exercise due in the coming weeks, the defense ministry said, adding that it "has no links to the South Korean hostages issue."
A South Korean embassy official said: "We have no information about any operation. Before launching any operation, we must be informed."
With tensions mounting and Qarabagh said to have been surrounded by soldiers for days, Ahmadi said that Taliban fighters were "ready to answer with force and if there's any pressure on us, the lives of the hostages will be in danger."
He said earlier that there had been no progress in the negotiations in which the rebels have demanded that at least eight Taliban prisoners be freed from Afghan jails.
Afghan authorities have rejected the demand after being condemned internationally for a similar deal in March.
One of the main negotiators, parliamentarian Mahmood Gailani, said that tribal elders fronting the talks had asked for 48 more hours. "We are waiting for the answer," he said.
Negotiators also want the militants to unconditionally free 16 women in the group, two of whom a Taliban spokesman Tuesday described as gravely ill, before considering other possible demands.
A top US official, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Christopher Hill, and Egypt's largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, meanwhile joined international calls for the release of the Christians.
Adding to concern about their chances, the bullet-riddled bodies of four Afghan court officials were found Wednesday near where the bloodied corpse of one of the foreigners was dumped late Tuesday.
"We killed them because they worked for the government," Ahmadi said.
There were also fresh fears for a German engineer held since July 18, a day before the South Koreans were captured, after Al Jazeera television broadcast late Tuesday a video that it said showed him pleading for his life.
The footage, reported to be days old, was the first to show the engineer, said to be 62 years old.
The hardline Taliban, backed by the Al Qaeda network, has intensified an insurgency launched since being driven from government in 2001.
There are daily attacks in the war-ravaged country, undermining internationally backed efforts for reconstruction.
In new incidents a dozen Taliban and a policeman were killed in Kandahar province late Tuesday, police said.
Four rebels were also shot dead in Ghazni province and a soldier from the 35,000-strong NATO-led force here to assist the Afghan government was killed in fighting in the northeast, security officials said.
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7) Bombs rock Baghdad as unity government crumbles
August 1, 2007
SUICIDE BOMB: A fuel truck burns at the site of a suicide bomb attack in Baghdad August 1. A suicide bomber killed at least 50 people and wounded 60 after luring motorists to a fuel truck near a petrol station in Baghdad's western Mansour district, police said.
(REUTERS)
BAGHDAD -- Thunderous car bomb blasts echoed around Baghdad Wednesday, killing at least 70 people, as Iraq's national unity coalition collapsed under the weight of sectarian tensions.
New government figures also revealed that civilian deaths in the country rose by one-third last month, dealing a further blow to a five-month-old security plan designed to stabilize Baghdad and allow for reconciliation.
Three large bombs tore through crowded districts of the capital, leaving at least 70 people dead and feeding the communal bitterness that has undermined Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki's US-backed government.
In the largest blast, a truck bomb detonated near a filling station in the west of the city, setting fire to a huge fuel tank, killing at least 50 people and wounding at least 60 more, Iraqi security officials said.
A medic at the nearby Yarmuk Hospital said that the emergency room struggled to cope with the wave of incoming wounded.
"There were not many lightly injured people, everyone had medium or severe burns. Some of them got beds, but others had to lie on the floor and some were given first aid then sent on to other hospitals," he said.
Earlier a car bomb ripped through a busy shopping district, killing at least 16 Iraqis and wounding 14, according to Brigadier General Qassim Atta, an Iraqi army spokesman for Baghdad.
The blast near the Karrada Harij electronics market at a crossroads known for the popular Fiqma ice-cream store sent a dull boom echoing across the city and a plume of smoke skywards. There was no word on who might have planted the bomb, but the area is known as a stronghold of supporters of Shiite leader Abdel Aziz Al Hakim, and previous attacks of this kind have been blamed on Sunni extremists.
A third car bomb in the southern neighborhood of Dura, one of Baghdad's most notorious districts, killed three more people and wounded another five, according to security officials.
Two off-duty Iraqi policemen were shot dead when gunmen ambushed their car in the Saydiya neighborhood in southwest Baghdad, a security official said.
As the explosions rumbled across the city, ministers from the Concord Front, Iraq's largest Sunni bloc, resigned from the ruling coalition and effectively ended its claim to be a government of national unity.
"The Front announces its withdrawal from the government of Nuri Al Maliki and the deputy prime minister and the ministers will submit their resignation today," said Rafie Al Issawi, minister of state for foreign affairs. Issawi made the announcement at a news conference inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone as Sunni Vice-President Tarek Al Hashemi and other senior members of the bloc stood behind him.
Hashemi will remain vice-president and the bloc's 44 parliamentarians will return to the National Assembly in September after its summer recess, when they will swell the already growing ranks of the opposition.
The Front has accused the government of failing to rein in Shiite militias and of the arbitrary arrest and detention of Sunnis, but Wednesday leaders seemed to leave the door open for future discussions.
"Our central and historic goal is reform. We will reconsider the withdrawal tomorrow if they review our demands," Hashemi said.
The decision comes at a time when Maliki's government is under intense pressure to make use of the space afforded by a five-month-old "surge" of US troops to hammer out political agreements between the rival factions.
But with parliament having gone on holiday without passing any of the benchmark reforms demanded by Washington, it is unlikely that any progress will be made ahead of September's progress report to the US Congress on the surge.
"Democracy is never easy," US embassy spokesman Philip Reeker told reporters. "It is certainly not easy with the problems that face Iraq. These are things that Iraqi political leaders need to grapple with."
"In Iraq it's very hard ... They have to get through these very difficult challenges. It is frustrating? Absolutely. It's frustrating for us. It's frustrating for them and it's frustrating for the Iraqi government."
In a further blow to the surge, numbers released by government ministries Wednesday revealed that the number of Iraqi civilians killed in the country's brutal civil conflict rose by more than one-third in July.
At least 1,652 civilians were killed in Iraq in July, 33 percent more than in the previous month, according to figures compiled by the Iraqi health, defense, and interior ministries.
Meanwhile, the US military said that four more troops were killed Tuesday, bringing US losses since the March 2003 invasion to 3,653, with 83 killed in July.
Separately, Britain confirmed that another of its soldiers had been killed by a bomb in the southern city of Basra Tuesday, bringing to 164 the number to have died in Iraq.
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8) Lebanese soldier killed as country marks Army Day
August 1, 2007
ON PATROL: Children cheer for Lebanese soldiers on an armored personnel carrier on patrol near the Nahr Al bared refugee camp in north Lebanon August 1. A sniper shot dead a Lebanese soldier at the camp Wednesday as the Lebanese army celebrated its 62nd anniversary.
(REUTERS)
NAHR AL BARED,
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