CentrePoint News News That Matters

By CDN

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 10 (CDN) — Suspected Islamic militants armed with guns and grenades stormed the offices of a Christian relief and development organization in northwest Pakistan today, killing six aid workers and wounding seven others.

The gunmen besieged the offices of international humanitarian organization World Vision near Oghi, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Islamabad in Mansehra district of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Police and World Vision’s regional spokesman said the Pakistani staff members, including two women, were killed after up to 15 gunmen arrived in pick-up trucks

Map of Pakistan. (Courtesy of U. S. State Department)

and began firing.

“They gathered all of us in one room,” World Vision administration officer Mohammad Sajid, who was in the office at the time, told Compass. “The gunmen, some of whom had their faces covered, also snatched our mobile phones. They dragged people one by one and shifted them to an adjacent room and shot and killed them.”

For the rest of the story, click here…

http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/pakistan/16046/

Posted under News

By Kenneth Conboy

For more than a week, there has been a flurry of counter-terrorism raids across the country. This comes just ten days before President Barack Obama is set to make his first visit to Indonesia since spending part of his elementary school years in Jakarta.

Initially the police focused their attention on a 50-strong group of militants that was allegedly conducting paramilitary training at the foot of a mountain on the border of Pidie and Aceh Besar districts in Aceh province. As of this week, the police had killed or arrested nearly 20 persons tied to this group. They have also confiscated a small number of assault rifles, military uniforms purchased in Malaysia, and videotapes of various deceased Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) members.

Although the police investigation in Aceh is ongoing, it would appear like several of the members were not ethnic Acehnese and could instead be traced to the island of Java. This is an interesting development, as the Acehnese have traditionally exhibited fierce animosity toward those from Java, and many have found it hard to believe that the two sides have now put aside their long-standing differences to conduct risky paramilitary training in a relatively populated area of Aceh.

Others have noted that the Acehnese, while pious and prone toward separatism, have rarely shown any radical tendencies along the Wahhabist lines pushed by JI.

For the rest of the story, click here…

http://counterterrorismblog.org/

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By MNN

Morocco (MNN) ? Christians around the world are puzzled by sudden recent anti-Christian activities in Morocco.

Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs says two years ago Morocco would have been called a tolerant Muslim country, but not anymore. “So far this week, we’ve heard of six different foreign Christians who either have been expelled from the country or are in custody awaiting expulsion.”

Nettleton says, “In one case, we heard about Christians working at an orphanage who were expelled from the country, leaving all of the kids in the orphanage without supervision, simply in the custody of the government of Morocco.”

21 other foreigners are awaiting deportation.

On February 4, “eleven believers (including an American), two non-believers and five children…were [held] by the Moroccan government for 14 hours.”

For the rest of the story, click here…

http://www.mnnonline.org/article/13970

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By BBC

Burma’s military rulers have issued a law which will bar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from participating in planned elections.

The new law prohibits anyone with a a criminal conviction from taking part.

Ms Suu Kyi was already excluded from political office by a clause in the constitution which bars people with foreign spouses.

She has been detained for most of the past 20 years on various charges, after winning the last elections in 1988.

The Political Parties Registration Law was published in official newspapers, in a series of daily announcements of laws intended to guide the elections. No date has yet been set for polls which the military intends to hold.

For the rest of the story, click here…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8559048.stm

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By NTA/Fox News

Jihad Jane – A Pennsylvania woman known to authorities online as “JihadJane”  has been charged in federal court with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, making false statements to a government official and attempted identity theft according to a Fox News report.

The indictment, unsealed Monday, charges that Colleen R. LaRose and five unindicted co-conspirators recruited men on the Internet to wage violent jihad in South Asia and Europe, and recruited women on the Internet who had passports and the ability to travel to and around Europe in support of violent jihad.

The accused co-conspirators are located in South Asia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe and the United States.

In June of 2008, LaRose posted a comment on YouTube under the username “JihadJane,” stating that she is “desperate to do something somehow to help” the suffering Muslim people, according to the indictment.

She was also know to authorities as “Fatima LaRose.” The indictment describes LaRose as in her 40s.

For the rest of the story, click here…

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,588627,00.html

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By David Virtue

There is a growing and intensifying attack on Christians around the world.

It is not just confined to the Middle East and Islamic countries.

Christians from Egypt to Iraq, from Pakistan to Nigeria are being attacked and killed by Muslims and Hindus.

For all its vaunted advances in technology, there is a growing hatred and intolerance of Christians by Hindus in India, a country whose laws, civil service, roads and military were established by Christians over a century ago.

Hindu hatred of Christians is growing around the country and you can witness this in the state of Orissa.

In India, where these videos were shot, you can see Hindus attacking and killing Christians with clubs while the Police look on and do nothing.

Please note these tapes are gruesome and should not be watched by children or young adults.

These are not tapes you will see at so-called interfaith gatherings or groups of high level clergy gabfests meeting in Washington DC where everybody talks pleasantries about “niceness” and “friendship”.

These are brutal attacks of Christians that occur on streets far from the halls of power.

For the rest of the story, click here…

http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=12232

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By Dan Wooding

ISFAHAN, IRAN (ANS) – Compass Direct News (CDN) is reporting that an Assyrian pastor the Iranian government had accused of “converting Muslims” is being tortured in prison and threatened with execution, sources close to the case said.

The CDN story said that State Security agents on Feb. 2 arrested the Rev. Wilson Issavi, 65, shortly after he finished a house meeting at a friend’s home in Isfahan, 208 miles (335 kilometers) south of Tehran.

According to Farsi Christian News Network, Issavi’s wife, Medline Nazanin, recently visited her husband in prison, where she saw that he had obvious signs of torture. Iranian intelligence officials told Nazanin that her husband might be executed for his alleged activities.

“Issavi is the pastor of The Evangelical Church of Kermanshah in Isfahan, a 50-year-old church body affiliated with The Assemblies of God that caters to the local Assyrian population,” said the CDN story. “One regional analyst, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Iranian government is set on crushing religious freedom within the country.

For the rest of the story, click here…

http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2010/s10030039.htm

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By AINA

(AINA) — Fear has gripped the inhabitants of the upper Egyptian village of Sheikh Telada in Samalout, 250 kilometers south of Cairo, as they anticipate collective punishment against them by the village Muslims, in the wake of two sectarian incidents which took place in the village during February. They fear their fate would be similar to that of Farshout, Nag Hamadi and Bahgoura, where Muslims destroyed, burnt and looted Coptic homes and properties prompted by incidents provoked by Muslims against only one Copt.

State security forces have forced the Coptic villagers to remain indoors, and place a news blackout on the village. The presence of state security in the area is viewed with suspicion. Activist Mariam Ragy of the advocacy group Katibatibia sees in their presence “a way to keep Copts prisoners in their own homes and not for their own protection.” Rafaat Samir of the Egyptian Union Human Rights Organization sees in it a slow death for the Coptic villagers. “Is the state security incapable of protecting the Copts so as to force them to remain indoors and abandon their work and schools?” asks Coptic activist Wagih Yacoub. “Is security so powerless every time the Copts are placed under siege by a mob imposing collective punishment on all village Copts?”

The first incident took place on February 2, 2010, when Coptic Zarif Elia and his wife were driving along the agricultural road, when they were followed by three men who stopped them and tried to rape his wife, after beating them both with batons. During the altercation, Zarif hit one of the perpetrators on the nose, and fled with his wife. A few hours later Zarif was accused of killing Basem Abul-Eid, one of the Muslim attackers.

For the rest of the story, click here…

http://www.aina.org/news/20100308205359.htm

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By CBC

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has defended the role of Canada’s spy service in the questioning of Afghan prisoners, saying the agency respects its “international obligations at all times.”

The prime minister’s defence of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service came in response to fresh calls from opposition leaders for a public inquiry into Afghan detainee transfers amid media reports detailing CSIS’s previously undisclosed role in the interrogation of suspected Taliban fighters.

During Monday’s question period, Harper chided the opposition for unfairly accusing “public servants” of concealing documents related to the Afghan detainee affair and said his government is providing further assurances with the appointment of retired Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci to review the documents.

For the rest of the story, click here…

http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/03/08/politics-question-period.html

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By Michael Ireland

LAGOS, NIGERIA (ANS) – An uneasy calm prevailed in Plateau state, Nigeria today following the killing of hundreds of Christians early yesterday morning in three farming villages near Jos by ethnic Fulani Muslims.

According to Compass Direct News, the mostly ethnic Berom victims included many women and children killed with machetes by rampaging Fulani herdsmen. About 75 houses were also burned.

Compass Direct News says that State Information Commissioner Gregory Yenlong confirmed that about 500 persons were killed in the attacks, which took place mainly in Dogo Nahawa, Zot and Rastat villages.

The assailants reportedly came on foot from a neighboring state to beat security forces that had been alerted of a possible attack on the villages but did not act beforehand.

Compass Direct News says the attack on Sunday is the latest in several religious clashes in the state in recent months that have claimed lives and property. Plateau state is a predominantly Christian state in a country almost evenly divided between Christians and Muslims. The Muslim minority has been contesting ownership of some parts of the state, leading to frequent clashes.

For the rest of the story, click here…

http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2010/s10030032.htm

Posted under News