A program in Alabama that was supposed to allow offenders to choose between going to church for a year, or serving a term in jail and paying a fine, was temporarily delayed after a civil rights group issued a letter of objection.

The Operation Restore Our Community, an initiative in Bay Minette, Alabama by Municipal Judge Bayless E. Biles, was supposed to begin this week.

Operation ROC would have allowed first-time nonviolent offenders to choose between church (and a range of other alternatives including community service) and jail in an effort to address jail overcrowding.

Under the program, if offenders choose the church option, they will have to go to service for one year and then answer questions about the day’s service. Offenders will also have to report to police and a clergy member every week, for tracking purposes, rather than for measuring morality. If they follow the program rules, their case will be dismissed.

Under Operation ROC participants are free to drop out of the program at any time. If they do, they can request before a judge an alternative sentencing option.

Rowland told Reuters, “Operation ROC is completely voluntary. It’s not an issue of ‘Go to church, or go to jail.’ It’s ‘Here’s another alternative to consider,’ and the offenders themselves get to make the decision.”

ACLU protest

However, a cease and desist letter sent by the American Civil Liberties Union resulted in its postponement. The ACLU claimed the program violates the first amendment, and demanded that it be dismantled because it violates both the Alabama and U.S. constitutions.

ACLU attorney Heather Weaver told ABC News, “Even if the city offers other sentencing alternatives that are comparable to Operation ROC … the First Amendment still prohibits the government from becoming entangled in core religious exercise, which includes attending church. The government may not serve as a conduit for church recruitment.”

The initiative is currently undergoing legal review. Bay Minette’s Mayor, Jamie Tillery, told ABC News in an email, “The city will ask the Alabama Attorney General to review the program as well. The city will reserve further comment until these reviews have been completed.”

Weaver told ABC News that if the program pushes through, the ACLU may consider litigation.

Bay Minette’s police chief, Mike Rowland told WKRG, “We believe it is legal. We believe it is a great program. We’re going to stick with this and we’re going to move forward with it.” He said the program is likely to proceed in a few weeks.

Rowland told Reuters, “There is no question it is within the purview of the law. It’s not about trying to save anybody. It’s about giving them access to community resources that can help them make better choices in their lives.”

A range of alternatives

Bay Minette court clerk Hugh “Trey” Dickson told Reuters that first-time offenders usually commit traffic violations. Under the program, they can choose among several alternatives to jail, including community service. If they choose the church option, they can choose which church they want to attend. To date, some 56 churches from different denominations have enlisted on the program.

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A letter from the wife of a blind activist in China was released recently by ChinaAid, detailing the torture and beatings that she and her husband have been subject to since he was placed under house arrest.

Yuan Weijing, wife of blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, said in her handwritten letter that her husband and she had been abused and beaten to unconsciousness by dozens of plainclothes men led by a local Communist leader. Afterwards, they were denied medical treatment, Reuters reported.

Bob Fu, president of ChinaAid, slammed the cruelty and called on the international community for support saying, “Peaceful legal advocates, like Chen Guangcheng, can be beaten, jailed and tortured, but they will not disappear unless the international community is silent.”

Fu added, “This is unacceptable from a country that claims to follow the rule of law. The international community, including the Obama administration, should call China to account.”

House arrest

Chen had been in jail for four years, and last September was placed under house arrest. In 2005, Chen exposed abuses committed by the government through its population control policy, including forced sterilization and late-term abortions, the AFP said.

However, the police claimed that he was jailed for disruption of traffic due to a protest and damage to property. Chen and his family say the charges are false, Reuters reported.

Chen is a self-taught lawyer who has been blind since childhood. He often advised neighbors who complained of various abuses including land grabs, according to Reuters.

Video

Torture was stepped up against the family, including Chen’s mother and his daughter, since last February, after a surreptitiously-made video was released by ChinaAid which showed the conditions of Chen and his family under house arrest, Reuters reported.

Fu, president of ChinaAid, told Reuters that Yuan’s letter was smuggled through “very reliable persons,” and added that the handwriting matches previous correspondence by Yuan.

International support needed

Yuan said that on Feb. 18, (one week after the secret video was released), some 80 plainclothes men led by Zhang Jian, vice secretary of the town’s Communist Party, forcibly entered their home.

The men, who did not produce any legal documents, beat and tortured the couple for more than two hours. “More than 10 men covered me totally with a blanket and kicked my ribs and all over my body,” Yuan wrote.

“After half an hour’s non-stop torture, I finally squeezed my head out of the blanket. I saw more than 10 men surrounded Chen Guangcheng, torturing him. Some of them twisted his arms forcefully while the others pushing his head down and lifting his collar up tightly,” she wrote in her letter.

After the beatings, Yuan described the following injuries: “My left eyebrow bone and one of my bottom left ribs might be broken. My left eye lost vision for 5-6 days because of the bruise, blood in the white of my eye, and swollenness. Even today, I still cannot stand with my body straight and I suffer pain when breathing,” according to the letter.

She wrote in her letter that they were not allowed to receive medical aid, except for a one-time injection that Yuan was allowed to be given from a village doctor. Yuan also said the men took away their video camera, audio tape recorder, chargers, flashlight and computer.

Yuan then narrated the following sequence of events:

• Mar. 3: Their windows were sealed with metal sheets.
• Mar. 6: Electric power was shut off.
• Mar. 7: Guards came at midnight and cut the TV antenna.
• Mar. 8: Electric power was returned. However, Zhang Jiang led some 50 men into the house to get old computers, DVD
  player, remotes, all materials on Chen’s case and handwritten materials. Zhang also punched Yuan because she said they were stealing.
• Mar. 17: Zhang Jiang led some 50 men into their home and took away books, photos of the children on the wall, a calendar, Chen’s blind cane, old power plugs, wires, antenna and papers.
• Mar. 22: Two video cameras were installed in the family home and courtyard.

Yuan said their five-year-old daughter is also under house arrest and the men took her toys and books. Chen’s mother was also monitored even when she worked in the field as a farmer. By mid March, she was not allowed to leave the house at all.

Yuan also said that Chen suffers from long-term diarrhea and the blood is now dark instead of its former red color. The guards have been threatening to move the family to an empty courtyard, she wrote in the letter.

Foreign journalists who have tried to visit Chen have been forced away and calls to local government offices by journalists and to China’s Foreign Ministry are not answered, Reuters said.

To see the video footage that was made last Feb. 9, and which initiated the latest rash of abuse, go to www.chinaaid.org/2011/02/exclusive-video-shows-ill-treatment.html.

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A study headed by Paul Riley and a team from University College London showed that dormant repair cells in the hearts of adult mice can be reactivated by transforming dormant cells from the epicardium with the injection of thymosin beta 4, according to Reuters.

It has yet to be seen whether similar results can be elicited in human hearts, and the research is still in a very early stage. However, it does indicate that there is the possibility that a drug could be developed that can prompt hearts that have undergone cardiac arrest into self repair, Reuters said.

The research was funded by the British Heart Foundation. Dr. Peter Weissberg, medical director said, “We have always believed that the heart has no capacity to heal itself, but this research suggests that this is not the case. We think we have discovered a natural process that brings about repair of the heart,” according to theheart.org.

Weissberg said in a press conference, “Until now, this has been science fiction. We are trying to understand what the triggers are for this process. The cells that are capable of this healing are already there in the epicardium. They just need to be tweaked and primed and the effect scaled up. If this works, we might be able to heal cardiac injury caused by heart attacks without resorting to stem cells,” theheart.org reported.

Riley, who heads the research team, told Reuters, “I could envisage a patient known to be at risk of a heart attack taking an oral tablet…which would prime their heart so that if they had a heart attack the damage could be repaired.”

Regeneration of heart tissue

In recent years, the number of deaths caused by heart attacks has gone down with medical advances. What has yet to be addressed is debilitation caused by the incidence of heart failure leading to a specific accumulation of dead heart tissue, Reuters reported.

Presently, mechanical devices are used in such case, or a transplant. But Riley’s study, which came out in the June 8, 2011, online publication Nature, targeted progenitor cells from the epicardium, or outer layer in the heart, Reuters said.

Riley said he targeted these progenitor cells because in an embryo, they become cardiomyocytes. “During pregnancy, these cells contribute to heart muscle and coronary blood vessels,” theheart.org reported.

Riley added, “In the adult, these cells sit in a dormant state. We think there is a possibility that these cells might be able to be activated to switch on the embryonic gene that causes them to make new myocardial cells,” according to theheart.org.

Thymosin beta 4

Riley found out that by injecting the healthy hearts of adult mice with thymosin beta 4, they can be “primed” to repair themselves after damage, according to Reuters.

After injecting the healthy hearts of the adult mice with thymosin beta 4, the researchers initiated heart attacks in the mice. They then gave the same mice another booster dose of thymosin beta 4. This prompted the transformation of dormant progenitor cells into cardiomycytes, Reuters said.

Riley said, “These cardiomycytes can link into the existing muscle of the heart and they home to the area of injury. [T]hey are also both structurally and functionally coupled to the heart, and therefore represent a bona fide source of new heart muscle,” Reuters reported.

The mice who received the treatment experienced a 25 percent improvement in the heart’s ejection fraction. There was also a reduction of myocardial scarring and remodeling, theheart.org said.

Preemptive treatment

Attempts are being made to see if the treatment will be effective on human cells. However, Riley emphasized that the treatment is primarily preemptive. It must be applied before heart injury, according to theheart.org.

Riley said, “We would need to treat patients at high risk of having a heart attack before that heart attack occurred. That is the key. The idea would be to identify these high-risk individuals and then give them this medication that would keep them their cells in a primed state, so that if an MI occurs repair would occur,” according to theheart.org.

Weissberg said, “If we could achieve a 25 percent increase in ejection fraction in humans, that would be a substantial effect. However, we rarely see in [humans] the same benefit as is shown in animal studies. But even if we could achieve a 10% improvement, that would make a major difference to quality of life,” theheart.org reported.

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The daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. announced recently that she is leaving a megachurch that she has been with for eight years to pursue her own ministry.

Bernice King, the youngest daughter of the late civil rights leader, said in a radio program in Praise 102.5 that she will leave New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, headed by the controversial Bishop Eddie Long, to begin a ministry of her own.

King, who is an ordained minister, did not give details of her plans, but said, “I’m not calling it a church right now,” the AP reported.

Last year Long was sued by four young men who accused him of coercing them into engaging in sex acts with him. However, last week the lawyer for the men said the matter had been “resolved” out of court, Reuters said.

Pastoral calling

When asked about the timing of King’s announcement she said, “I’ve always followed what I believed to be the voice of God and I’ve sought to be obedient to that voice. I know that I have a pastoral calling on my life and I have to accept it. I’m in the process of pursuing that,” The Christian Post reported.

King said on the radio program, “I did what I felt what was appropriate in leadership, which was sit down and talk with him and gave him the timetable of when I would leaving. I didn’t just leave. That was the decision the Holy Spirit placed in my heart, which was Sunday, May 29. I have never wavered from that,” according to The Christian Post.

King also said that she had spoken to Long about her choice to leave so that she could start her own ministry, which she felt a strong leaning to do especially after her mother died in 2006, according to Reuters.

In a statement, Long said that he had been “in discussion and prayer” with King for some time, and that she wished to pursue the legacy of her parents, according to the AP.

Long said in his statement, “I am in full support of her decision to leave New Birth in pursuit of this worthy endeavor. Reverend Bernice King has made tremendous and profound contributions to New Birth as an elder and faithful servant. We ask that you join us in extending unequivocal support and love for Reverend King as she embarks on this new calling,” the AP reported.

Gratitude

King said that she is grateful to Long and to New Birth for having helped her weather many difficult events in her life, in particular the deaths of her mother, Coretta Scott King, and her sister.

King said on the radio program, “I want to thank him and all the New Birth family for all their love and support for all the time I was at New Birth and for all of their prayers,” The Christian Post reported.

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Thousands of Christians in Sudan fled their homes in an oil-rich border town that was seized recently by the Muslim majority North.

The Sudanese Armed Forces launched bomb attacks and a ground invasion in Abyei town, successfully driving away “enemy forces,” including Christians and the South’s Sudan People’s Liberation Army, Reuters said.

Philip Aguer, SPLA spokesman said, “Abyei town is now under control of the SAF. They came with tanks.” At least three other villages were also bombed, Reuters reported.

The SAF used Antonov aircraft and long range artillery, striking a number of civilian neighborhoods, Worthy News reported.

Secession

Abyei town had been under dispute between the Muslim-majority North and the Christian majority South, and tensions heightened when the latter voted to secede in a referendum in January, which is expected to be implemented on July 9.

Christian-majority Southern Sudan voted for independence in the referendum, which comprised part of a 2005 peace pact between the North and the South after decades of civil war where some two million people died.

Abyei, which is rich in oil, was supposed to participate in the January referendum. The residents were supposed to vote on whether the town would become part of the South or the North. However, disputes arose regarding who could vote, and the referendum in Abyei did not push through.

With the recent invasion, many Christians and civilians of other faiths were killed, and thousands of Christians have been displaced, including some 20,000 who crossed the Kiir river and took refuge underneath trees, Worthy News said.

Christian persecution in Darfur

The melee in Abyei has also contributed to attacks by Muslim forces on Christian refugees in the Darfur Region, northwestern Sudan, where evangelist Hawa Abdalla Muhammad Saleh was arrested on charges of possessing and distributing bibles in Abu Shouk camp for Internally Displaced Persons, Worthy News reported.

Saleh was reportedly removed from the camp, which is situated in Al-Fashir, North Darfur, to Khartoum by security agents. If she is tried for apostasy, she may face a death sentence, according to Worthy News.

There is concern that extremists and other groups may be taking advantage of the fragile situation in Sudan with intent to further destabilize the country, leading to possible civil war, Worthy News said.

The U.S. slammed the SAF invasion of Abyei, and urged Khartoum to withdraw its forces. In a statement the White House said, “Failure to do so could set back the process of normalizing relations between Sudan and the United States and inhibit the international community’s ability to move forward on issues critical to Sudan’s future,” Reuters reported.

The UN Mission in Sudan called for dialogue between the North and the South in a statement saying, “We strongly encourage all parties to resume dialogue towards reaching a lasting political settlement,” Reuters reported.

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The Presbyterian Church voted recently to permit openly gay men and women to be ordained as members of the clergy, making it the fourth U.S. Protestant denomination to do so.

The deciding vote was cast by the Twin Cities Presbyterian church at a vote of 205 to 56 (with three abstentions). This made
Twin Cities the 87^th presbytery to support the new policy on openly gay clergy, that was introduced last summer by the national assembly, Star Tribune said.

Under the rules of the church, a majority of the total of 173 presbyteries in the U.S. must vote to support new policies by the national assembly prior to its final approval. While 87 presbyteries agreed with the new policy, which takes effect on July 10, some 62 other presbyteries disapproved of it.

With the new rules, the Presbyterian Church (USA) which has up to three million members, will allow the ordination of openly gay members to serve as elders and deacons as well, Reuters said.

Near tears

Rev. Timothy Hart-Anderson, founder of Covenant Network of Presbyterians and pastor of downtown Minneapolis’ Westminster Presbyterian told Star Tribune, “It’s very exciting. I found myself welling up with tears.”

Hart-Anderson told Star Tribune, “Up until now they’ve had to be closeted. Now they’ll be able to come out. It will honor them as individuals and as full human beings like anyone else serving the church.”

Not everybody is happy with the new policy. Peter Hwang of Korean Presbyterian Church told Star Tribune, “It’s very unfortunate we have to have this discussion today. I think we should be ashamed of ourselves. This homosexual issue is breaking our church. We need to abide by Scripture.”

The issue of the ordination of openly gay clergy had rendered sharp divisions in the Presbyterian Church in the last five years, with some 100 congregations leaving the denomination out of a total of 11,000 congregations, according to Reuters.

One issue cited by critics is the Presbyterian Church USA’s constitution, which stated that its clergy are required to live “in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness,” Reuters said.

However, the new policy overrides this and re-casted the former language to simply saying that clergy are required to live “joyfully submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ,” Star Tribune said.

Other denominations that accept ordination of people in same-gender relationships are The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (the largest Lutheran group in the U.S.), The United Church of Christ (which also allows same-sex marriage), and the
Episcopal Church.

On the other hand, the country’s biggest mainline Protestant denomination, The United Methodist Church (with eight million members), continues to disallow ordination of openly gay clergy and is likely to continue to require celibacy for unmarried ministers, Star Tribune said.

With the present vote it is expected that a 2008 controversy over Rev. Erwin Barron, former associate pastor of Westminster Presbyterian church, should be resolved, according to Star Tribune.

Barron, who is now a professor at a college in San Francisco, caused a furor when in 2008 he married his gay partner. Critics said the act violated the church constitution.

Barron was acquitted by a panel with a 3-3 vote and retains his church credentials with the Twin Cities Area presbytery. It was largely thought that the ruling would be appealed, but with the adoption of the new policy, the issue is expected to become moot, Star Tribune said.

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Navy chaplains have been given clearance to perform same-sex marriages on the premises of military bases, according to a newly-released memo.

The April 13 memo was signed by the Navy’s Chief of Chaplains Rear Adm. Mark Tidd, and it will be enforced as soon as the Defense Department lifts a ban on openly gay people serving in the military, Reuters said.

However, some conservative members of congress say the memo violates another federal law, Reuters said, referring to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act which defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

Reservations have also been cited regarding the possibility that the religious belief of the chaplain may not agree with the union of two same sex people in marriage.

The memorandum was released by the Navy chaplain primarily to announce updated training for chaplains which will respond to new requirements upon the repeal of the ”don’t ask don’t tell” policy which disallows openly gay people to serve in the Navy, according to the Navy Times.

The ban on gay men and lesbians has been enforced for 17 years. It was repealed in December but is still in effect, and will continue to be, until new rules have been put in place with the expectant changes.

The Defense Department training guidelines do not mention marriage ceremonies for gay couples, but neither do they prohibit it. The Defense Department is expected to recognize openly gay military service this summer, Navy Times said.

The memo states, “a chaplain may officiate a same-sex, civil marriage if it is conducted in accordance with a state that permits same-sex marriage or union. If the base is located in a state where same-sex marriage is legal, then base facilities may normally be used to celebrate the marriage,” Reuters reported.

It does not follow, however, that same-sex married couples will be granted the same benefits of health and housing that married couples between a man and a woman have, the AP reported.

Navy spokeswoman Lt. Alana Garas told Reuters, “[The memo] emphasizes repeatedly that chaplains will not be required to officiate same-sex weddings if it’s contrary to the tenets of their faith.”

DOMA at issue

Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo), who chairs the House Armed Services sea power subcommittee, said the new guidelines are in conflict with DOMA, which defines marriage as “a union between one man and one woman,” Reuters reported.

In a statement Akin said, “This new guidance from the Navy clearly violates the law. While a state may legalize same-sex marriage, federal property and federal employees, like Navy chaplains, should not be used to perform marriages that are not recognized by federal law,” Navy Times reported.

Akin’s statement was signed by 62 other congressmen as well. It said, “My colleagues and I are calling on the Secretary of the Navy to make sure that the Navy actually follows the law,” according to Reuters.

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Kate Middleton’s recent confirmation to the Anglican Church has raised questions and doubts about the reason why she did it.

Middleton, who will marry Prince William on April 29, was baptized into the Church of England–but she had never undergone confirmation rites until just prior to her wedding, Alexander Chancellor wrote in The Guardian.

Furthermore, Chancellor noted in The Guardian, “[N]either [Kate Middleton] nor other members of her family appear until now to have been regular churchgoers.”

Middleton was confirmed by Bishop of London Richard Chartres, in private rites that were held in St. James Palace last March 10, according to The Telegraph. Also present were Middleton’s family and Prince William, Reuters reported. Chartres will also deliver the address during the wedding ceremony.

Chartres confirmed William in March 1997 at Windsor Castle when the heir to the throne was 14 years old. At the time, this was a departure from tradition as such royal services were usually done by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Reuters said.

The timing of Middleton’s confirmation raises speculation that the 29-year-old bride-to-be only did it because of her pending wedding. Chancellor wrote in The Guardian that if Middleton were truly serious about the Church of England she would have been confirmed much earlier.

Chancellor wrote in The Guardian that Middleton attended private boarding schools such as Downe House and the posh Marlborough College, where she would likely have been given the chance to receive confirmation rites when she was still in her teens.

Sources close to Middleton told The Daily Mail that the future bride was confirmed as a result of a “personal journey,” Chancellor wrote in The Guardian. However, he also muses on the fact that without the confirmation Middleton would not have been able to receive Holy Communion during the wedding ceremony.

Furthermore, in marrying Prince William she also becomes the wife of the “future Defender of the Faith,” Chancellor wrote in The Guardian, which raises suspicion that “she did it more for convenience than from conviction.”

Not so

Others however say that it is not so. Rowan Pelling wrote in The Telegraph that she can understand why Middleton might sincerely choose to be confirmed just before her wedding, as that was her own personal experience as well.

Pelling explains in her opinion piece in The Telegraph that in her personal case, it was the desire to have a church wedding that made her think it would be hypocritical on her part to do so without being personally committed to the church.

Pelling wrote in The Telegraph, “Like Kate, I was baptized into the Church of England while I was a baby, but, although my family attended church throughout my childhood, my mother believed confirmation was a decision for the individual.”

Pelling added that in her school there was “no real pressure to join the fold.” This, she says looking back, was a better approach as “it suffers the big children, as well as the little ones, to come unto it,” she wrote in The Telegraph.

Pelling wrote in The Telegraph, “Kate may have had some of the same conversations and wobbles of conscience that troubled me 16 years ago: that solemn vows have little weight unless you trouble yourself to consider the splendid solemnity of the forces that underpin them. It seems to me that one part of becoming an adult is to take responsibility for your faith, or, indeed, your lack of  it.”

In the 16^th century, King Henry VIII broke ties with the Roman Catholic Church and declared himself supreme head of The Church of England. Currently, Queen Elizabeth II holds this title, which will be passed on to William when he becomes king, Reuters reported.

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Christian missionaries in Russia are worried about what may happen in Russia after a bomb blast that rocked the international section of the country’s busiest airport, killing 35 and wounding some 130 others.

Pavel Tokarchuk, director of Russian Ministries Moscow told Worthy News that people are in a state of panic after the explosion that hit the crowded arrival terminals of Domodedovo airport.

Among those killed are eight foreigners including one from the U.K., a German, two Austrians, two Takiks, an Uzbek and a Ukranian, BBC News said. Some 50 of those injured are in serious condition and receiving hospital care.

Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, immediately fired a number of officials who are responsible for the security of the airport saying, “All the officials responsible for organizing the process must be brought to their senses,” BBC News reported.

Among those who were dismissed are Moscow’s police deputy head Maj. Gen. Vladimir Chugunov, and regional transport chief Andrei Alexeyev, who only took the post last year, BBC News said.

More people may be fired as the investigation by the prosecutor general continues to determine whether transport officials committed criminal negligence, according to BBC News.

Russian authorities had been warned one week earlier that an “act of terror” would occur in one of the capital city’s airports, BBC News said. So far no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but police are on the lookout for three suspects.

Past incidents

According to Reuters, the airport blasts are very similar to past work by Islamic rebels from the troubled Northern Caucasus region.

During New Year’s Eve, militants from the region planned a suicide bombing in the busy streets of Moscow. However, the bombs set off prematurely in the house that the bomber was renting, because her phone had received a spam text message, BBC reported.

In March last year, twin suicide bombings blamed on North Caucasus militants took place at two separate train stations in Moscow, killing 40. In Nov. 2009, a luxury express train from Moscow to St. Petersburg was bombed, killing 26, for which a North Caucasus Islamist group claimed responsibility, BBC said.

Heightened hatred, tensions

Ruslan Kurbanov of the Islamic Cultural Center of Russia in Moscow said, “With this attack, I think the alienation, fear, even hatred between people from the Caucasus and the rest of the residents in Russia will only grow stronger,” Reuters reported. Muslims comprise one seventh of Russia’s populace.

Days before the attack, hundreds of ethnic Russians took to the streets in support of a football fan who was killed by a native from North Caucasus. When police tried to contain the group, the latter began to attack people in a train who did not look Slavic, Reuters said.

Glen Howard, president of the Jamestown Foundation told Reuters, “The attacks in Moscow are going to further exacerbate the tensions created by the right-wing demonstrations in Moscow, and may result in further pogroms against and people from the North Caucasus.”

According to Worthy News, missionaries continue to monitor reports from militants who plan to step up the violence as Russia is preparing for its presidential elections in 2012.  

Russian Ministries told Worthy News that they have missionaries both in Moscow and the Northern Caucasus region, and in the latter case, they have delivered New Testaments and Christmas gifts to the area’s needy children.

Sources:

http://www.worthynews.com/9929-russias-missionaries-worried-as-suicide-blast-rocks-moscow-airport

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12284088

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70P31920110126?pageNumber=2

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Muslims in Afghanistan overran recently a UN compound leaving 20 dead, two of them beheaded, because of the “Christian” leader of a 12-member cult that burned a Quran.

The peaceful city of Mazar-i-Sharif became the scene of what may well be the worst attack against the UN in Afghanistan, where seven of the dead were UN staff and security guards, and two foreigners were beheaded, Reuters reported.

Pavel Yershov, Russia’s chief of mission in the city, was injured and is receiving hospital treatment. Initial reports say
a Romanian was also among the dead, according to Reuters.

The demonstration, which began peacefully, was against cult leader Terry Jones in Gainesville, Florida who in a mock trial against a Quran declared the book “guilty.” Jones’ assistant, Wayne Sapp, set the Quran on fire, Christian Today said.

Used by extremists

Governor Ata Mohammad Noor of Balkh province said extremists took advantage of the demonstration, using it as cover to attack the security guards, set parts of the compound on fire and climb up a wall to destroy a guard tower, Reuters said.

Noor told Reuters, “The insurgents have taken advantage of the situation to attack the UN compound,” adding that many of the protesters wielded guns. In the hours-long melee, five protesters were killed and 20 were wounded. Some 27 arrests were made.

Pilot city

The incident raised questions on plans to make Mazar-i-Sharif the pilot city in transferring security to national forces. The Afghan police and army failed to secure the UN and could not contain the crowd, Reuters said.

Requests for help during the skirmish were received by German troops in Balkh province, and the coalition led by NATO, Reuters reported.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the attack “outrageous and cowardly. Russia urged the Afghan government and coalition forces to “take all measures” in protecting UN workers. Romania’s foreign ministry condemned the attack, as did U.S. President Barack Obama and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Reuters said.

Pakistani Christians

Muslims in Pakistan also demonstrated against the cult’s burning of the Quran by burning an American flag and chanting anti-US slogans. Muslims also attacked St. Thomas church in Wah Cantt, trying to break in to set the church on fire. When they failed to do so, they fled, Christian Today said.

Father Yousaf, church pastor told Christian Today, “This is a reaction of the desecration of the Quran in Florida. Although the Catholic Church has officially condemned the incident and we have also displayed a banner outside the church condemning the incident, still the innocent people are facing the consequences.”

Despite a strong military presence in Wah Cantt and its proximity to the country’s only ammunitions factory, police have told churches in the area to hire Christian security guards and to install security cameras, Christian Today reported.

Nasir Saeed, coordinator of Center for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement in the UK, said the church attack is a consequence of the Quran burning by the cult in the US. He told Christian Today, “We fear that ill sentiment towards Christians in Pakistan could now escalate and lead to the destruction of life and our places of worship.”

Saeed told Christian Today, “Any actions by the West that are against Islam – or even perceived to be against Islam – inevitably lead to the worst consequences possible for innocent people, particularly Christians, living in majority-Muslim countries.”

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