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FEATURES |
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DELHI / NCR |
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DEBATE ON ‘VULGAR’ SALARIES: THE WEALTHY VERSUS THE
POOR
New Delhi: As expected the Corporate
Affair Minister Salman Khurshid’s counsel to companies
on October 4 to refrain from paying ‘vulgar salaries’ to
CEOs has sparked not merely a debate but a storm of
protests. Under the new policy of liberalization, it is
understood that better workers can hope for better
remuneration and that incentives will be provided for
industries to develop. And India has seen better results
on the economic front thanks to the new policy initiated
by Narasimha Rao and Dr Manmohan Singh. They are no
longer apologetic about discarding socialistic
principles as regards economic development.
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ACQUITTALS IN ORISSA A MATTER OF CONCERN
NEW DELHI (Compass Direct News) – Only 24
people have been convicted a year after anti-Christian
mayhem took place in India’s Orissa state, while the
number of acquittals has risen to 95, compounding the
sense of helplessness and frustration among surviving
Christians. Dr. John Dayal, secretary general of the All
India Christian Council, called the trials “a travesty
of justice.”
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ANNUAL CELEBRATION CONDUCTED
New Delhi: Scores of believers dedicated
their lives with tea rs
for doing ministry in un-reached areas of India and
Nepal during the concluding session of the 17th annual
celebration of Shalom Assembly of God Church, Munirka at
Mt. Carmel Sr. School auditorium, Anand Niketan. Pastor
Ezekiel Joshua was challenging the audience to be “a
soldier known unto God” in the spiritual battle field.
Citing the inscription in a war memorial, he exhorted
the believers to carry the gospel even to difficult
places.
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'DELHIITES MUST CHANGE BEHAVIOUR BEFORE COMMON WEALTH
GAMES'
Delhiites, change the way you behave! This was the
message Home Minister P. Chidambaram gave to Delhiites
on Tuesday ahead of the Commonwealth Games next year. He
pointed out that Germany and China had made enormous
efforts to change their citizens’ habits before hosting
mega sporting events.
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UN SET TO TREAT CASTE AS HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION
NEW DELHI: If the recent genome study
denying the Aryan-Dravidian divide has established the
antiquity of caste segregations in marriage, the ongoing
session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva looks
set to recognize caste-based discrimination as a human
rights violation. This, despite India’s opposition and
following Nepal’s breaking ranks on the culturally
sensitive issue.
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NATIONAL |
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CHRISTIAN ASSAULTED AND KIDNAPPED IN LUDHIANA
Ludhiana: Five Hindu extremists on 6
October beat and kidnapped a Christian worker, Vijay
Kumar, at Samral Chowk in Ludhiana. AICC correspondent,
Rev Isaac Dutta reported that at about 7:30 a.m., Vijay
Kumar was distributing gospel tracts when five men
arrived in a jeep, forcefully took him inside the
vehicle and mercilessly assaulted him.
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PASTOR VARTE ARRESTED IN VASAI
Mumbai: Philip Varte, a pastor from Vasai
Talika of Thane District, Maharashtra, was arresed on
October 1, 2009. The police did not cite any reason for
the arrest. It is suspected that the pastor was arrested
because he was wrongly identified as the person behind
some fight that took place in a neighbouring village. A
few people had been injured as a result of this fight.
The police have therefore, it is said, arrested him
charging him with an attempt to murder.
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CHRISTIAN AGENCIES FOCUS ON FLOOD RELIEF
It is one of the worst floods to hit South India and
Church-based relief agencies are wasting no time in
mobilizing aid to the stranded and homeless. According
to news reports, heavy rain in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh
and Maharashtra has displaced close to 1.5 people and
has killed at least 280 people.
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NEPAL CHURCH COLLAPSE KILLS 23 INCLUDING ONE INDIAN
In a very shocking incident, 23 people including one
Indian were reported crushed when a makeshift church
building collapsed in eastern Nepal. According to
reports, the incident at the town of Dharan occurred as
thousands of people gathered for a Christian convention
when the three-storey bamboo structure collapsed killing
dozens and injuring 63.
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CHRISTIANS BEGIN TO REBUILD THEIR LIVES IN ORISSA:
WCC
Christian villagers are rebuilding their lives and
relationships more than a year after being attacked by a
group of Hindu extremists in the eastern Indian state of
Orissa. A World Council of Churches (WCC) Living Letters
team travelled recently to Kandhamal, Orissa in
solidarity with the victims of the violence that broke
out following the murder of the hard-line Hindu leader
Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, 23 August 2008.
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HALF OF INDIAN STUDENTS DON’T GO BEYOND STD X
At least 48 of every 100 students in India pursuing
secondary education never go beyond that level, the
World Bank said on Tuesday, pointing out that the
country was doing worse than Vietnam and Bangladesh in
enrolling students in secondary education. “Thirty seven
percent students fail before the final examination and
11 percent drop out during the period (class 9-12),” the
World Bank study released said.
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FIRST LIFE SENTENCES HANDED DOWN FOR ORISSA KILLINGS
A fast-track court in Orissa state on Sept. 23 delivered
its first life sentences for those convicted of murder
in 2008 violence in Kandhamal district, sentencing five
people to life imprisonment for their involvement in the
killing of Pastor Akbar Digal. Digal, 40, pastor of a
Baptist church in Tatamaha village under Raikia police
jurisdiction in Kandhamal district, was killed on Aug.
26, 2008 after refusing the slayers’ demand that he
forsake Christianity and convert to Hinduism. His body
was reportedly cut to pieces and then burned.
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CHRISTIAN COUNCIL EXPRESSES GRIEF AT KERALA BOAT
TRAGEDY
A Christian council has expressed grief at the boat
tragedy in Kerala’s Idukki district that claimed the
lives of 39 people on September 30. According to
reports, the mishap occurred when a Kerala state-run
boat carrying 76 tourists capsized in a lake in the
Periyar wildlife sanctuary in central Kerala. The Global
Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) said it is “mourning
with the bereaved family members and friends of the dead
ones in this tragedy.”
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CALL FOR END TO CASTE DISCRIMINATION, EVEN WITHIN
CHURCHES
As the United Nations declares caste-based
discrimination a human rights violation, Indian
Christian leaders have called on the churches to confess
that the caste system has not been fully removed from
their own communities. The call came as senior
representatives of the National Council of Churches in
India (NCCI) met last week to discuss the churches’
response to poverty and exclusion on the International
Day of Prayer for Peace.
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NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER HIGHLIGHTS 'DEMOGRAPHIC
WINTER'
Oct. 8 /Christian Newswire — In a
front-page story in its October 4-10 edition (“Where Are
The Children? World Is ‘Running Out of People,’
Documentary Warns”), The National Catholic Register
gives a high-profile coverage to “Demographic Winter”
and its sequel, “Demographic Bomb.”
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WORLD |
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KIDNAPPED CHRISTIAN DOCTOR RELEASED IN NORTHERN IRAQ:
POLICE
MOSUL, Iraq — A Christian doctor abducted
by an armed gang overnight from her home near the
northern Iraqi city of Mosul was released on Sunday
evening, police said. Mahasin Bashir was freed at around
6 pm (1500 GMT) in the town of Baashiqa, 15 kilometres
from her home in the predominantly Christian locality of
Bartala.
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WILL THIS CHRISTIAN BE BRITAIN’S NEXT PM?
MANCHESTER, England, Oct 8 (Reuters) -
Opposition leader David Cameron, tipped in polls to be
Britain’s next prime minister, promised voters a
brighter future with more control over their lives on
Thursday but said they must first endure the pain of
sharp cuts in public spending. Cameron said that unless
quick action was taken to stem a record government
deficit, Britain risked prolonging the recession and
that British authorities needed to stop printing money
to avoid igniting inflation.
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TEACHING CHILDREN THE BIBLE JUST GOT EASIER
TEANECK, New Jersey, Oct. 3 /Christian Newswire —
Combining the latest in 3D digital computer graphic art
along with short snippets of easy-to-understand Biblical
narratives, Creation By Design released a series of
Bible trading cards that will change the Biblical
“edu-tertainment” world. “My Bible Cards” is designed to
help parents and educators teach children the Bible
without compromising on the Word of God and the latest
art trends in the trading card industry.
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SAMOANS FLOCK TO CHURCHES TO MOURN TSUNAMI VICTIMS
LALOMANU, Samoa — Hundreds of survivors of
the Samoas tsunami gathered at a church on high ground
to mourn lost relatives, while pledging to rebuild their
obliterated communities after a disaster that killed 177
people. The Congregational Christian Church of Lalomanu
was packed with about 1,000 people, including relatives
from Australia and New Zealand and rescue workers, for a
belated funeral service Sunday for 52 friends and loved
ones. A national prayer service also was held in
neighboring American Samoa.
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INDONESIAN QUAKE TOLL RISES
PADANG, Indonesia — The death toll from
Indones ia’s
massive earthquake will likely double as officials on
Saturday reached rural communities wiped out by
landslides that buried more than 600 people under
mountains of mud, most of them guests at a wedding
celebration. Virtually nothing remained of four villages
that had dotted the hillside of the Padang Pariman
district in Indonesia’s West Sumatra just three days
ago, said officials and an Associated Press photographer
who flew over the devastated area.
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NZ VOTES AGAINST CHILD SMACK BAN
New Zealanders in August 2009 voted by a wide margin in
favour of allowing parents to smack their children, two
years after a law banned discipline by force. The
legislation was brought in two years ago to try to lower
the country’s high rate of child abuse. The referendum
asked: “Should a smack as part of good parental
correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?”
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PAKISTAN WILL OVERCOME RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION,
ZARDARI TELLS POPE
Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari has promised Pope
Benedict XVI Thursday that discrimination based on
religion will be overcome in his country; amid a call by
Christian organisations to start movement against
blasphemy law this month. President Zardari and the Pope
were meeting at the pontiff’s summer residence in Castel
Gandolfo, Italy, where they discussed topics including
security and freedom of religion.
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CHURCHES CHALLENGED TO BREAK SILENCE ON DOMESTIC
VIOLENCE
Congregations and clergy need to stop hiding their heads
in the sand and pretending domestic violence isn’t
happening in their communities. This month (October)
cities, schools and faith-based groups across the USA
are drawing attention to domestic violence, which some
are calling a pandemic.
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RUSSIA: “YOU HAVE THE LAW, WE HAVE ORDERS”
Two Baptist preachers in Russia’s Baltic Sea exclave of
Kaliningrad have been fined after their community “sang
psalms and spoke about Christ” in the street, they have
told Forum 18 News Service. Speaking on condition of
anonymity, a source in the Kaliningrad police told Forum
18 that all public gatherings – whether political or
religious – must be sanctioned by the municipal
authorities in advance. “But they didn’t have permission
and they had no intention of getting it!” he remarked,
clearly irritated by the Baptists’ actions.
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THE GOSPEL IN ORAL TRADITION
Most of the world’s people live in oral cultures. They
learn about their history and transmit their values
through song, chant, story, and drama. But when they
listen to the Bible, oral people don’t separate
themselves from the stories. As they listen, they are
drawn in and find themselves walking alongside Jesus.
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BIBLE VERSES BANNED FROM GEORGIA SCHOOL FOOTBALL
FIELD
ORT OGLETHORPE, Ga. — The Warriors of
Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High took the field on Friday
night without any Bible verses written on the
cheer-leaders’ banner. Instead, the football team ran
through a banner that read “This is Big Red Country”
before each bent on a knee to pray on the field of Tommy
Cash Stadium.
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ALSO IN THIS
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PRAISE THE ALMIGHTY
10 YEARS CELEBRATION
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