Pope calls for global solidarity soon after catastrophic quake in Turkey, Syria

A radical Hindu group in India has requested the govt to halt exclusive benefits for tribal individuals who transformed to Christianity or Islam. The connect with arrived as two Christian-vast majority states – Meghalaya and Nagaland – are scheduled to hold state elections at the close of February.

Indian governing administration runs affirmative action plans for deprived communities formally stated as Scheduled Tribes. Thousands and thousands of folks from the ethnic tribal communities on the listing are suitable for social welfare added benefits like instructional scholarships and career quotas in federal government establishments.

Tribal people pray in Ranchi following the Jharkhand government handed a resolution to identify their tribal faith on Nov. 11, 2020. (Image: supplied)

The Hindu group ideas to maintain a mass demonstration at Guwahati town of Assam and march to the condition funds Dispur, on Sunday, to desire federal and point out governments make constitutional amendments to protect against tribal Christians from drawing the advantages.

Christian leaders alleged that the Hindu group’s desire is a political conspiracy to create divisions among the tribal persons on religious lines.

Pakistani Catholics paid tributes to previous armed forces chief and ex-President Common Pervez Musharraf, hailing him for his statesmanship and assistance to the country’s religious minorities.

Musharraf died very last Sunday in Dubai at the age of 79. He dominated the strife-torn South Asian nation for approximately a 10 years following seizing power in a bloodless coup in 1999. He headed the region at the time when the United States began the global war on terror in the aftermath of the 9/11 assaults.

St Pope John Paul II with Basic Pervez Musharraf throughout a assembly in the Vatican City on Sept. 30, 2004. (Photo: file)

Father Inayat Barnard, the chaplain of Caritas Pakistan, remembered Basic Musharraf as a great statesman who attempted to make the nation cost-free from terrorism and corruption. Bishop Yousaf Sohan of Multan remembered the late president for supporting susceptible spiritual minorities.

Musharraf was born in Delhi in British India on Aug. 11, 1943. His loved ones and millions of other Muslims migrated to Pakistan pursuing the British-imposed partition of India in 1947. He studied in church-operate institutes in advance of joining the army in 1961.

Hong Kong’s prosecutors accused 47 pro-democracy activists which includes previous lawmakers of subversion and conspiracy in opposition to the city’s govt.

Throughout the largest demo underneath the repressive national protection legislation that started on Monday, state prosecutors alleged that the defendants experienced plotted to use their the greater part in the city’s legislature as a “lethal constitutional weapon.” Amongst the defendants, 16 pleaded not responsible to the cost of conspiracy to commit subversion, while 31 pleaded guilty.

Benny Tai, a authorized scholar and politician in Hong Kong is between 47 pro-democracy figures accused of subversion and conspiracy from the govt in the city’s biggest nationwide stability trial. (File photograph: AFP)

Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Anthony Chau in his opening remarks of the demo urged the courtroom to contemplate the 2019 anti-extradition bill unrest as a applicable context in the situation. He reported the unrest led to escalating violence, vandalism, and arson.

If observed guilty of the crimes, the defendants face lifetime imprisonment beneath the Beijing-imposed Nationwide Security Regulation enacted in 2020. Critics say Beijing’s repressive plan has cast a deadly blow to the autonomy, standard freedoms and legal rights folks in the former British colony relished below the “one nation, two systems” framework.

Users of a Protestant Property Church in northern China, forcibly shut down final 12 months, launched a prayer marketing campaign for the very well-becoming of detained pastors, leaders, and their spouse and children associates amid a government crackdown.

Five prayer requests were being despatched to the associates as the authorities in the Yadou district of Shanxi province have ongoing an investigation into the Linfen Covenant Property Church. The church and a church-operate college ended up shut down very last November, citing unauthorized spiritual and academic routines.

A Church is seen at Linfen in China’s northern Shaanxi province in this file picture. Associates of the Linfen Covenant Residence Church have circulated prayer requests for the nicely-remaining of detained leaders and pastors amid a government crackdown. (Photograph: China Christian Everyday)

Past August, police arrested the church’s preachers – Li Jie and Han Xiaodong – and positioned them less than house arrest. Later, subsequent interrogations of church users, police arrested Wang Qiang, a leader, and co-employee of the church.

The a few arrested were billed with “fraud” allegedly primarily based on testimonies of church associates that they “defrauded” congregants by way of tithings and choices. The church reportedly came beneath hearth right after the leaders refused to join the point out-operate 3-Self Patriotic Movement.

In conflict-torn Myanmar, an additional Catholic Church was strike by military forces. Two artillery shells fell on Our Woman of Sorrow Church in Pekhon diocese pursuing powerful preventing among the navy and rebel teams in Christian-majority Kayah state final Saturday.