A Pakistani anti-terrorism court has indicted 106 people in connection with the brutal murder of a Christian couple in November 2014.
The mob had falsely accused the couple of burning a Quran.
“The challan (charge-sheet) states that Maulvi Muhammad Hussain, Maulvi Arshad Baloch and Maulvi Noorul Hassan were involved in persistent provocative speeches against the couple which led to the assembly of 400 people as a mob who then burned Shama and Shahzad alive,” the Pakistan Daily Times reported .
“After the challan was presented at the hearing, the court also held Yousaf Gujjar, the owner of the brick kiln where the couple was beaten to death, responsible.”
Guijar had been angry that the couple had not repaid him money that he claimed the couple owned and set them up for blasphemy charges. He placed a few pages of a Quran in their trash singed as if the book had been burned.
An official with the International Christian Concern said that the incident shows the danger Christians in Pakistan face every day.
“The brutal killing of Shahzad and Shama once again highlights the extreme danger of religious fanaticism that Christians in Pakistan face on a regular basis. The accusation of blasphemy can be used for any dispute and can often prove deadly as it did today, inciting a mob to brutally murder this young couple.”
Rescuers working in Salgar, Columbia were stunned to find an 11-month-old baby alive after a landslide that left 78 people, including the baby’s mother, dead.
The infant, Jhosep Diaz, was in a padded crib. The water and mud slide picked up the baby’s crib which flowed like a raft and traveled more than half a mile. Doctors who treated the boy say that he was cold but basically unharmed by his adventure.
“He was unconscious and didn’t open his little eyes but was breathing,” Dr Jesus Antonio Guisao told the AP news agency.
The boy’s mother was found dead along with 11 other family members by rescue personnel. The baby will go to the custody of his grandfather, who said that he lost a total of 16 family members in the disaster.
“Amid so much bad news concerning the death of 16 of our relatives, my grandson’s survival is a miracle,” he said.
Officials say the landslide is the worst natural disaster in Columbia since 1999. The landslide struck around 3 a.m. local time and stretches 25 miles along the Liboriana River.
The chair of the council for Justice & Peace of the Irish Catholic Bishop’s conference is speaking out about Christian persecution around the world, saying that 11 Christians are killed every hour for their faith in Christ.
Bishop John McAreavey cited a Pew Research survey showing Christianity is the most prosecuted religion around the world with persecution against them reported in 110 countries.
“Many of these countries have significant trade links with Ireland. Persecution is increasing in China. In North Korea a quarter of the country’s Christians live in forced labour camps. Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the Maldives all feature in the 10 worst places to be Christian,” McAreavey said. “According to the International Society for Human Rights, a non-religious organization, 80 percent of all acts of religious discrimination in the world today are directed against Christians.”
McAreavey said that the persecution of Christians in the Middle East is “a threat to our common humanity” and that the stability of the entire planet is at risk because of the violence in the region. He also condemned Western leaders who are not taking steps to help persecuted Christians.
“Perhaps because of a fear of being seen as less than aggressively secular in their own country,” he said, many governments of majority Christian countries in the West seem reluctant to give direct aid to churches and religious minorities.”
McAreavey defined the loss of religious freedom and persecution as something that “can run from subtle cultural exclusion of the religious voice from the public square and refusal to accommodate reasonable differences of conscience to active discrimination, forced displacement, exploitation and loss of life.”
The death toll from the massive earthquakes and aftershocks in Nepal has become the largest in the country’s history.
Officials confirmed the death toll has passed 8,500.
The official count of 8,583 passed the previous record of 8,519 set in 1934. The 1934 quake also led to the deaths of thousands in neighboring India which was spared the same level of devastation in the dual quakes.
Officials also reported over 250,000 homes confirmed destroyed by the quake or resulting landslides.
Hundreds are still missing including 112 foreigners, although officials said those foreigners could have simply left the country without informing officials they were survivors of the quake.
United Nations officials say the death toll in the region could go higher in the coming months as refugees who lost their homes and belongings have to face disease, starvation and the upcoming monsoon season. The UN reports impassable roads and the country’s looming monsoon season are hampering relief efforts.
The UN is attempting to raise $423 million from countries around the world for relief in Nepal but only 16% of that goal has been raised.
The rescue efforts have also been hampered by ongoing aftershocks. A 5.7 magnitude aftershock struck the region Saturday.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) say the Amtrak train that crashed in Philadelphia accelerated from 70 to over 100 miles per hour as it entered the curve where it jumped the tracks.
At 106 miles per hour, the train was over twice the 50 miles per hour speed limit for the curve.
The discovery was made after reviewing a video taken from a camera facing the front of the train according to the NTSB.
NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt says he’s hopeful the engineer will be able to give clarity as to why the train accelerated into the curve.
“What I believe is a very good way to interview people is, honestly, to not ask them questions, to basically give them a figurative blank sheet of paper and ask them what they recall,” Sumwalt said Thursday. “Really, we want to know his account of what he recalls leading into this tragic accident.”
Robert Goggin, attorney for engineer Brandon Bostian, says that his client cannot remember anything about the crash.
“He remembers coming into the curve, he remembers attempting to reduce speed, but thereafter he was knocked out just like all the other passengers on the train,” Goggin said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” program. He said Bostian suffered a concussion and gash on his head.
“We will have to wait for his memory to come back or for other facts to be ascertained by the NTSB,” the lawyer said.
Eight people died in the accident after the remains of the eighth victim were found today by cadaver dogs. All 243 people on board the train have now been accounted for by Philadelphia officials.
An Iraqi nun displaced by the Islamic extremist group ISIS testified before Congress that Christians in her country are having their identity wiped from the earth.
Sister Diana Momeka told the House Foreign Affairs Committee she is one of 120,000 civilians who had to leave their homes and property behind to flee from the terrorists’ takeover of the Mosul region. She said that Iraqi Christians are in “dire need” of assistance to liberate their land.
Momeka said that Christians were the first to settle the Nineheh Plains and that the only Christians left in the area are the ones who were unable to escape the terrorists.
“Why should we leave our country? What have we done? The Christians of Iraq are the first people of the land,” Momeka said. “Uprooted and forcefully displaced, we have realized that ISIS’ plan is to evacuate the land of Christians and wipe the earth clean of any evidence that we existed. This is cultural and human genocide. The only Christians that remain in the Plain of Nineveh are those who are held hostage.”
Momeka admitted Christians have faced persecution for centuries, but that it’s currently worse than it’s ever been in the region.
“While our ancestors experienced all kinds of persecution, they stayed in their land, building a culture that has served humanity for the ages,” Momeka stated. “But the current persecution that our community is facing is the most brutal in our history. Not only have we been robbed of our homes, property and land, but our heritage is being destroyed as well. ISIS has and continues to demolish and bomb our churches, cultural artifacts and sacred places like Mar Behnam and his Sister Sara, a fourth century monastery, and St. George’s Monastery in Mosul.”
The Iraqi ministry of defense has reported that the second in command for the Islamic terrorist group ISIS has been killed.
Abdul Rahman Mustafa Mohammed, also called Abu Alaa al-Afari, was killed in a strike on a mosque targeted by Iraqi troops according to Brigadier General Tahsin Ibrahim.
Gen. Ibrahim said that dozens of other terrorists were killed in the strike on the al-Shuhada mosque in the town of al-Iyadhiya near Tal Afar. ISIS took over Tal Afar and the region in June 2014.
The general did not say which nation carried out the air strike.
The Pentagon said they were unable to confirm the death but the Governor of Nineveh said that his contacts had confirmed the death of al-Afari.
Iraqi officials have announced the deaths of ISIS leadership in the past only to have the subject surface alive in new locations. The U.S. had added al-Afari to their list of designated global terrorists in 2014.
Officials in Philadelphia are attempting to find the cause of a train crash Tuesday night that left 7 people dead and more than 200 injured.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said that seven cars of the Amtrak train bound for New York jumped the tracks and that over 200 people are in area hospitals. Eight victims are in critical condition.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the train was going 100 miles per hour at the time it jumped the tracks at a curve, more than twice the speed limit for that portion of track. Investigators are focusing on that excessive speed as the cause of the derailment.
That belief was backed by an Amtrak official who told a conference call that excessive speed was a focus of the investigation.
Mayor Nutter said the “black box” data recorder of the train has been recovered and is in the hands of the National Transportation Safety Board.
The President issued a statement sharing his shock about the accident.
“Michelle and I were shocked and deeply saddened to hear of the derailment,” Mr. Obama said in a written statement. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of those we lost last night, and to the many passengers who today begin their long road to recovery.”
Witnesses say the crash was very violent with people being thrown around the rail cars. Andrew Brenner told the WSJ that seats were ripped from the floor.
“I got thrown like a penny,” said Mr. Brenner, who said he weighs 250 pounds. “That is how violent this was.”
Nepal, which has still not recovered from a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck in April and left over 8,000 dead, has been hit with another massive earthquake.
The magnitude 7.3 quake struck Tuesday with at least 32 people confirmed dead from this second quake.
The quake caused an avalanche in a region about 30 miles north of the capital city of Kathmandu but CNN reports the area was sparsely populated after the April quake.
“For the first seconds, it was complete silence. By the fifth second, everybody started to scream,” documentarian Marc Sarrado told CNN. “It was really, really intense. Even when the shaking stopped, people were still screaming. They were completely panicked, because they knew exactly what it was.”
BBC reporter Yogita Limaye was in the mountains when the quake struck.
“The earth shook and it shook for a pretty long time,” Limaye said. “I can completely understand the sense of panic. We have been seeing tremors: it’s been two-and-a-half weeks since the first quake. But this one really felt like it went on for a really long time. People have been terrified.”
A U.S. Marine helicopter in the region to provide help has been reported missing by American commanders. Six Marines and two Nepali soldiers were on the craft.
Rescuers digging through the rubble of what was once the village of Langtang have said it’s likely they will never be able to find all the victims of the earthquake and landslide.
“The entire village was wiped out by the mudslide. There were some 60 houses there, but they were all buried under rubble. It will be impossible to recover all the bodies,” government official Gautam Rimal said to CBS.
The village is only 35 miles north of the capital of Kathmandu, but because of damage to the region it now takes rescuers two days to reach the site. Helicopters can fly in but because they are in very short supply they cannot make regular relief runs to the town.
The death toll from the quake has officially passes 7,500.
Government officials say that one-third of the population of Kathmandu has left the city. While some have returned to try and find or help relatives, the bus stations are still packed with people who are trying to leave.
The population of the region with the capital city was 2.5 million at the time of the quake.
Some parts of the city are returning to normal with some markets reopening and fresh food and vegetables being made available to residents. USAID announced $11 million in emergency supplies for the region including safe drinking water.
