Posted by New World Order where are You! on November 02, 1998 at 01:30:55:
In Reply to: 18-year old rebels against being numbered. Wins right to vote w/o SSN. posted by Patrick Henry on October 30, 1998 at 16:59:42:
News briefs from 1998
How religious, political and ideological
beliefs spark violence, crime, intolerance and falsehoods
(News briefs abridged from various news server
articles. Note, these articles present only a glimpse of the problems caused
by belief-systems throughout the world. For more information, and full
accounting, please refer to the Associated Press and UPI news sources on
the internet.)
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News: N. Ireland Christian Gang Claims Killing
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) -- A new Protestant gang opposed to Northern
Ireland's prevailing cease-fires claimed responsibility Sunday for killing
a Catholic civilian. A caller from the Red Hand Defenders told the British
Broadcasting Corp.'s office in Londonderry that the group shot 35-year-old
Brian Service as he walked home alone early Saturday on Belfast's rough
north side.
The killing demonstrates a new dissident threat to discipline within
the ranks of Northern Ireland's outlawed pro-British groups: the Ulster
Defense Association, Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando, which
have observed a joint cease-fire since 1994, and the Loyalist Volunteer
Force, which joined the truce after politicians struck a historic peace
accord in April.
Source: Associated Press, 01 Nov. 1998
News: Anthrax Threat at Abortion Clinic
INDIANAPOLIS -- A week after an abortion provider was shot by a sniper,
abortion clinics in several states received letters claiming to contain
the deadly bacteria anthrax, sending at least 33 people to hospitals.
None of the 31 people treated in Indianapolis complained of any symptoms,
but authorities took them to hospitals after they were decontaminated in
a tent put up near the clinic. They were given antibiotics as a preventative
measure and released.
Delbert Culp called the acts despicable. ``These are just political
extremists who call themselves pro-life.'' he said. ``This is putting 29
people's lives at risk, and I just find that absolutely appalling. I think
society just has to begin saying this is totally unacceptable.''
Source: Associated Press, 31 Oct. 1998
News: Supremacist Serial Killer Convicted
CINCINNATI-- A racist serial killer already on one state's death row
received a life sentence today for each of the 1980 sniper murders of two
black teens.
``You're just a representative of the satanic system and you'll be judged
by Jesus Christ,'' Joseph Paul Franklin told the judge today before being
sentenced.
Franklin is on Missouri's death row for the 1977 sniper killing of a
Jewish man who was leaving a synagogue. He also has been sentenced to life
in prison in other states for racially motivated shootings.
The drifter from Mobile, Ala., also has admitted to wounding civil rights
leader Vernon Jordan, now a Washington lawyer and friend of President Clinton's,
in 1980 and Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, who enraged Franklin
by publishing pictures of interracial couples, in 1978.
Source: Associated Press, 22 Oct. 1998
News: 68 Arrested in Indonesia Kill Spree
JAKARTA, Indonesia-- Police said today they have arrested 68 people
in a killing spree in which the severed heads of some murder suspects were
carried on poles through village streets.
Vigilante groups formed in the eastern end of the main island of Java
after more than 150 people, many of them Muslim clerics and others accused
of witchcraft, were mysteriously killed.
Source: Associated Press, 21 Oct. 1998
News: New Mass Grave Discovered in Bosnia
DONJA GLUMINA, Bosnia-Herzegovina-- Forensic experts have found more
than 170 bodies in one of the biggest mass graves discovered from Bosnia's
civil war, officials said Friday. The bodies were believed to be those
of Muslims killed in 1992 at the beginning of the war.
Officials said about 1,800 bodies have been recovered from several mass
graves in the eastern Bosnia region, most of them believed to have been
residents of the town of Srebrenica, overrun by the Serbs in July 1995.
Some 7,000 townspeople are missing and presumed dead, victims of mass executions
by the Serbs.
Ivan Grujic, who heads a Croatian commission for prisoners and missing
persons, told state-run HINA news agency that the victims were killed while
the area was controlled by rebel Serbs following their rebellion against
Croatian independence in 1991.
[Note: Bosnia's three factions include the Eastern Orthodox Christian
Serbs, Roman Catholic Croats, and the Sunni Muslims]
Source: Associated Press, 09 Oct. 1998
News: New Reports of Kosovo Massacres
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia-- Reports of massacres of ethnic Albanian civilians
in the embattled province of Kosovo have heightened the likelihood of NATO
airstrikes against military targets in Yugoslavia.
International efforts to halt the bloodshed took on new urgency after
the reports of massacres of ethnic Albanian civilians in Kosovo, a province
of Serbia where nine out of 10 people are ethnic Albanians. Hundreds have
been killed since Serbs began cracking down on Albanian separatists in
the province in February.
[Note: The Serbs represent Bosnia's Eastern Orthodox Christians. Ed.]
Source: Associated Press, 01 Oct. 1998
News: 1,300 Killed in Sri Lankan Fighting
NEW DELHI, India-- More than 1,300 Sri Lankan soldiers and Tamil rebels
have died this week in the worst explosion of fighting in a year along
a strategic highway in Sri Lanka, according to military and Red Cross figures
released today.
The rebels are fighting for a separate homeland for minority Tamils
in the country's north and east, claiming that they are discriminated by
the majority Sinhalese who control the government and the military.
More than 54,000 people have been killed in Sri Lanka's civil war since
1983.
[Note, the Tamils represent a Hindu sect and the Sinhalese, a Buddhist
sect. Ed.]
News: Afghan Religious Clerics Warn of Iran War
KABUL, Afghanistan-- Thousands of clerics summoned by Afghanistan's
Taliban ruler issued religious edictS Thursday making it an Islamic obligation
to go to war against Iran if it attacks Afghanistan.
The clerics ended a three-day convention by issuing six religious edicts,
or fatwas warning Iran that a war with Afghanistan would not stop at the
border. Rather, they said it would engulf the region.
Source: Associated Press, 24 Sept. 1998
News: Rockets Kill Civilians in Kabul
KABUL, Afghanistan-- The Taliban-run news agency reported Sunday that
scores were killed when rockets blasted residential areas of Kabul. Other
sources reported lower casualty figures.
Years of rocket and artillery attacks severely damaged about half of
Kabul. The religious army now controls about 90 percent of Afghanistan,
although an alliance of anti-Taliban forces continues fighting north of
Kabul, and in the northern and central parts of the devastated country.
Source: Associated Press, 20 Sept. 1998
News: 4,600 Killed in Algeria This Year
ALGIERS, Algeria-- More than 4,600 people have died this year in violence
in Algeria, a human rights group said today amid reports of new attacks
that claimed 41 lives. Rural massacres accounted for 4,143 of the 4,643
victims. Attacks also occurred in mosques, cemeteries, cafes, theaters,
and parking lots, the group said.
At least 75,000 people have been killed since an Islamic insurgency
began in 1992 when Algeria's military-backed government canceled parliamentary
elections that an Islamic party was set to win.
Source: Associated Press, 14 Sept. 1998
News: Foul Play Suspected in Priest Death
PITTSBURGH-- A Roman Catholic priest, Rev. Walter Benz, suspected of
embezzling $1.3 million from church donations to pay for gambling junkets
and fancy cars may have been murdered in his nursing home, police said.
Benz, 72, who suffered from leukemia, was accused of stealing the money
over a 26-year period from two churches to finance gambling trips, lavish
gifts and luxury cars. He was never formally charged because authorities
who went to his sickbed for an arraignment last month found him unconscious
with a brain virus.
Source: Associated Press, 09 Sept. 1998
News: Explosion in South Russia Kills 17
MAKHACHKALA, Russia-- An explosion probably caused by a car bomb killed
at least 17 people, including two children, in the capital of a southern
Russian region where religious groups are battling, officials said today.
Various religious and ethnic groups have been battling for power in
Dagestan in recent months, resulting in bloody attacks and kidnappings.
Violence also has spilled over from the breakaway republic of Chechnya
on its western border. A car bomb recently killed Dagestan's top Islamic
leader.
Source: Associated Press, 05 Sept. 1998
News: Kosovo Rebels, Serbs Report Deaths
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia-- Serb police battled ethnic Albanian militants
near a border town in the southern province of Kosovo today, with both
sides reporting fighters killed and wounded.
Hundreds have died and estimated 265,000 people have become refugees
in six months of fighting between government troops and KLA guerrillas.
Ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs 9-to-1 in Kosovo, a southern province
in Serbia, the main republic in Yugoslavia.
Source: Associated Press, 02 Sept. 1998
News: Explosion Rips Algiers Market
ALGIERS, Algeria-- An explosion in Algeria's capital killed at least
17 people Monday. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion
fell on militants waging an Islamic insurgency against the military-backed
government.
Source: Associated Press, 31 Aug. 1998
News: Two Killed at Prayer Service
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.-- A leader of a Sikh temple opened fire after
a prayer service, killing a man, wounding two others and taking his own
life in an apparent dispute over whether to allow chairs in a worship area.
Source: Associated Press, 24 Aug. 1998
News: 25 Killed in Sri Lanka Clashes
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka-- Recent clashes between government forces and Tamil
guerrillas in the northeast have killed at least 20 guerrillas and five
government soldiers, the defense ministry said Thursday.
Militant Tamils have been fighting for a separate homeland since 1983.
More than 54,000 people have been killed in the fighting.
[Note, Sri Lanka has two major sects: the Tamils represent a Hindu sect
and the Sinhalese, a Buddhist sect. Ed.]
Source: Associated Press, 20 Aug. 1998
News: Islamic Groups Warn of More Attacks
NAIROBI, Kenya-- An Islamic coalition warned Wednesday of further attacks
against American interests, and FBI agents and Kenyan detectives raided
a Nairobi hotel seeking evidence that could lead to those who bombed two
U.S. embassies in East Africa.
A group founded by bin Laden -- the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against
Jews and Crusaders -- issued a defiant warning Wednesday in the Arabic
newspaper Al-Hayat: ``The coming days will guarantee, God willing, that
America will face a black fate,'' the statement said. ``Strikes will continue
from everywhere, and Islamic groups will appear one after the other to
fight American interests.''
The Holy Shrines said it would ``continue shipping more American dead
bodies to their unjust government ... until we humiliate America's arrogance
and roll its dignity in the mud of defeat.''
Source: Associated Press, 19 Aug. 1998
News: Northern Ireland Car Bomb Kills 28
OMAGH, Northern Ireland-- A car bomb tore apart the crowded center of
this bustling market town Saturday, killing at least 28 people, maiming
more than 200, and dealing a barbaric blow to Northern Ireland's peace
agreement.
Source: Associated Press, 16 Aug. 1998
News: Repress-Memory Doc Faces Rebuke
CHICAGO- Illinois has moved to discipline a prominent psychiatrist accused
of convincing a patient that she was a cannibal who ate human flesh meatloaf,
a child molester and the high priestess of a satanic cult.
Patricia Burgus sought therapy from Dr. Bennett Braun. Burgus says the
doctor, through repressed-memory therapy, led her to believe that she possessed
300 personalities, ate meatloaf of human flesh, sexually abused her children
and served in the cult.
``I began to add a few things up and realized there was no way I could
come from a little town in Iowa, be eating 2,000 people a year, and nobody
said anything about it,'' Burgus told the Chicago Tribune.
Burgus won a $10.6 million settlement in a lawsuit against Braun, Rush-Presbyterian
St. Luke's Hospital to which his practice is connected.
Source: Associated Press, 14 Aug. 1998
News: India, Pakistan Clash in Kashmir
JAMMU, India-- Indian and Pakistani gunners pounded each other's positions
today, killing at least four people in the latest clashes on the disputed
frontier in Kashmir.
India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir, which is divided
between them. Militants in the Indian-controlled part of the territory
want to secede or unite with Muslim Pakistan. The Indian part of Kashmir
is the country's only state with an Islamic majority.
Source: Associated Press, 04 Aug. 1998
News: Allegations of clergy sexual misconduct shake the faithful
Across South Florida and the nation, the faithful are grappling with
the uncomfortable realities that church leaders once kept from them as
they ignored or hid clergy sexual misconduct. Among the recent allegations
of clergy sexual misconduct in South Florida:
The Rev. Jan Malicki is under criminal investigation for alleged sexual
misconduct with a minor girl. The girl says he frequently gave her alcohol
and sexually abused her.
The Rev. Lex Rivers of St. John's on the Lake United Methodist Church
left the pulpit amid allegations that he had sex with women who had come
to him for counseling.
Rev. John K. Brackett, faces church trial for misspent church money
and engaging in sexual misconduct with five women in the congregation.
Source: Miami Herald, 02 Aug. 1998
News: Algeria Violence Claims More Lives
ALGIERS, Algeria-- An armed group attacked an isolated house and then
struck a military outpost, killing at least 13 people, Algerian newspapers
reported Wednesday.
The attacks occurred in an area where the Armed Islamic Group, which
has been linked to the slaughter of hundreds of people in recent months,
is known to be active.
The violence came as a U.N. mission began the second week of its inquiry
into violence in Algeria that has left some 75,000 people dead in the last
six years.
Source: Associated Press, 29 July 1998
News: Two Women Accuse Priest Of Rape
(MIAMI) -- A Catholic Archdiocese in Miami says one of its priests is
facing accusations of sexually assaulting at least two women. The first
allegations against the Reverend Jan Malicki surfaced last December...
and a second woman came forward a month later. One of the two women says
she was a minor when the attack occurred. The Archdiocese says Father Malicki
denies the allegations, but was suspended from his duties and sent for
evaluation last January. The Broward Sheriff's Office says an investigation
is ongoing... and an arrest warrant is pending for sexual assault on a
juvenile.
Source: Reuters, 23 July 1998
News: Catholic Diocese Pays $30 Million for Priest sexual abuse
STOCKTON, Calif.-- Two brothers who accused the Catholic Diocese of
Stockton of covering up sexual abuse by a parish priest for more than a
decade have won a $30 million court award.
The Howards had accused the diocese of concealing the Rev. Oliver Francis
O'Grady's history of abusing children, The trial in Stockton, 65 miles
east of San Francisco, did not address O'Grady's guilt -- he was convicted
earlier -- but whether his superiors knew about the abuse.
O'Grady was convicted in 1994 of molesting Joh, now 19, and James, 23.
He is serving a 14-year prison term.
Source: Associated Press, 17 July 1998
News: 3 Catholic Children Die in Protestant Clash
BELFAST, Northern Ireland-- Three Catholic children died in an arson
attack early Sunday and Protestant protesters once again clashed violently
with police blocking their march down a predominantly Catholic road.
Violence broke out in Belfast and others areas of the province after
the Orangemen were first blocked from marching last Sunday. But the situation
in Portadown has grown in intensity and tension each night.
Source: Associated Press, 12 July 1998
News: Ethnic Violence Escalates in Lagos
LAGOS, Nigeria-- In an indication the death of a prominent political
prisoner may be leading to deepening ethnic strife, the bodies of nine
members of the Hausa ethnic group have been discovered in a neighborhood
of the Nigerian capital dominated by their rivals.
Riot police and paramilitary troops have been ordered to protect mosques,
which could become targets for attacks by the predominantly Christian and
animist southerners.
Nigeria's horrific 1960s Biafran war flourished out of ethnic hatreds
and attacks between northern and southern tribes. More than a million people
died in that civil war, as southern Ibos waged a futile battle to establish
an independent homeland in southeastern Nigeria.
Source: Associated Press, 10 July 1998
News: Protestants Riot in N. Ireland
BELFAST, Northern Ireland-- Protestants attacked police, hijacked cars
and blocked roads in many parts of Northern Ireland after British authorities
blocked the province's most controversial Orange Order march.
Several hundred Protestants were camped early today outside Drumcree
Anglican church on the outskirts of Portadown, 30 miles southwest of Belfast,
where barbed-wire barricades blocked the Protestant fraternal group's annual
parade before it reached the nearby Catholic section, Garvaghy Road.
Police reported similar scenes in other Protestant public-housing projects
and villages across Northern Ireland in a demonstration of substantial
opposition to a peace process that has meant conceding ground to the north's
large Catholic minority.
Source: Associated Press, 06 July 1998
News: 11 Die in Karachi Ethnic Violence
KARACHI, Pakistan-- Rival factions of a militant ethnic group terrorized
this southern port city today, killing 11 people, including two policemen
and two soldiers.
As many as 200 people have been killed in violent clashes between rival
MQM factions in the past month. The movement claims to represent Indian
Muslims, or a mohajirs, who settled in Pakistan after the Asian subcontinent
gained its independence in 1947.
Source: Associated Press, 02 July 1998
News: Fighting Intensifies in Kosovo
PANTINA, Yugoslavia-- The intensifying fighting comes amid signs of
Serb movements that hint at a possible crackdown in the works. It was a
Serb police offensive against secessionist ethnic Albanian militants in
March that unleashed the current round of fighting, which has killed 300
people.
[Note: Serbs represent the Eastern Orthodox Christian faction]
Source: Associated Press, 28 June 1998
News: Henry Lee Lucas Nears Execution
HUNTSVILLE, Texas-- Time is running out for Henry Lee Lucas, the one-eyed
drifter once considered among the most prolific serial killers the nation
ever has known.
Lucas told the Associated Press: ``It don't scare me. I know what I'm
facing. Besides, God's waiting on the other side. That's all I'm concerned
with.''
Source: Associated Press, 21 June 1998
News: 25 Hindus Dead in Kashmir Attack
BATOTE, India (AP) -- Five men armed with automatic rifles ambushed
a newlywed couple and their wedding guests in India's Kashmir state, killing
25, including the groom.
Another six people were injured in the attack, which police blamed on
Pakistan-backed Muslim separatists. The victims were Hindu.
Both India and Pakistan claim Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim region
divided between the two countries. They have fought two wars over Kashmir
since gaining independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
Source: Associated Press, 19 June 1998
News: Teen Convicted in Miss. Shootings
HATTIESBURG, Miss.-- Jurors deliberated for five hours Friday night
before convicting 17 year old Luke Woodham of killing Lilly's granddaughter,
16-year-old Christina Menefee, and 17-year-old Lydia Dew on Oct. 1 at Pearl
High School. Seven others were wounded.
``I am sorry for the people I killed and the people I hurt,'' he told
the courtroom after his sentence was announced. ``The reason you don't
see any more tears is I have been forgiven by God.''
Source: Associated Press, 13 June 1998
News: Priest defrocked for molestations
BOSTON-- Cardinal Bernard F. Law revealed Saturday that he has defrocked
John J. Geoghan, a retired priest accused of sexually molesting more than
50 children over three decades.
Law said that he decided to announce it Saturday after it was revealed
last week that the church had paid millions to settle claims against Goeghan
brought by dozens of his alleged victims.
Source: Herald Wire Services, Miami Herald, 07 June 1998
News: Thai Monk Charged With Murder
BANGKOK, Thailand-- A Buddhist monk in Thailand has been defrocked and
charged with murder for allegedly playing a variation of Russian roulette
that resulted in the death of a man. Two other monks were defrocked in
connection with the incident.
Police charged Samart Phakphum, the temple's vice abbot, with murder
on Friday. The death is the latest in a series of scandals involving the
normally revered clergy in this overwhelmingly Buddhist country.
Source: Associated Press, 06 June 1998
News: Rebels Say 100 Sri Lankans Killed
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka-- Separatist Tamil Tiger rebels claimed today to
have killed at least 100 soldiers in the latest fighting in northern Sri
Lanka, and army officers said over 400 soldiers were wounded.
The rebels, who are fighting for a separate homeland in the north and
east, accuse the Sinhalese majority of oppressing the Tamil minority. The
war has claimed 52,000 lives since it began in 1983.
[Note, the Tamils represent a Hindu sect and the Sinhalese, a Buddhist
sect. Ed.]
Source: Associated Press, 05 June 1998
News: Teen Shooting Suspect Blames Demons
PHILADELPHIA, Miss.-- A teen-ager accused of fatally stabbing his mother
and gunning down two classmates testified Thursday that he was driven by
demons who told him he would be ``nothing'' if he didn't kill.
Woodham is on trial in the slaying of his mother, Mary Woodham, who
was found dead in her bedroom Oct. 1, the same day he allegedly killed
two classmates and wounded seven others at his school. He will stand trial
next week in the school shootings, the first in a string of similar rampages
around the country.
A defense medical expert testified that Woodham suffered from a variety
of psychological problems. ``It's my opinion that as a result of the vulnerability
of this very psychologically disturbed young man, Grant (Boyette) was able
to exploit him,'' said Dr. Michael Jepsen, a forensic psychologist from
Santa Fe, N.M.
Source: Associated Press, 04 June 1998
News: Bishop Admits Molesting Boys, Quits
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla.-- A Roman Catholic Bishop resigned Tuesday
after admitting to molesting five boys in three Florida churches early
on in his 40-year career as a priest.
The allegations surfaced five weeks ago when a now-middle aged man told
church officials Symons had sexually molested him while he was a teen-age
parishioner.
Source: Associated Press, 02 June 1998
News: Dozens Reported Dead in Kosovo
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia-- Thousands of refugees from Serbia's Kosovo province
streamed into neighboring Albania on Monday to escape some of the deadliest
fighting in months. Dozens of people were reported killed.
Ethnic Albanian leaders said 37 Albanians were killed over the weekend.
Twenty-seven died in clashes in Decani while 10 were killed when Serb police
stormed another village, they said.
The Kosovo Information Center said Serb police burst into the homes
in Poklek, pulled out villagers and told them to, ``Go to Albania and never
return.'' Afterward, Serb police allegedly set 26 homes ablaze.
[Note: Serbs represent the Eastern Orthodox Christian faction]
Source: Associated Press, 01 June 1998
News: Convicted Killers Executed in Egypt
CAIRO, Egypt-- Two brothers convicted of killing nine German tourists
and their Egyptian driver outside the Egyptian Museum were hanged Sunday
inside a prison. Before the execution, both men called the massacre a defense
of Islam, police said.
Before the hanging, Saber declared the attack was part of his crusade
for God, that the people he killed were infidels and that he would have
killed more if he had the chance, police said. His brother said the attack
avenged Muslims killed in Bosnia and Chechnya, police said. Both men recited
verses from the Koran, the Muslim holy book, as they awaited the hanging
at dawn, police said.
Source: Associated Press, 24 May 1998
News: Christians Protest Pakistan Law
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan-- The suicide of a Roman Catholic bishop to protest
Pakistan's Islamic blasphemy law has galvanized the Christian minority,
who fear they are being targeted by the measure.
For the first time, young Pakistani Christians have formed a militant
organization called Sipa-e-Masih or Guardians of the Messiah, to defend
religious rights. It is organized along the same lines as Muslim extremist
groups that have resorted to violence in religious disputes.
A surge of militancy among Christians does not bode well for Pakistan,
already battered by bitter sectarian fighting among rival Islamic sects.
On Friday, the religious conflict boiled over.
A demonstration against the blasphemy law by thousands of Christians
in Lahore turned violent as police fired tear gas into the crowd of protesters.
The protesters retaliated by rampaging through the Punjab capital, destroying
more than 100 shops and setting cars on fire.
Source: Associated Press, 16 May 1998
News: Israel Gunfire Kills 5 Palestinians
QARARA, Gaza Strip-- At least five Palestinians were killed and nearly
200 injured in clashes with Israeli troops that erupted as Palestinians
commemorated what they call ``al nakba'' -- the catastrophe -- of Israel's
founding and their own uprooting a half-century ago. It was the worst Israeli-Palestinian
fighting in 20 months.
Thursday's commemorations climaxed with a siren that wailed for two
minutes while marchers stood in silence. As the sound faded, chants of
``God is great!'' rose from the crowds, and marching bands played the Palestinian
national anthem ``My homeland, my homeland.''
Source: Associated Press, 14 May 1998
News: 8 Palestinians Die in Israel Attack
TAANAYEL, Lebanon-- Israeli warplanes attacked a training camp for radical
Palestinian guerrillas in eastern Lebanon early today, killing eight guerrillas
and wounding at least 20 as they slept, Lebanese security officials said.
Source: Associated Press, 13 May 1998
News: Mob Attacks Mourning Pakistanis
FAISALABAD, Pakistan-- A mob of Muslim extremists terrorized a Christian
neighborhood in northeastern Pakistan as thousands of mourners gathered
Sunday to bury a bishop.
Roman Catholic Bishop John Joseph had killed himself to protest the
death sentence given to a Christian accused of insulting Islam.
His suicide last Wednesday has caused violent protests by both minority
Christians and extremists Muslims divided over Pakistan's controversial
blasphemy laws, which provide the death penalty for insulting Islam or
its prophet, Mohammed.
Source: Associated Press, 10 May 1998
News: Fighting Continues in Yugoslavia
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia-- Serbs and ethnic Albanian separatists clashed
Monday along Kosovo's border with Albania, where more than 100 separatists
were apparently trapped after fighting that killed 10 Albanians and wounded
four policemen.
The Bosnian Serb news agency, SRNA, cited Croatian media as saying that
radical Muslim fighters from the Middle East who had helped Bosnia's Muslims
during the war there were now being sent to Kosovo to fight the Serbs.
The report could not be confirmed.
More than 150 people have died since a Serbian police crackdown began
two months ago against the Kosovo Liberation Army militant group.
[Note: Bosnia's three factions include the Eastern Orthodox Christian
Serbs, Roman Catholic Croats, and the Sunni Muslims]
Source: Associated Press, 04 May 1998
News: Sri Lankan Troops Kill 17 Tamil Rebels
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka-- Sri Lankan troops ambushed and killed 17 Tamil
rebels near a northern town that the government has had under siege for
months, the military said today.
The rebels are fighting for a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's Tamil
minority, who accuse the majority Sinhalese of oppression. Since 1983,
the conflict has killed more than 52,000 people.
[Note, the Tamils represent a Hindu sect and the Sinhalese, a Buddhist
sect. Ed.]
Source: Associated Press, 02 May 1998
News: 'Sorcerer' Convicted of Killing 42
LUBUKPAKAM, Indonesia-- A self-proclaimed sorcerer, Ahmad Suradji, 47,
was sentenced to death today after an Indonesian court found him guilty
of killing 42 females, purportedly in order to increase his magical powers.
The victims, aged 12 to 30, were believed to be seeking Suradji's help
to make their husbands or boyfriends faithful. Police said he lured each
one to the field, buried her up to the waist and strangled her before reburying
the body with the head pointing toward his home.
Source: Associated Press, 27 April 1998
News: Two Protestants Arrested
BELFAST, Northern Ireland-- Police arrested two Protestant militants
Saturday after a Catholic man was shot fatally through the head, the second
such sectarian killing this week in Northern Ireland.
Source: Associated Press, 25 April 1998
News: 23 Killed in Kosovo
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia-- Yugoslav troops killed 23 ethnic Albanian militants
in the latest offensive against separatists in the province of Kosovo,
the Yugoslav army said today.
The clash -- along with a referendum in which Serbs voted overwhelmingly
against foreign mediation in the crisis -- heightened tensions in Kosovo,
where ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs by 9-to-1. Serbia, the dominant
republic in Yugoslavia, is determined to quash rising independence sentiment
in the southern province.
Source: Associated Press, 24 April 1998
News: 2 Catholic Priests Get Death Sentence
KIGALI, Rwanda-- A Rwandan court sentenced two Roman Catholic priests
to death for their roles in the nation's 1994 genocide, state-run Radio
Rwanda reported today.
The Revs. Jean Francois Kayiranga and Edouard Nkurikiye are the first
church officials convicted in the state-sponsored massacres, which killed
a half-million minority Tutsis.
Some priests and church officials in Rwanda are known to have collaborated
with the Hutu extremists, often luring people to seek shelter in churches
and then leaving them to the killers.
Source: Associated Press, 18 April 1998
News: Domestic Terrorism Fueled by Religious Sects Seen
on Rise
MONTGOMERY, Ala.-- The Oklahoma City bombing has led to an alarming
growth in the anti-government movement, according to an organization that
monitors hate groups.
The Southern Poverty Law Center said the FBI was investigating about
100 domestic terrorism cases before the April 19, 1995, bombing. The FBI
is now working on more than 900 such cases, the organization said Wednesday.
The report said the anti-government movement has been fueled by racist
religious sects, propaganda forums such as the Internet and the approach
of the year 2000, with the Oklahoma City bombing termed the ``opening shot.''
Source: Associated Press, 16 April 1998
News: Rev. Paisley Pushes to Nix NIreland Pact
BELFAST, Northern Ireland-- The Rev. Ian Paisley stepped to the front
of hard-line Protestants opposed to compromise Wednesday, launching a campaign
against the Northern Ireland peace accord that could mark the last great
``No!'' of his stormy career.
Perhaps his greatest hurrah came in 1974 when he destroyed a Catholic-Protestant
power-sharing agreement by orchestrating a Protestant general strike that
crippled parts of the province for two weeks.
On the Catholic side this weekend, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams will
be facing those in his ranks who do not want to give up the Irish Republican
Army's violent campaign for a united Ireland.
Source: Associated Press, 15 April 1998
News: Mecca Pilgrims Stampede; 150 Dead
MECCA, Saudi Arabia-- A stampede broke out today on a crowded bridge
near Mecca, killing more than 150 Muslim pilgrims on the last day of the
hajj, Saudi officials said. Some were trampled and others fell to their
death.
The disaster occurred on a desert plain in the searing heat of midday
as pilgrims at Mecca performed a ritual laden with symbolism known as ``stoning
the devil'' -- hurling rocks at pillars symbolizing the temptations of
Satan.
``We seek God's mercy for those who died and patience for their families,''
the agency said.
The stampede was the latest tragedy to befall the hajj, which in the
past has been marred by other stampedes, fires and political protests that
turned violent. In the worst tragedy, 1,426 pilgrims, many of them Malaysians,
Indonesian and Pakistanis, were killed in 1990 in a stampede in a crowded
pedestrian tunnel leading to holy sites in Mecca.
Source: Associated Press, 09 April 1998
News: 16 Die in Violence in Algeria
ALGIERS, Algeria-- Sixteen people were slain -- many of them killed
in their sleep -- in Algeria's latest violence, state radio reported Wednesday.
The mountainous Medea region has been highly unstable since the start
of an Islamic insurgency in 1992, which has caused an estimated 75,000
deaths. The radical Armed Islamic Group is believed to have its main base
there.
Algeria has been plagued by violence since the army forced the cancellation
of 1992 elections the now-outlawed Islamic Salvation Front looked set to
win.
Source: Associated Press, 08 April 1998
News: Palestinians Vengeful After Funeral
RAMALLAH, West Bank-- Chanting ``Revenge! Revenge!'' and shaking their
fists, thousands of Palestinians marched in a funeral procession today
for a top Hamas bombmaker whose death they blame on Israel.
``We want to hear explosions in Tel Aviv. Blow them up! Blow them up!''
chanted a group of women, slapping their faces in grief. Young men, some
crying and others shaking their fists, shouted ``Revenge, revenge!'' Marchers
carried green Islamic flags.
Source: Associated Press, 02 April 1998
News: Ex-Priest Convicted of Sexual Abuse
DALLAS-- A former priest was convicted Saturday of sexually abusing
three altar boys in a case that already had produced the nation's largest
civil judgment for clergy sex-abuse allegations.
At the beginning of the trial earlier in the week, Rudolph Kos, 52,
pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault of a child and two counts
of indecency with a child.
Jurors deliberated 7 1/2 hours over two days before finding Kos guilty
of three counts of aggravated sexual assault and one of indecency with
a child.
According to testimony during an 11-week civil trial last summer, Kos
sexually abused boys from 1981 to 1992 at churches in Dallas, Ennis and
Irving. That trial led to a record $119.6 million judgment against Kos
and the Catholic Diocese of Dallas.
Source: Associated Press, 29 March 1998
News: IRA Rival Group Claims Cop Killing
BELFAST, Northern Ireland-- An IRA rival group opposed to peace talks
claimed responsibility Saturday for shooting dead a retired policeman in
front of his wife.
Two gunmen ambushed Stewart, a 52 year old Protestant, as he and his
wife, Joan, walked to their car outside the Safeway supermarket late Friday.
He was shot several times pointblank and died at the scene.
Such killings are designed to upset peace talks which are supposed to
conclude by April 9 with a compromise agreement on governing this Protestant-dominated
British province.
A dozen people, mostly Catholics, were killed in a spasm of violence
that lasted until Feb. 10 and handicapped the peace talks.
Source: Associated Press, 28 March 1998
News: Dozens Killed in Sri Lanka Attack
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka-- Sri Lankan warplanes bombed a flotilla of separatist
Tamils, killing at least 60 guerrillas, a newspaper reported today. Government
troops killed 22 more rebels in ground attacks.
The rebels are demanding a separate homeland, accusing the Sinhalese
majority of oppressing the Tamil minority. The war began in 1983 and has
so far claimed 51,000 lives.
[Note, the Tamils represent a Hindu sect and the Sinhalese, a Buddhist
sect. Ed.]
Source: Associated Press, 27 March 1998
News: God a No-Show on TV
GARLAND, Texas-- Onlookers, satellite trucks and legions of reporters
streamed Tuesday into a Dallas suburb where a Taiwanese religious group
awaited God's appearance on television -- an event they say presages his
return to Earth next week.
But the appointed hour passed early Wednesday without the promised TV
appearance. The group's leader said his faith was not shaken. [Once again
showing that belief proves stronger than evidence and reality, Ed.]
Church leader Chen Heng-ming, known as "Teacher Chen," had
said God will appear on Channel 18 across the country at 12:01 a.m.Wednesday
to mark the beginning of his return. In Garland, Channel 18 offers religious-oriented
programming; in nearby Dallas, it is a home-shopping channel. After midnight,
the cable channels continued with their scheduled programs. The broadcast
channel had only white noise.
The group's prophecies come almost exactly a year after the Heaven's
Gate sect committed mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. Heaven's Gate
members said they believed that, if they "shed their containers,"
they would be picked up by a spaceship hidden by a passing comet. Thirty-eight
people died.
Source: Associated Press, 25 March 1998
News: Truths of Bosnian War Are Realized
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina-- The memory of the dozens of innocents
he killed keeps Miro Bajramovic, a Croat, awake nights. A Sarajevo woman
is ashamed of the blood spilled by Muslims. Serbs confess to murdering
and dismembering victims.
More than two years after the fighting stopped, a more subtle and truer
picture is starting to replace the sanitized versions of events that people
on all sides were fed during the wars that broke up Yugoslavia.
Serbs, Croats and Muslims long believed that the people on their sides
were only the victims of murder, rape and ethnic purges and not perpetrators.
But a string of revelations -- a result of independent journalism, outside
pressure and the toll of time on the human psyche -- is challenging that
belief. They are forcing people in all camps to look again at what their
sides did.
The biggest shock so far has been for Muslim-dominated Sarajevo. The
deaths of more than 10,000 people in 3 1/2 years of siege had left residents
with a self-image of righteous victims.
Croats, meanwhile, saw themselves as victims of a Serb land grab. But
Bajramovic jolted Croatia by revealing how in 1991 his unit entered villages
and killed Serbs and tortured and executed prisoners.
If enough Serbs, Muslims and Croats strip away the myth of victimization,
they may reach some common understanding of what actually happened.
[Note: Bosnia's three factions include the Eastern Orthodox Christian
Serbs, Roman Catholic Croats, and the Sunni Muslims]
Source: Associated Press, 21 March 1998
News: Palestinians Bury Boy Killed in Clash
HEBRON, West Bank-- Hundreds of mourners, including teen-agers with
school backpacks, clamored for revenge today as they buried a 13-year-old
Palestinian boy killed in clashes with Israeli troops.
`With our blood and our soul, we will redeem Samer and Palestine,''
the crowd shouted. Others chanted``Izzedine, Izzedine,'' a reference to
the military wing of the Islamic militant group Hamas, which has carried
out more than a dozen suicide bombings in Israel since 1994.
``Stop screaming, he is a martyr,'' one man admonished the women. Martyrs
or those killed in a jihad, a holy war, against infidels, are believed
to go straight to paradise.
Source: Associated Press, 17 March 1998
News: Tamil Rebels Blow Up Truck, 5 Dead
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka-- Tamil Tiger guerrillas have blown up an army truck
in northern Sri Lanka, killing at least four soldiers and a civilian, the
military said today.
The rebels have been fighting since 1983 for a separate homeland for
Tamils, who make up 18 percent of Sri Lanka's population. They allege discrimination
by the majority Sinhalese, who control the government and military. At
least 51,000 people have been killed in the fighting.
[Note, the Tamils represent a Hindu sect and the Sinhalese, a Buddhist
sect. Ed.]
Source: Associated Press, 14 March 1998
News: West Bank Clashes Erupt Over Deaths
HEBRON, West Bank-- Palestinians hurled stones and firebombs at Israeli
soldiers today in a third day of violent West Bank protests over the killings
of three Palestinian workers at an Israeli army roadblock.
During the holiday four years ago, a Jewish settler from nearby Kiryat
Arba opened fire on Muslim worshippers in a Hebron mosque, killing 29 people
before being bludgeoned to death.
Source: Associated Press, 12 March 1998
News: Tensions Erupt in Kosovo Bloodshed
Two masked men jumped out of the bushes, their submachine guns spitting
a deadly hail of bullets. Police said the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation
Army had struck again, leaving two policemen dead and two injured.
Within an hour, Serb police struck back, staging a major crackdown on
ethnic Albanian villages where at least 74 residents were killed.
[Serbs represent Eastern Orthodox Christians, Ed.]
Source: Associated Press, 10 March 1998
News: Six Killed in Algerian Attack
ALGIERS, Algeria-- Attackers slit the throats of six people, including
four blind women, in a village south of Algiers, the security forces said
in a statement Sunday.
Nobody claimed responsibility, but the attack was carried out a few
hundred meters away from the native village of Antar Zouabri, a leader
of the Armed Islamic Group, which comprises the country's most radical
Islamic militants.
An estimated 75,000 people have been killed in an insurgency that began
in 1992 after the army canceled legislative elections that Islamic fundamentalist
parties were poised to win.
Source: Associated Press, 08 March 1998
News: Serbs Kill 20 Albanians
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia-- Heavily armed Serb police resumed their crackdown
today on ethnic Albanians seeking independence for Serbia's tense Kosovo
province, where at least 51 people have been killed in the past week.
The siege has left the southern part of Serbia perilously close to civil
war.
[Serbs represent Eastern Orthodox Christians, Ed.]
Source: Associated Press, 06 March 1998
News: Serbs Attack Albanians
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia-- Serb police attacked ethnic Albanians in Serbia's
restive Kosovo province today, an Albanian leader said. His aides called
it a massacre, with houses burning and residents fleeing into the forest.
It was impossible to immediately confirm the reported killings -- Serb
police armed with assault rifles turned back reporters from new checkpoints
on roads leading into the region, Drenica.
Serb police said they moved in on the region after an early morning
attack on a police station there wounded two policemen. The same region
was the scene of another retaliatory Serb attack last weekend that killed
at least 25 ethnic Albanians.
[Serbs represent Eastern Orthodox Christians, Ed.]
Source: Associated Press, 05 March 1998
News: 2 Killed in Ireland Attack
POYNTZPASS, Northern Ireland-- Masked gunmen have killed two friends
-- one a Catholic, the other Protestant -- and wounded three others at
a country pub in this religiously mixed village.
Politicians blamed Protestant extremists for attacking the Catholic-owned
pub in a bid to poison the atmosphere for Northern Ireland's peace talks,
which continue today in Belfast, 25 miles to the north.
Northern Ireland's police chief, Ronnie Flanagan, said ``it is absolutely
clear that extremists from both sides are intent on, literally, killing
off the efforts of those who are working for a better way forward.''
Source: Associated Press, 04 March 1998
News: 68 Bodies Unearthed From Graves
DALJ, Croatia -- Forensic experts unearthed 68 bodies Tuesday from mass
graves in Croatia and Bosnia, continuing the long-delayed process of recovering
victims executed in wars in former Yugoslavia.
The bodies are believed to be mostly Croatian civilians killed after
minority Serbs rebelled against Croatia's declaration of independence from
Yugoslavia in 1991. Exhumations in both Bosnia and Croatia are continuing.
[Note: Bosnia's three factions include the Eastern Orthodox Christian
Serbs, Roman Catholic Croats, and the Sunni Muslims]
Source: Associated Press, 03 March, 1998
News: Bombs Terrorize Pakistan City
KARACHI, Pakistan-- Two explosions less than 20 minutes apart killed
at least eight people and wounded dozens more today in this port city torn
by ethnic violence, authorities and witnesses said. One bomb was planted
in a hardware store and the other in a music shop on the ground floor of
an apartment building, they said.
The apartment complex was inhabited by ethnic Pathans, who clashed with
Karachi's majority Mohajirs earlier this month, leaving two dead and at
least eight wounded, including six policemen.
Mohajirs are Indian Muslims who migrated to Pakistan when the Asian
subcontinent gained its independence from Britain in 1947. They dominate
Karachi, Pakistan's largest city of 14 million people.
Ethnic Pathans originate in Pakistan's rugged Northwest Frontier Province,
which borders Afghanistan. About 2 million Pathans live in Karachi, most
of whom traveled there in search of employment.
More than 500 people have died in ethnic and religiously motivated killings
in Pakistan in the past year.
Source: Associated Press, 28 Feb. 1998
News: 39 Killed in Algerian Raids
ALGIERS, Algeria-- Thirty-nine Islamic militants have been killed in
Algeria this week, mainly during raids by the army in the western part
of the country, witnesses said.
Suspicion fell on the Armed Islamic Group, the most radical Muslim organization
trying to overthrow the military-backed government.
Source: Associated Press, 26 Feb. 1998
News: 28 Die in Sri Lankan Sea Battle
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka-- Sri Lankan warships and aircraft searched today
for 38 soldiers and sailors missing after Tamil suicide bombers sank two
navy ships, killing at least 28 people.
The rebels are fighting for a separate homeland for Tamils, who account
for 18 percent of Sri Lanka's 18 million people. They claim they are discriminated
against by the majority Sinhalese, who control the government and military.
More than 51,000 people have been killed since the war began in 1983.
[Note, the Tamils represent a Hindu sect and the Sinhalese, a Buddhist
sect.]
Source: Associated Press, 24 Feb. 1998
News: Car Bomb Explodes in N. Ireland
BELFAST, Northern Ireland-- A car bomb exploded in a staunchly pro-British
Protestant town today, a few hours after peace talks on Northern Ireland's
future resumed.
David Trimble, leader of the largest Protestant party, the Ulster Unionists
said the bombing ``underscored the silliness'' of plans to let Sinn Fein
return to the talks within two weeks.
Source: Associated Press, 23 Feb. 1998
News: Six Plead Guilty to Killing Family
GREENEVILLE, Tenn.-- Six young Kentuckians, including one who claimed
to be Satan's daughter, pleaded guilty to murdering a couple and their
6-year-old daughter as the family returned from a Jehovah's Witnesses conference.
The defendants were immediately sentenced to 25 years for kidnapping
and theft charges. They are to be sentenced on three murder charges and
one attempted murder charge at a hearing to begin March 2.
Source: Associated Press, 21 Feb. 1998
News: Men Held in Possible Anthrax Plot
LAS VEGAS-- Two men suspected of possessing deadly anthrax were under
arrest Thursday and their car, sealed in plastic, was taken to an air base
for tests to see whether the substance was the dangerous biological agent.
One of the pair is an Ohio man who was given probation after pleading
guilty to illegally obtaining bubonic plague bacteria through the mail
in 1995. He is also author of a self-published book called``Bacteriological
Warfare: A Major Threat to North America.''
The men were identified as Larry Wayne Harris, 46, of Lancaster, Ohio,
and William Leavitt, 47, of Las Vegas and Logandale, Nev.
[In a past television interview, Harris described himself as a white
separatist, an ex-member of the Aryan Nation and a follower of the far-right
Christian Identity movement. Ed.]
Source: Associated Press, 19 Feb. 1998
News: 21 Killed in Algeria Massacre
ALGIERS, Algeria-- Attackers killed 17 people by slitting their throats
and wounded seven others early Sunday near a town 275 miles southwest of
Algiers, security forces said. Four other people were killed in a separate
weekend attack, the security forces said in a statement on state-run radio.
An estimated 75,000 people have been killed since the start of violence
in 1992, triggered by an army decision to cancel legislative elections
to thwart a likely victory by the Islamic Salvation Front, the main Muslim
fundamentalist party, now outlawed.
Source: Associated Press, 15 Feb. 1998
News: India Bombings Kill 32
MADRAS, India-- Thirteen explosions rocked southern India town Saturday,
killing at least 32 people and injuring 120, shortly before a Hindu nationalist
leader was to address an election rally, police said.
The bombings sparked clashes between Hindu and Muslim mobs, and police
were ordered to shoot to kill the rioters in Coimbatore, 1,500 miles south
of New Delhi, said police Commissioner Nanjil Kumaran.
Source: Associated Press, 14 Feb. 1998
News: Cops Say IRA Committed Two killings
BELFAST, Northern Ireland-- Northern Ireland's police chief has concluded
that the Irish Republican Army killed two people this week, violating the
cease-fire that allows its political allies to participate in peace talks.
Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan's judgment that the IRA killed drug
dealer Brendan Campbell on Monday and Protestant militant Bobby Dougan
on Tuesday opens the way for Sinn Fein's possible expulsion from the talks.
Source: Associated Press, 13 Feb. 1998
News: 58 Are Hacked to Death in Rwanda
KIGALI, Rwanda-- Hutu rebels armed with farming tools hacked 58 people
to death after sneaking into northwestern Rwanda, a government official
said today.
The rebels attacked the village of Ngugo, near the border town of Gisenyi
in western Rwanda, on Friday and started massacring people in their homes,
Gisenyi Gov. Jean-Baptiste Muhirwa said.
Thousands of people have been killed since Hutu rebels stepped up attacks
in northwestern Rwanda more than a year ago, following the return of more
than 1 million Rwandan Hutu refugees.
Source: Associated Press, 10 Feb. 1998
News: Three Die in Algiers Cafe Bomb
ALGIERS, Algeria-- A bomb exploded today in a packed cafe in central
Algiers, killing three and injuring eight. Similar attacks have been blamed
on the Armed Islamic Group, which is seeking to overthrow Algeria's military-backed
government.
The government says 26,500 people have been killed since the insurgency
began in 1992; independent estimates have said as many as 75,000 or more
have been killed.
Source: Associated Press, 07 Feb. 1998
News: Supremacist Admits 2 More Killings
PITTSBURGH-- Joseph Paul Franklin admits to shooting Hustler magazine
publisher Larry Flynt in 1978, though he was never prosecuted. He also
says he shot former civil rights leader Vernon Jordan in the back two years
later, even though a jury acquitted him. Now Franklin, a former white supremacist,
has admitted to killing two more people, an interracial couple as they
walked down a street in 1980.
He is imprisoned -- heavily guarded and wearing shackles -- in Chattanooga,
Tenn., and is awaiting transfer to Missouri, where he is to be executed
for shooting a man attending a Jewish function in St. Louis in 1977.
Franklin's first known attack was the bombing of Beth Shalom Synagogue
in Chattanooga, Tenn., in July 1977. From then until September 1980, he
is believed to have killed 17 people -- three interracial couples, seven
black men and boys, three female hitchhikers and a Jewish man.
Source: Associated Press, 06 Feb. 1998
News: Vampire Cult Leader Pleads Guilty
TAVARES, Fla.-- A self-styled 17-year-old vampire cult leader who believed
murder would open the ``gates to hell'' interrupted opening statements
at his trial today to plead guilty to killing the parents of a cult member.
Richard Wendorf and Naoma Ruth Queen were bludgeoned to death on Nov.
25, 1996, in their home in Eustis, 35 miles northwest of Orlando. Ferrell
had told a friend that he needed to kill people to open the ``gates to
hell,'' according to a police report.
The couple were beaten with a crowbar and the letter ``V'' surrounded
by circular marks was burned into Wendorf's body as a cult symbol.
Source: Associated Press, 05 Feb., 1998
News: 'Army of God' Says It Bombed Clinic
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.-- Letters signed by the ``Army of God'' say the group
carried out last week's abortion clinic bombing, a year after it took responsibility
for bombing a clinic and gay nightclub in Atlanta.
The letter also said anyone who makes, markets, sells or distributes
the abortion pill RU-486 will be targeted by the Army of God.
The Army of God is a name that has been circulating since the early
1980s as a force for radical anti-abortion actions, including circulating
a manual that contains information on how to make bombs. It's not clear
who makes up the organization, though various anti-abortion activists have
either been linked to it or claimed to be part of it.
Source: Associated Press, 03 Feb. 1998
News: 1 Killed in Abortion Clinic Bombing
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.-- An explosion caused by a bomb ripped through an abortion
clinic this morning, killing an off-duty police officer and critically
injuring a nurse.
The blast at the New Woman All Women Health Care clinic came just a
week after the nation marked the 25th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court
decision legalizing abortion.
Five people have been shot to death at abortion clinics, one in 1993
and four in 1994.
Source: Associated Press, 29 Jan. 1998
News: Assassinations in India's History
Three Indian leaders have been assassinated since the country gained
independence from Britain in 1947:
--Mohandas Gandhi, who led the nonviolent campaign for Indian independence,
shot Jan. 30, 1948, by a Hindu extremist who objected to Gandhi's overtures
to Muslims. The assassin was hanged after a trial that lasted almost two
years.
--Indira Gandhi, prime minister for 17 years, shot Oct. 31, 1984, by
two of her Sikh bodyguards after she sent Indian troops to flush separatists
from Sikhism's holiest temple. One of the assassins was killed by other
guards, and the second was convicted and hanged. Indira Gandhi was not
related to Mohandas Gandhi.
--Indira Gandhi's son, Rajiv Gandhi, who sent Indian troops to help
Sri Lanka put down a Tamil uprising during his 1984-89 tenure as prime
minister, was killed by a suicide bomber May 21, 1991. Conspirators in
the killing, including the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam,
were convicted today.
Source: Associated Press, 28 Jan. 1998
News: 23 Die in India Massacre
WANDHAMA, India-- Suspected Muslim separatists dragged Hindu villagers
from their homes and slaughtered 23 in the troubled northern state of Kashmir,
police said today.
India accuses Pakistan of training and arming Muslim militants fighting
an insurgency in Kashmir that has killed more than 15,000 people since
1989. Pakistan denies the charge, saying it lends only moral support.
Militants in Kashmir, India's only predominately Muslim state, want
independence or a union with Muslim Pakistan.
Source: Associated Press, 26 Jan. 1998
News: 11 Die in Sri Lanka Bomb Attack
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka-- Rebel suicide bombers crashed through the gate
of Sri Lanka's holiest Buddhist temple Sunday, setting off a truck blast
that killed 11 people and sparked ethnic rioting, the military and police
said. No one claimed responsibility for the bombing in Kandy.
The ethnic Tamil rebels accuse the majority Sinhalese, who are predominately
Buddhist, of sometimes brutal discrimination against the Tamil minority,
who are Hindus. Religion has not been a central issue in the war.
Hours after the attack on the Temple of the Tooth, which houses what
Buddhists believe is a tooth of Buddha, a mob of enraged Sinhalese burned
down a Hindu cultural center Kandy, but no-one was hurt, said a police
official, who asked not to be named. Police fired tear gas to disperse
the mob.
[Note, the Tamils represent a Hindu sect and the Sinhalese, a Buddhist
sect.]
Source: Associated Press, 25 Jan. 1998
News: German Nazi Exhibit Causes Clashes
DRESDEN, Germany-- Hundreds of leftists and neo-Nazis brawled Saturday
on a train to Dresden, where demonstrators massed in the heavy snow for
competing protests linked to an anti-Nazi exhibit.
The exhibit, which shows that Hitler's regular soldiers committed atrocities
alongside notorious units such as the SS, has incensed Germans who maintain
that ordinary soldiers only fought the enemy.
Hundreds of radical-rightists opposed to the exhibit gathered in downton
Dresden, while a counter-demonstration picked up momentum in another part
of town.
The ``War of Extermination: Crimes of the Wehrmacht from 1941 to 1944''
has been traveling to German cities for nearly three years. It uses photographs
and documents to prove that even rank-and-file German soldiers killed Jews
and other civilians.
Many older Germans still view the Wehrmacht as an honorable force that
fought for the homeland. Thousands of neo-Nazis demonstrated against the
exhibit in March, during its Munich showing.
Source: Associated Press, 24 Jan. 1998
News: Catholic and Protestant Violence Continues
Seven Catholics and one Protestant have been killed since Protestant
extremist Billy ``King Rat'' Wright, commander of the Loyalist Volunteer
Force, was ambushed and killed at Belfast's Maze Prison on Dec. 27. Three
imprisoned members of an Irish Republican Army offshoot are accused in
Wright's slaying.
The latest Catholic victim, Liam Conway, 39, was shot in the head Friday
while laying pipes in a Protestant area of north Belfast. Police blamed
the Loyalist Volunteers. The IRA-allied Sinn Fein party said Conway lived
with his two blind brothers and was the family's main breadwinner.
Source: Associated Press, 24 Jan. 1998
News: N. Ireland Sees More Bloodshed
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) -- A lone gunman shot dead a Roman Catholic
man Wednesday within hours of the funeral for another victim of Northern
Ireland's rising tide of sectarian bloodshed.
Three Catholics and a Protestant have been shot dead this week, while
multiparty negotiations on Northern Ireland's future were continuing in
east Belfast.
Source: Associated Press, 21 Jan. 1998
News: Catholics Kill Protestant Man
BELFAST, Northern Ireland-- Hours before a meeting between the British
prime minister and IRA-allied Sinn Fein leaders, gunmen from an IRA offshoot
today killed a Protestant shopkeeper in apparent retaliation for the slayings
of four Catholics.
The Irish National Liberation Army, which precipitated the current round
of violence by killing the jailed leader of a renegade Protestant gang,
claimed responsibility in a coded call to the BBC.
Rising violence in the past three weeks combined with Sinn Fein's objections
to the peace plan are fueling doubts about the future of the talks -- and
about the durability of cease-fires on both sides.
Source: Associated Press, 19 Jan. 1998
News: Protestant Gang Kills Catholic Man
BELFAST, Northern Ireland-- A renegade Protestant gang opposed to Northern
Ireland's peace talks claimed responsibility Sunday for killing a Catholic
man, its fourth murder in three weeks, and warned: ``This is not the last.''
Police found the body of the man beside a Catholic church in Maghera,
a mostly Catholic town 25 miles northwest of Belfast, but didn't identify
the victim pending notification of relatives. He had been shot in the head.
Residents said he was in his late 20s and had recently returned home after
working in the United States.
The Loyalist Volunteers have been blamed for killing at least 10 Catholic
civilians -- including four since Dec. 27, when the outlawed group's founder,
Billy ``King Rat'' Wright, was gunned down inside the top-security Maze
prison by an Irish Republican Army dissident gang.
Source: Associated Press, 18 Jan. 1998
News: Waiting for God
GARY, Ind.-- Next year the shores of Lake Michigan will be the main
``loading dock'' to the next dimension, according to the leader of a Taiwanese
religious group.
Hon-Ming Chen preaches that a nuclear war will ravage the Earth, and
flying saucers will rescue the survivors. There will be other loading docks,
but Gary's Lake Street Beach will be the main boarding area.
``After the great tribulation happens in 1999, God's flying saucer will
carry off the survivors that come here,'' the religious leader of God Salvation
Church said through an interpreter.
Members of the Garland, Texas, sect prayed in the sand, anointing the
site as a rescue area. Some wore white cowboy hats, a conduit for God's
spirit to enter the body.
``We just followed God's instructions,'' said Chen, whose disciples
say he speaks to God through his hand.
Their religion combines aspects of Christianity, Buddhism and science
fiction. It was started in California in 1995, after followers used their
life savings to come to the United States. Last year, they moved to Garland,
which Chen calls ``God's office.''
Source: Associated Press, 15 Jan. 1998
[Let's hope none of these nut-cases gets into political power. Imagine
a CSC president preaching nuclear war to speed up the "great tribulation."
Ed.]
News: Report: Algeria Death Toll Tops 400
ALGIERS, Algeria-- Two weekend massacres left at least 400 people dead
-- a figure almost four times the official toll -- Algerian newspapers
reported Tuesday, as survivors recounted the terror of the assaults from
their hospital beds.
Despite a government denial of the higher death toll -- the military-backed
regime stands by its figure of 103 killed -- the reports fueled a growing
sense around the capital that a 6-year-old Muslim insurgency has spawned
an anarchic state where anybody could be targeted and at any time.
Source: Associated Press, 13 Jan., 1998
News: Catholic Killed in N. Ireland
BELFAST, Northern Ireland-- Two men shot and killed a Catholic bouncer
at a Belfast nightclub early Sunday, police said. Protestant gunmen were
believed responsible, but it wasn't clear whether the killing was linked
to the resumption of peace talks.
Sinn Fein, political ally of the Catholic-based Irish Republican Army,
blamed Protestant paramilitaries seeking to maintain British rule in Northern
Ireland.
Some members of the two Protestant groups are impatient over the slow
pace of the talks, and have threatened to break October 1994 cease-fires.
Already the Loyalist Volunteers, a splinter gang composed of members
from both groups, have claimed responsibility for two murders of Catholics
since Dec. 27.
Source: Associated Press, 11 Jan. 1998
News: Taliban Accused of Slaughtering 600
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan-- Soldiers killed at least 600 civilians, lining
people up and shooting them, during a two-day massacre in northwestern
Afghanistan, opponents of the Taliban regime claimed today.
Most Taliban soldiers belong to Afghanistan's majority Pashtun ethnic
group and follow the Sunni sect of Islam. The opposition is made up of
smaller groups largely representing the country's ethnic minorities --
Uzbeks, Tajiks, Shiite Muslims and Ismaili Muslims.
The Taliban religious army controls about 85 percent of Afghanistan,
including Kabul, where it has imposed a strict brand of Islamic law that
bans women from work and forces men to grow beards. Its opponents control
the remaining 15 percent.
Source: Associated Press, 07 Jan. 1998
News: Report: Algerian Death Toll Reported at 392
ALGIERS, Algeria-- The daily bloodshed of Algeria's 6-year-old Islamic
insurgency has killed at least 392 more men, women and children -- including
200 in one remote village --news reports and survivors said today.
Source: Associated Press, 06 Jan. 1998
News: Report: 412 Killed in Algeria
ALGIERS, Algeria-- Gangs armed with knives, axes, hoes and shovels methodically
slaughtered 412 peasants in four poor western villages in a night of horror,
the worst massacre of a nearly 6-year-old Muslim insurgency.
The aftermath of Tuesday night's attacks showed how the gangs had grouped
their victims together before killing them.
``I can't get rid of the smell of blood,'' said a nurse, her blouse
splattered with gore, before breaking out in tears. She spoke on condition
of anonymity.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, but suspicion fell
on the Armed Islamic Group, the insurgency's most violent movement, which
has claimed responsibility for past bombings and massacres.
Ramadan marks God's revelation of the Koran, Islam's holy book, to the
Prophet Mohammed some 1,400 years ago. During the holy month, Muslims abstain
from food, drink, smoking and sex during daylight hours as an act of sacrifice
and purification.
Source: Associated Press, 03 Jan. 1998
News: Burundi: 300 May Have Died in Attack
BUJUMBURA, Burundi-- Burundi's army sealed off a military base and nearby
village that were stormed by Hutu rebels, refusing Friday to let outsiders
into the scene of an attack that killed as many as 300 people.
Burundi's majority Hutus and its minority Tutsi-led military government
have been locked in battle since the 1993 killing of Burundi's first Hutu
president by Tutsi paratroopers. More than 150,000 people, mostly civilians,
have been killed since then.
Source: Associated Press, 02 Jan. 1998