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Russia has seized a consignment of the radioactive isotope Sodium-22 at a Moscow airport from a passenger who was to travel on a flight to Tehran, the customs service said on Friday. "Tests showed that the Sodium-22 could only have been obtained as the result of the work of a nuclear reactor," it said in a statement. "A criminal enquiry has been opened and the materials transferred to prosecutors."

Long before Osama bin Laden's death, al Qaeda had adapted itself to survive and operate without him, ensuring the threat his terror network poses will live well beyond his demise. Bin Laden spent the last decade on the run following the al Qaeda-mounted terrorist attacks in the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001. But his fugitive status didn't render the network impotent. Instead, it forced an evolution: The original group splintered, popping up in new places with new leaders who, in addition to attempting high-profile attacks, encouraged their radicalized followers to strike on their own if the opportunity presented itself. Strong...

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were,...

In 202, Christians who refused to sacrifice to Roman gods were considered traitors. Emperor Septimus Severus was cracking down on anti-state elements. As he saw it, the sacrifice was simply a patriotic gesture, not much more than our salute of the flag. But the Christians saw it as a denial of Christ. Among those swept into the emperor's dragnet in Carthage were two young women, Perpetua and Felicitas. The choice before them was clear: sacrifice or die. For both women, the situation was complicated by motherhood. Felicitas was pregnant and Perpetua had a newborn son.

Child-Preacher Ammar: “A child must be raised on the love of jihad, and on the desire to be martyred for the sake of Allah. The tree of Islam is irrigated with blood, not with water. Embedding the spirit of Jihad within the soul of the child is one of the most important things educators should deal with, especially in this day and age, when the law of Islam is absent from the Islamic countries, a time when the sun of the glory of Islam has set, a time when sovereignty is in the hands of tyrants, when the Islamic Caliphate...

On Martyrdom "A Martyr Follows the Lord to the End" CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, AUG. 17, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the catechesis Benedict XVI gave last Wednesday, Aug. 11, during the general audience at the summer papal residence in Castel Gandolfo. * * * Dear Brothers and Sisters, Today in the liturgy we recall St. Clare of Assisi, founder of the Poor Clares, a luminous figure of whom I will speak in one of the forthcoming catecheses. However, this week -- as I already indicated in the Angelus address last Sunday -- we also commemorate some of the...

Criticism Critics claim that Joseph Smith is not a martyr because, while in jail, he had a gun and he had the temerity to defend himself. Critics claim that Joseph killed two men by firing at the mob. See also: Source(s) of the criticismResponse Shifting Definitions In order to make their argument tenable, the critics must do three things. First, they must take some creative liberties with the English language. In this case, the word being redefined is the term martyr. Webster’s New World Dictionary defines a "martyr" as “a person who chooses to suffer or die rather than give...

TURKEY Immense crowd and ecumenical service for the funeral of Mgr. Padovese by Mavi ZambakParticipants include members of other Christian Churches and state authorities. The homily by Mgr. Franceschini speaks of "a clergyman, a bishop, a close friend of Turks and Turkey. This land is thus confirmed, once again, a place of martyrdom for those who love her dearly. " Iskendur (AsiaNews) -  The funeral of Bishop. Luigi Padovese was held yesterday afternoon in his cathedral at Iskenderun, Turkey. An immense crowd of the faithful came in large numbers from all the parishes of the Vicariate of Anatolia, a grieving...

Pakistani Christian burned alive dies, Christian community calls for justice Arshed Masih, a 38 year-old Pakistani Christian, died yesterday evening at 7.45 from his very serious injuries. The family requests that an autopsy is performed before the funeral. Christian associations and human rights activists demonstrate outside the hospital. Catholic leaders: the federal and provincial government do not punish the guilty. Wednesday, March 24, 2010 Arshed Masih died last night in hospital from the serious injuries - burns covering 80% of his body – which the 38 year old Pakistani Christian suffered when he was set on fire because he refused...

The rise of Islamic extremism is putting increasing pressure on Christians in Muslim countries, who are the victims of murder, violence and discrimination. Christians are now considered the most persecuted religious group around the world. Paradoxically, their greatest hope could come from moderate political Islam. By SPIEGEL staff. Kevin Ang is cautious these days. He glances around, taking a look to the left down the long row of stores, then to the right toward the square, to check that no one is nearby. Only then does the church caretaker dig out his key, unlock the gate, and enter the Metro...

LONDON – Agents for Britain's MI5 intelligence service have discovered that Muslim doctors trained at some of Britain's leading teaching hospitals have returned to their own countries to fit surgical implants filled with explosives, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. Women suicide bombers recruited by al-Qaida are known to have had the explosives inserted in their breasts under techniques similar to breast enhancing surgery. The lethal explosives – usually PETN (pentaerythritol Tetrabitrate) – are inserted during the operation inside the plastic shapes. The breast is then sewn up. Similar surgery has been performed on male suicide bombers....

Near the end of the President's big speech in Cairo last year he said: All of us share this world for but a brief moment in time. The question is whether we spend that time focused on what pushes us apart, or whether we commit ourselves to an effort - a sustained effort - to find common ground, to focus on the future we seek for our children, and to respect the dignity of all human beings. Does the President actually understand what that "future we seek for our children" really means in many places in the Muslim world." For...

Iran: opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi 'ready to die' for the cause Iran's opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi said the country is in 'serious crisis' and he is 'not afraid to die' for his cause. Published: 9:28AM GMT 01 Jan 2010 In a statement posted on his website on Friday , Mr Mousavi called for the immediate release of his supporters arrested after the disputed presidential vote in June and during protests earlier this week. "Arresting or killing Mousavi, [and another opposition leader Mehdi] Karoubi ... will not calm the situation," he said. "I am not afraid to die for people's demands...

Beware of men...men and their ideas about God or no God have always sought to change yours. Sometimes by dialog but often by force of law or violence. We see this on the world stage... read more...

U.S. rights activist crosses into North Korea - reports Jon Herskovitz, Reuters December 26, 2009, 4:00 pm Send SEOUL (Reuters) - A U.S. human rights activist trying to raise global attention about the suffering of the North Korean people has crossed into the reclusive state, other activists and South Korean media said on Saturday. There has been no comment from North Korea, which usually arrests foreign border crossers on site, or from U.S. officials. Activists told Reuters that Robert Park, 28, had crossed into North Korea from China on Friday, while South Korea's Yonhap news agency and the Kukmin Ilbo...

...On Aug. 29 a militia of Lou Nuer killed 43 people and wounded 62 in Wernyol, a Dinka town. Among the dead was Episcopal Church of Sudan archdeacon Joseph Mabior Garang, killed while officiating at a morning prayer service. Most likely, the militia (and its sponsors) targeted Mabior because he was a prominent, beloved leader in the community. He had recently become archbishop of Twic East diocese, newly formed to accommodate the fast-growing church in Bor county, which is part of Jonglei state in South Sudan. ...After Mabior's death, Daau phoned Nathaniel Garang, the bishop of Bor. "Son, I lost...

The Iranian authorities have ordered the family of a student shot dead in Tehran to take down mourning posters as they struggle to stop her becoming the rallying point for protests against the presidential election. Neda Salehi Agha Soltan, 26, was killed as she watched a pro-democracy protest, and mobile phone footage of her last moments have become a worldwide symbol of Iran's turmoil. The authorities had already banned a public funeral or wake and have prevented gatherings in her name while the state-controlled media has not mentioned Miss Soltan's death. Today it was reported that they had also told...

While Christians in the secular West languish in spiritual mediocrity, Christianity remains a deadly serious matter almost everywhere else...

During the Synod on the Word of God, Archbishop Ramzi Garmou of Teheran for the Chaldeans, soberly remarked: “The whole Bible…tells us that faithfulness to the Word of God leads to persecution….According to the Gospel, persecution is considered as the most eloquent sign of faithfulness to the Word of God.” To say that the only Christians in danger of persecution are those who have not capitulated to the “rights” claimed by the modern state seems paradoxical. Christians in both Muslim and Hindu lands appeal to civil government for protection against persecution. In the post-liberal state, all religions are equally private....

IS THAT A PROMISE?

Fr. Bernard Digal has died after a slow agony of more than two months. The religious, brutally beaten by Hindu fundamentalists the night of August 25, has died two months later, this evening at 9:25 local time, from the serious injuries he suffered in the assault. On Saturday, October 25, a feverish Fr. Digal was taken to St. Thomas Hospital in Chennai, in Tamil Nadu; the doctors operated on him to remove a blood clot from his brain, caused by the beating on the night he was attacked. Yesterday, his lungs collapsed and he fell into a coma. This morning,...

Christians and aid workers are distraught and filled with dismay over the killing of Gayle Williams, an aid worker with Serve Afghanistan, who was gunned down yesterday as she went to work. The Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the murder, claimed that the woman “was working for an organisation which was preaching Christianity in Afghanistan”. This is not the first time that the Muslim fundamentalists have justified killing on religious grounds, but some Catholics doubt that it is real reason behind the British aid worker’s death. Gayle Williams, 34, had been in the country for several years, working with the...

Catholic Online offers the opportunity for our readers to comment on many of our articles. There have been numerous responses to our continued coverage of the horrid persecution of Catholics and other Christians by militant, extremist Hindus in India. Here are just a few: “Please influence CNN and bring this news in public press and TV.” “Let's all ask our Pastors and Priests what we can do as a Catholic community to bring attention to these atrocities. I never see this mentioned in the NY Daily News, Post or WSJ.” “Where are the protests from our democratic form of government...

No end is in sight to the attacks and violence against Christians. In Orissa, where for more than three weeks a pogrom against Catholics and Protestants has been underway, two more killings have been recorded. Iswar Digal and Purinder Pradhan were murdered and cut to pieces. Iswar Digal, was from the the village of Gatringia in the district of Kandhamal; he was stopped on September 20 by a group of Hindu extremists while he and his wife were trying to escape to a refugee camp. Their home was burned. The other victim was from Nilungia. His body was cut to...

The guard at the Carmelite convent in Banduha (Ujjain, Madya Pradesh) has been wounded while trying to protect the sisters; in Karnataka, the Syro-Catholic church of St George in Ujire was devastated and burned; a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes was destroyed in Kolar. This is some of the new violence against Christians recorded today. All of these attacks took place overnight, or in the early morning. The wave of violence, which began in Orissa three weeks ago, has so far killed at least 45, and wounded more than 18,000.

Fr Augustine Kanjamala is a Verbite clergyman who teaches at the University of Mumbai. He appeals to the Churches of the world to “express their protest to the government of India” which has remained “inactive” with regards to anti-Christian violence. He openly charges the Orissa state government for its increasingly explicit collusion with the pogrom currently underway against the community of faithful. According to Father Kanjamala a plan to cleanse Orissa of its Christian population has been in the making for years, especially in the district of Kandhamal (where most of the atrocities have taken place) where Christians now constitute...

Our Times: The Age of Martyrs by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. Never in the history of the papacy has any Bishop of Rome written at greater length about martyrdom than Pope John Paul II. His encyclical The Gospel of Life devotes a thousand or more words to the call to martyrdom in our age.He reminds us that the revelation from the Old Testament to the new, and from the time of Christ to the present day, is the history of martyrdom as a witness to the truth.He names Susanna, who refused to consent to lechery and was ready to...

The stained glass window of Sts. Paul and Peter in St. Mary Mother of God Catholic Church, Washington, DC (The following is excerpted from Dom Prosper Guéranger's entry in The Liturgical Year for 30 June -- the Commemoration of St. Paul, in Volume XII of the 1983 Marian House edition of the English translation by the Benedictines of Stanbrook.) "...Paul, having appealed to Caesar [see Acts 25: 11-12], landed in Italy at the beginning of the year 56. Then at last the apostle of the Gentiles made his entry into Rome...." "Instead of having to await in prison the day...

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said the country's economic woes can be solved by the "culture of martyrdom, the Mehr news agency reported. "If we want to build the country, maintain our dignity and solve economic problems, we need the culture of martyrdom," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying in a speech on Wednesday in the western city of Hamedan. He described martyrdom, dying or being killed for one's religious beliefs, as "a quick and shortcut way to reach the summit of salvation." He did not say how becoming a martyr would help the economy, which is struggling...

As if things weren't crazy enough already in the Middle East, here's the officially sanctioned message in sixth-grade Palestinian textbooks for 11- and 12-year-old kids: "The noble soul has two goals: death and the desire for it."...It's Jonestown, writ large, a cult of suicide for the collective, for Palestine. Israel isn't on the maps in the Palestinian textbooks. ...A recent article in Rolling Stone, "The Unending Torture of Omar Khadr," tells the story of a 15-year-old captured by U.S. troops in Afghanistan .... "Born into a fundamentalist Muslim family in Toronto," Omar Khadr "had been prepared for jihad since he...

Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has been critically injured after a suspected suicide attack at a political rally in Pakistan. It was believed to be a suicide attackShe is undergoing emergency surgery at a nearby hospital, Sky News sources say. The explosion went off just after Ms Bhutto left the rally in Rawalpindi, minutes after her speech to thousands of people.

Dear brothers and sisters, The day after Christmas, the liturgy celebrates the 'birth in heaven' of the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen. 'Filled with faith and the Holy Spirit' (Acts 6,5), he was chosen as a deacon by he community if Jerusalem, along with six other disciples who had a Greek education. With the power given to him by God, Stephen performed many miracles and announced the Gospel in the synagogues with "inspired wisdom.' He was stoned at the gates of the city and died, like Jesus, invoking forgiveness for his executioners (Acts 7,59-60). The profound link that united Christ...

Green MartyrdomSeveral months ago I heard a provocative description of martyrdom from Fr. Robert Cook, President of the new Wyoming Catholic College. His idea was that martyrdom in the modern age is not necessarily one of bloody (red) martyrs who die violently for the Faith. Neither is it the daily, silent and sacrificial (white) martyrdom of humble believers. He says that modern martyrs will manifest their heroic courage economically; that is, we will be called to pay dearly for our principles, not necessarily at the cost of lives, but at the cost of dollars. This is “green” martyrdom, and it...

Great vid of terrorist accidentally blowing himself up!

An Iraqi man arrested this month at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for immigration law violations was charged Wednesday with lying to authorities about his travels outside the United States and about anti-American material he was carrying. When Ali Mohammed Abboud Almosaleh, 40, arrived at the airport on a flight from Amsterdam July 7, he told customs officers he had been out of the country for one month and had traveled to Syria, court documents said. But he actually had been gone for five months and had visited Iraq. He told officers that his digital video discs with images of...

'I Hoped To Be A Glorious Martyr' A woman who was inside Islamabad's Red Mosque when it was stormed by Pakistani troops on 10 July has given the BBC one of the first accounts of the final hours of the siege. Unwilling to be named, the survivor said she was not held hostage by militants inside. More than 100 people died in the army operation - she was one of only 30 women to walk out alive after soldiers went in. Following are excerpts from the interview with Rafia Riaz of the BBC's Urdu service. ..."They asked me to come...

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - A new al-Qaida videotape posted Sunday on a militant Web site featured a short, undated clip of a weary-looking Osama bin Laden praising martyrdom. The bin Laden clip, which lasted less than a minute, was part of a 40- minute video featuring purported al-Qaida fighters in Afghanistan paying tribute to fellow militants who have been killed in the country. It was posted by the group's media production wing. Bin Laden glorified those who die in the name of jihad, or holy war, saying even the Prophet Muhammad "had been wishing to be a martyr." "The happy...

Part 1- Hamas TV continues promotion of Shahada (martyrdom) for children Part 2- Overview of the history of promotion of children's Shahada – Martyrdom Hamas TV continues active promotion of Shahada (martyrdom) directed at children. The new video clip, broadcast Sunday, follows the growth of a young Palestinian boy from a child into a Hamas Shahid – Martyr for Allah. The video shows the young child going to the mosque, praying and reading from the Quran, and then holding an automatic rifle together with the Quran as he envisions future participation in violent acts.

A letter to the Global Church from The Protestant Church of Smyrna Dear friends, This past week has been filled with much sorrow. Many of you have heard by now of our devastating loss here in an event that took place in Malatya, a Turkish province 300 miles northeast of Antioch, the city where believers were first called Christians (Acts 11:26). On Wednesday morning, April 18, 2007, 46 year old German missionary and father of three Tilman Geske prepared to go to his office, kissing his wife goodbye taking a moment to hug his son and give him the priceless...

Islamic Pro-Terrorism Hate Film Gets PG Rating (Film vilifies Jewish as 'army of pigs') By Liam Houlihan April 15, 2007 A PRO-TERROR hate film that urges children to martyr themselves in Islam's war on the West and calls Jews "pigs" has been rated PG by Australia's censors. Sheik Feiz Mohammed's DVD box set, which also calls for the murder of non-believers, was initially seized by Federal anti-terror police. But the Office of Film and Literature Classification has ruled that The Death Series is suitable to be bought and watched by children. The shock decision has seen the nation's peak censorship...

The hanging of Saddam is not a narcissistic injury. It may seem like one, but it's not-- and why it's not makes all the difference in predicting what will happen next. http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2006/12/this_is_not_a_narcissistic_inj.html

Dr. Tawfik Hamid doesn't tell people where he lives. Not the street, not the city, not even the country. It's safer that way. It's only the letters of testimony from some of the highest intelligence officers in the Western world that enable him to move freely. This medical doctor, author and activist once was a member of Egypt's Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (Arabic for "the Islamic Group"), a banned terrorist organization. He was trained under Ayman al-Zawahiri, the bearded jihadi who appears in Bin Laden's videos, telling the world that Islamic violence will stop only once we all become Muslims. He's a...

If the Democrats think the Islamic Jihadists will respect them more than President Bush then read this! This is an article everyone needs to read. If you think that because you refuse to be politically incorrect and see these inhuman animals for what they are that they will somehow respect you enough not to do to you what they did to these young girls, then think again! It will get worse. Beheaded girls were Ramadan ?trophies? THREE Christian high school girls were beheaded as a Ramadan ?trophy? by Indonesian militants who conceived the idea after a visit to Philippines jihadists,...

The Witness and the Sword As for the murdered Nun, it shows that Christian martyrs die defending and caring for the innocent...while muslim martyrs die killing the innocent. (anonymous commenter on Joee Blogs) In the Christian tradition, martyrs are witnesses, those who take their witness of following the way of Christ to its final destination, a life given up out of love, to stand to the last moment saying, "Jesus is Lord," because someone else has decided that they were worthy of death because they were Christian. They were respected because they thought love of the Lord was worth...

August 29, 2006 Memorial of the Martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist Psalm: Tuesday 36 Reading 12 Thes 2:1-3a, 14-17 We ask you, brothers and sisters,with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christand our assembling with him,not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly,or to be alarmed either by a “spirit,” or by an oral statement,or by a letter allegedly from usto the effect that the day of the Lord is at hand.Let no one deceive you in any way. To this end he has also called you through our Gospelto possess the glory of our Lord...

Without question, after the Latin Vulgate, no vernacular translation of the Bible has had more impact on Christian life and culture in general than the King James Version. What is seldom noted with the King James Version is busy being praised to the skies for its various qualities, is that it was a translation that owed an enormous amount of its diction and memorable phrasing to its English predecessor versions, especially the partial OT and the entire NT that William Tyndale finished, and at the other end of the discussion the KJV went through various revised editions. But the story...

Police charge terror suspects (Filed: 21/08/2006) Eleven suspects arrested over the alleged airliner bomb plot have been charged as police revealed they have found bomb-making equipment and martyrdom videos. Police arrested 23 after the discovery of the alleged plot Ahmed Abdullah Ali, Tanvir Hussain, Umar Islam, Arafat Waheed Khan, Assad Ali Sarwar, Adam Khatib, Ibrahim Savant and Waheed Aman are all charged with conspiracy to murder and with an offence under section five of the Terrorism Act 2006. Another three suspects have been charged with other offences under the Terrorism Act 2000. Susan Hemming, head of the Crown Prosecution Service...

Poland: Auschwitz martyr Kolbe remembered By ASSOCIATED PRESS WARSAW, Poland A leading Roman Catholic official led a Mass at Auschwitz on Monday to mark the 65th anniversary of the death of Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan friar who gained martyrdom by volunteering to die in the place of another man at the Nazi death camp. Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the archbishop of Krakow and the longtime secretary to the late Pope John Paul II, led the ceremony for the Polish friar whose action during World War II carries symbolic weight for the church and Catholic-Jewish relations. Kolbe was sent to Auschwitz in...

BEIRUT — A sister of Hizbollah fighter Mustafa Zalzali wears mourning black for her brother, but his death in battle with Israel elicits more pride than grief. "We thank God almighty for making us the family of a martyr," she said. "We received the news of his martyrdom with pride," she told Hizbollah's Manar television. Hizbollah fighters are well armed and trained. But one of the group's greatest assets in its war with Israel is the willingness of its fighters to die for their cause. Hizbollah has killed 33 Israeli soldiers, including some of the army's best, in the war...

Egyptian TV Promoting Anti-Semitism and Child "Martyrdom" 18:27 Jul 04, '06 / 8 Tammuz 5766 by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz As Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak portrays himself as an honest broker in the Middle East, recent Egyptian TV programs inculcate Arab children with Jew-hatred and the desire for Jihad death. Egyptian cleric Sheikh Muhammad Sharaf Al-Din appeared on a children's program on Al-Nas television on June 21, 2006, and told a story from Islamic tradition in which a Jewish woman tried to poison Muhammad. After telling the story, in which the prophet of Islam is miraculously spared, the sheikh took a call...