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Some 100,000 Christians Killed Per Year Over Faith, Vatican Says

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Photo Credit: Fox News

A staggering 100,000 Christians are killed annually because of their faith, according to the Vatican — and several human rights groups claim such anti-Christian violence is on the rise in countries like Pakistan, Nigeria and Egypt.

“Credible research has reached the shocking conclusion that an estimate of more than 100,000 Christians are violently killed because of some relation to their faith every year,” Vatican spokesman Monsieur Silvano Maria Tomassi said Tuesday in a radio address to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

“Other Christians and other believers are subjected to forced displacement, to the destruction of their places of worship, to rape and to the abduction of their leaders, as it recently happened in the case of Bishops Yohanna Ibrahim and Boulos Yaziji, in Aleppo [Syria],” Tomassi said.

While several human rights groups could not comment specifically on the Vatican’s number, organizations, like Persecution.Org, said the persecutions of Christians have been on the rise in places like Africa and the Middle East over the last decade.

“Two-hundred million Christians currently live under persecution. It’s absolutely on the rise,” Jeff King, the group’s president, told FoxNews.com.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Administration to Blame for Jailing of Hero Bin Laden Doctor, Says Pakistani Report

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Photo Credit: Fox News

It was the Obama administration that sealed the fate of the Pakistani doctor jailed for helping nail Usama Bin Laden, by divulging key details after the fact and dooming any chance Shakil Afridi’s cover story could win his freedom, according to a confidential Pakistani report.

When former Secretary of Defense and ex-CIA Director Leon Panetta publicly acknowledged Afridi’s role in the ruse which helped the CIA pinpoint Bin Laden’s presence in an Abbottabad compound, any chance that Pakistani authorities could help him get out of the country vanished, according to what some have called Pakistan’s version of the 9/11 Commission, a 357-page report from an independent body set up to probe the aftermath of the 2011 raid by Navy SEALs in which the Al Qaeda leader was killed.

“The statement by the U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who was the CIA Director when May 2 happened, confirming the role of Dr. Afridi in making the U.S. assassination mission a success, rendered much of what Afridi told the Commission very questionable if not outright lies,” states the report, which has not been released, but which FoxNews.com has viewed.

Read more from this story HERE.

Pakistani Doctor Who Helped Get Bin Laden Was Denied US Asylum By Obama Admin.

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsThe jailed doctor who helped the U.S. track down Osama bin Laden was convicted by a tribal court on bogus charges, according to a classified Pakistani government report.

Portions of the voluminous 357-page Abbottobad Commission Report, which has yet to be made public and were obtained exclusively by Fox News, acknowledge Dr. Shakil Afridi’s conviction last year by a government-sponsored Jirga has undermined Pakistan’s credibility. The report calls for Afridi to be given a new trial.

The report also claims Afridi joined the CIA search for Bin Laden five years ago, while he was staying in the U.S. with a cousin. According to the report, Afridi applied for asylum after a terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Islam, stepped up its operations in Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt.

Afridi was reportedly kidnapped by the group in 2008 and released after his family paid a $10,000 ransom. After helping the CIA pinpoint the terror mastermind just prior to the 2011 raid in which Navy SEALs killed Bin laden, Afridi was arrested and convicted by the tribal court of colluding with Lashkar-e-Islam.

The State Department declined to comment on the report’s claims that Afridi had applied for asylum while staying in the U.S.

Read more from this story HERE.

7 Caught Trespassing At Boston’s Water Supply; Patrols Stepped Up Across Massachusetts (+video)

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Photo Credit: Todd BingerShortly after midnight Tuesday, seven people were caught trespassing at the Quabbin Reservoir.

State Police say the five men and two women are from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore, and “cited their education and career interests” for being in the area. The men told police they were chemical engineers and recent college graduates.

The Quabbin, in Belchertown, is one of the country’s largest man-made public water supplies. Boston’s drinking water comes from the Quabbin and the Wachusett Reservoirs.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Congratulates Pakistan for Electing Islamist Prime Minister Linked to Osama bin Laden

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Photo Credit: APPakistan held another one of those democratic elections that the reformers claim is the solution to terrorism. And Obama seemed upbeat about the Pakistan Muslim League’s big win.

President Obama congratulated the people of Pakistan on national elections Saturday that marked the country’s first democratic transfer of power.

“I congratulate the people of Pakistan on the successful completion of yesterday’s parliamentary elections,” Obama said in a statement. “The United States stands with all Pakistanis in welcoming this historic peaceful and transparent transfer of civilian power, which is a significant milestone in Pakistan’s democratic progress.

The next Prime Minister is an Islamist fellow by the name of Nawaz Sharif who doesn’t like America, but does like Osama bin Laden.

The former prime minister of Pakistan, now one of President Pervez Musharraf’s chief political rivals, once received a million-dollar payoff from Osama Bin Laden as a thanks for not cracking down on the militant tribal areas in Pakistan’s northwest border province, according to a former member of bin Laden’s inner circle. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted by Musharraf in a 1999 coup, returned to Pakistan earlier this week after spending seven years in exile living in Saudi Arabia. When in power, Sharif aggravated the United States by detonating Pakistan’s first nuclear weapon and turning a blind eye to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Now a former member of bin Laden’s inner circle is saying that Sharif was handsomely rewarded by bin Laden for his policies.

Read more from this story HERE.

More Than 200 Christians’ Houses Set On Fire Over Ridiculous Blasphemy Accusation In Pakistan

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Photo Credit: ACLJ

The plight of Christians in Muslim nations continues to deteriorate as evidenced by a minor alteration that ended horrific violence, destruction, and persecution of a Christian community in Pakistan. Center for Law and Justice (CLJ) in Pakistan, an affiliate of the ECLJ, found out during its fact-finding visit that Sawan Masih, a Christian living in Joseph Colony, Pakistan, had an argument with his Muslim friend Shahid Imran – two friends of more than fifteen years who often argued about various topics. That night, Masih allegedly insulted the Prophet of Islam.

The next morning, on March 7, Shahid met his friend Muhammad Shafiq who had connections with iron market unionists. Shafiq took Shahid to union leaders who assured him of their support. The Aman Group (Peace Group) and Ittehad Group (Unity Group) told Shahid that he could take revenge on this insult if he followed their directions. The factory owners of Badami Bagh had recently offered to purchase the homes of the Christian residents, and to these businessmen, this incident seemed like a great opportunity to obtain the land for free. The next day, March 8, Shahid visited Masih’s billiard shop with Shafiq and three other union workers. Shafiq was armed with a long knife and was shouting that he would decapitate the blasphemer’s head. Masih was not present and did not know that people were calling for his life. An eyewitness told the CLJ that he “had sensed that Shahid was going to do something seriously bad to the entire Christian community.”

At 3:00 p.m., Shahid lodged complaint number 112/13 against Masih under Section 295-C of Pakistan Penal Code, which makes an insult of the Prophet of Islam a capital offense. One hour later, local mosques announced that Masih had blasphemed the Prophet of Islam. Masih did not come to the colony that evening after he had learned from his friends that a case had been registered against him. Taking advantage of the situation, both of the unions announced a strike in the steel factories to gain a political advantage in their upcoming union elections. Due to the strike, all the factory workers were available to attack Joseph Colony the next day, March 9.

The police negotiated with the Christian leaders and assured them that if Sawan Masih were handed over to police, the Christians would not be harmed. After the police told the Christians that the matter would be resolved only if Masih were handed to them, they handed Masih over to the police around 2:00 a.m. on March 9.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Hands Out Free Health Care to Pakistanis

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The Obama administration is preparing to give free health care to Pakistanis even as Americans who cannot get health insurance because of pre-existing conditions soon will be rejected by domestic programs due to a lack of funds.

Pakistani nationals working at several U.S. embassies soon could get a boost in health care benefits as the U.S. State Department has begun shopping for top-tier services.

Their paychecks will not see so much as one Pakistani rupee deducted as they receive a broad variety of medical services, according to a solicitation WND located via routine database research.

The document also made clear that the selected vendor “shall insure that health care under this contract does not exclude HIV/AIDS care, or preexisting conditions.”

The State Department will subsidize an estimated 1,222 family plans and 190 single-employee plans. The family plans cover children of Pakistani employees to age 18, or age 23 if a full-time student and unmarried.

Read more from this story HERE.

China Takes Control of Strategic Pakistani Port

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Photo Credit: Shakil Adil ISLAMABAD (AP) — China took over operational control of a strategic deep-water Pakistani seaport Monday that could serve as a vital economic hub for Beijing and perhaps a key military outpost.

Control of Gwadar port on Pakistan’s southwestern coast was transferred to a state-owned Chinese company, China Overseas Ports Holding Company Ltd., in a signing ceremony in Islamabad that was broadcast on TV.

Gwadar will soon be a “hub of trade and commerce in the region,” Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said at the ceremony. “It holds the key to bring together the countries of Central Asia” and will further improve Pakistan-China relations, he said.

China paid much of the $250 million originally needed to construct the port, which was previously run by Port of Singapore Authority. It has been a commercial failure since it opened in 2007 because Pakistan never completed the road network to link Gwadar to the rest of the country.

The port on the Arabian Sea occupies a strategic location between South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. It lies near the Strait of Hormuz, gateway for about 20 percent of the world’s oil.

Read more from this story HERE.

Iran Warns: Terrorism to Spread to Washington DC

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In a story carried by Iran’s FARS News Agency, a senior Iranian religious cleric warned that Washington, D.C. should prepare for terrorist attacks in the future.

This warning followed a brutal attack on Shiites in Pakistan that Iran blames on the United States and Saudi Arabia.

The FARS media outlet, effectively controlled by the Iranian government, said that Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi – a senior Iranian religious leader – condemned

the massacre of Shiite Muslims in a terrorist attack in Pakistan which he said has been financed by the US and Saudi Arabia, and warned that the terrorism that these countries support will one day backfire and target Washington, London and Riyadh.

“A horrible crime has happened in Pakistan and a number of predator animals who are called Wahhabi Takfiris have detonated bombs in a Shiite convention and martyred 120 people and injured hundreds,” Makarem Shirazi said in the Central city of Qom on Wednesday.

He blamed the US and Saudi officials for financing such crimes against the Shiite Muslims, and said, “Today this crime was committed in Quetta, Pakistan, and tomorrow it will be Washington’s, London’s, Egypt’s and even Saudi Arabia’s turn.”

Makarem Shirazi also blasted the Pakistani government for it loose security measures in protection of the Shiite community in the country.

A total of 129 people were killed and 280 wounded in three bomb attacks across Pakistan on Thursday.

Ninety-two people were killed and 200 others wounded in a twin bombing that targeted Shiite Muslims in a crowded billiards hall in the western city of Quetta. Earlier in the day, 12 security forces were also killed in a bomb explosion at a security check point in the city.

Read more from the Iranian press agency HERE.

The Muslim Version of Rosa Parks Deserves the Nobel Peace Prize

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City buses have been the scene of transformational moments in human history.

In 1955 Montgomery Alabama, a young black woman was told to sit at the back of the bus, the section reserved for 2nd class citizens. But this day was different, this day she refused to go to the back “black section” and stayed in her seat up front. For this impertinence she was jailed. But as a result of her courage, millions of others refused to sit at the back of the bus and Rosa Parks is synonymous with the American civil rights movement.

On another bus, 3 months ago and continents away, another brave young woman was punished for her refusal to sit at the “educational” back of the bus. A gunman boarded her school bus, singled her out for execution by cowardly shooting her in the head and then again in the chest.

15 year old Malala Yousafzai was targeted because she was an activist for women’s rights and equal education. This is a slap in the face to Muslim extremists who view women as 2nd class citizens, not worthy of an education or other rights accorded to men.

Gravely wounded, she was airlifted to England for medical treatment and sanctuary. After 3 months she was just released from the hospital where she has made miraculous progress. According to doctors she will require future surgery to repair her damaged skull, but they expect her to regain at least 85% of her cognitive ability and perhaps return to activism.

She won worldwide recognition, and has become a symbol for the struggle for women’s rights in Pakistan as well as other countries where women are relegated to 2nd class status due to religious and cultural beliefs.

Indicating her growing popularity and inspiration, she was one of the few nominated for Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” for 2012. Additionally, tens of thousands of people have signed a petition calling for Malala to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Just like the courageous Rosa Parks lifted America out of its blindness and brought it into the light. The courageous Malala Yousafzai can be the light bearer for her culture and lead it out of the darkness of repression. For her courage and inspiration she deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

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Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.