Muslim renovates flooded Church
Posted By cninewsletter On May 27, 2011 @ 4:41 pm

Christians are offering daily prayers for a Muslim politician who is funding a Church restoration project.

Every morning parishioners from Holy Rosary Church gather at the Marian grotto school to offer supplications for Muhammad Ijaz Virk, a national assembly member. The project, which is costing six million rupees (US$ 70,073) includes revamping a 1,114 square meter area including the church floor, altar, altar stage and the parish house.

“This is the first time a Muslim has financed such a project in the diocese. We invited him to help restore the dilapidated structure but got more than we expected,” said Father Bashir Francis, the parish priest. Built in 1985, the Holy Rosary Church suffered heavy damage after last year’s flooding, the worst natural disaster in the country’s history. While the grotto is currently being used for Mass, parishioners shift to an adjacent school hall in hot weather. “The Church building was already more than half a meter below road level and half of it remained submerged for months.” the priest said.

According to Virk, Prime Minster Yousaf Raza Gilani approved the project.

“The government is very cautious about the construction of places of worship but I convinced them. I am inspired by my father who preferred to hire Christians to work in his food company because of their honesty,” he said.

Holy Rosary parish has about 6,000 Catholics; most of them work on daily wages as sanitary workers.

Source: ucanews.com

Hunger looms in remote Nepal hills
http://www.cathnewsindia.com/2011/05/27/hunger-looms-in-remote-nepal-hills/
Published Date: May 27, 2011

The announcement by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), that it will have to reduce food supplies to almost one million hungry Nepalese, has everyone in the region worried.

Nepal has been a major area of work for WFP where, it says, 41 percent of people are estimated to be undernourished and 54 percent live on less than US$1.25 per day.

The cut-back was made known on May 18, but yesterday Christina Hobbs, communications officer for WFP in Nepal, explained: “WFP will have to scale down its operations in Nepal from supplying food to a peak of one million people in recent years, down to a few hundred thousand to adjust to reduced donor funding. There are serious concerns that no donor has yet come forward to support WFP’s operation in 2012, when US$98.5 million will be required to reach 1.2 million people in need.”

At the end of June, WFP Nepal will end its helicopter service, which currently delivers around 13 percent of food. “We are confident that we can reach all current beneficiaries through other means,” said Hobbs, “utilizing newly established roads and a combination of trucks, tractors, commercial air operators, porters, mules and even yaks.”

Indian Naval commanders review coastal security
South Asian Focus | Wednesday May 25 2011

New Delhi - Top naval commanders this week began a four-day conference here to review the security situation in the region in the backdrop of terror strikes in Pakistan, apart from threats posed by Somali pirates closer to Indian shores.

Click here to read full article

Russia Snubs India; Cancels Navy, Army War Games
http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=103858&n_tit=Russia+Snubs+India
Tuesday, May 31, 2011

New Delhi, May 31 (IANS): Russia has snubbed India in the recent months by cancelling two important bilateral war games, usually held under a well-established arrangement, a senior official said Monday. The move has raised eyebrows in the Indian defence establishment.

The Russians have called off the Indra series of navy and army war games in the recent weeks, baffling the Indian defence ministry, the official said.

Russia had late last month called off the Indra series of exercises with the Indian Navy, despite the latter's warships -- including guided missile destroyers INS Delhi, INS Ranvir and INS Ranvijay -- reaching Vladivostok, an eastern Russian port town on the Pacific Ocean.

The reason cited by Russians for the sudden decision to do away with the naval war game was the non-availability of its warships due to their expected deployment in aid of Japan after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the official said here. But what came as a shocker for the Indians was that the Russian warships later sailed out for an exercise of their own, instead of the cited deployment in aid of Japan.

The Indian ships returned to Visakhapatnam last week without the valuable experience that would have been gained if the exercise had taken place. Indian Navy personnel instead had to contend with a face-saver of a tabletop simulation during their stay in Vladivostok, the official said. "The reasons given by the Russian navy are absurd," the official added.

But the latest insult to injury was the calling off of an army exercise under the Indra series that was to be held in Russia in June. Moscow conveyed to New Delhi last week that it would not be able to host the exercise as the intimation for the war game was sent very recently without much time for preparation, the official said.

Since 2003, the two countries have conducted five exercises between their armies and navies under the Indra series. The latest bilateral army exercise was held in Uttarakhand last October. The Russian moves come in the wake of India choosing two European fighter jets as the top contenders for a $10.4 billion fighter jet contract. In the process, not only Russian but also American and Swedish planes were knocked out of the competition.

After being fed-up for long with delays and non-availability of spares for its Soviet-era MiG-series fighter jets, military transports, radars and missile systems, India issued several open global tenders worth several millions of dollars for the same. The two sides also fenced over time and cost overruns in the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier refit, for which India is now paying $2.34 billion instead of the 2004 price of $1.5 billion, which included 16 MiG-29K carrier-borne fighter jets for $526 million.

Just over six months ago, India had signed agreements with Russia for the joint development of a fifth generation fighter jet of which Indian Air Force (IAF) is likely to get about 250 to 300 planes. In fact, the IAF chief, Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik, has just returned from Russia after inspecting the progress on the fifth generation jet.

This apart, India and Russia have also inked a pact on developing a medium transport aircraft, of which IAF would get about 45 planes. Through these agreements, India is likely to invest over $10 billion in the two projects.

Pakistan’s top military officials are worried about militant collaborators in their ranks
Excerpt from: The Washington Post

Islamabad, Pakistan - Embarrassed by the Osama bin Laden raid and by a series of insurgent attacks on high-security sites, top Pakistani military officials are increasingly concerned that their ranks are penetrated by Islamists who are aiding militants in a campaign against the state.

Those worries have grown especially acute since the killing of bin Laden less than a mile from a prestigious military academy. This week’s naval base infiltration by heavily armed insurgents in Karachi - an attack widely believed to have required inside help - has only deepened fears, military officials said.

Click here to read full article
(Karin Brulliard)