On Sandy Hook anniversary, U.S. activists call for gun restrictions

U.S. gun control activists called for expanded background checks for firearms purchasers and for a ban on sales to people on federal watch lists on Monday, in a protest marking the third anniversary of the massacre at a Connecticut elementary school.

Speakers including U.S. Representative Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat, and survivors of recent U.S. mass shootings made their call outside the Fairfax, Virginia, headquarters of the National Rifle Association lobbying group. About 100 people attended the protest in the Washington suburb.

On Dec. 14, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, an attack that stands as one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history. He began his attack by killing his mother at their home and ended it by turning his gun on himself.

"It was a scene that has been repeated too often in the United States, and just as often, the response to these senseless killings has been inaction on the issue of gun control," said Connolly.

The congressman added that he also wanted Congress to overturn a longstanding ban on providing federal funding for research on gun violence.

The U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment protects the right to bear arms. Gun-rights groups, including the NRA, argue that restrictions on gun purchases would not improve public safety, reasoning that criminals do not obey laws.

Connolly was joined by the parents of Alison Parker, one of two Roanoke, Virginia, television journalists shot dead by a former station employee during a live broadcast in August, and two survivors of a 2011 shooting in Tucson, Arizona, that badly wounded then-U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords and killed six others.

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy last week said his state planned to ban sales of firearms to people designated on U.S. lists as having suspected ties to terrorism or who are banned from flying on commercial aircraft. That move came days after President Barack Obama called on Congress to impose a similar prohibition nationwide following the fatal shooting of 14 people in California by a married couple inspired by Islamic State militants.

The proposal has failed to gain traction in Congress, with opponents arguing that many people on the watch lists are there by mistake and should thus not be denied access to firearms.

An NRA spokeswoman could not be reached for immediate comment on Monday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-connecticut-shooting-anniversary-idUSKBN0TX1ZN20151214

Bangladesh - Fugitive war crimes accused

In this month of our nation's victory over the Pakistan occupation army, we reinforce our call to bring all the perpetrators of the heinous war crimes of 1971 to book. We note with concern that a lot of the accused have been absconding while some have fled the country. The law enforcing agencies are also, reportedly, showing a lack of interest in arresting the alleged war criminals. It is indeed unfortunate that the investigation and prosecution process does not have any comprehensive strategy to get the job done either. 

This will certainly hamper the crimes against humanity trial, and run the risk of the work of the investigators going in vain.

There is no denying that the setting up of our International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in 2010 has been crucial in handing down justice to the Bangladeshi collaborators who fought alongside the Pakistan army during the country's independence war in 1971. It certainly aims at upholding the rule of law by giving this nation a chance to a get closure with its turbulent past.

Even though some of the war crimes accused have been punished, a lot of them have not yet faced trial. It is imperative that the ICT is given unfretted allowance for the smooth functioning of its activities as permitted by the law of the land. In this regard, we call upon the government to remove any barrier that hinders the due diligence of the investigation and prosecution process. It is also necessary to arm the delegated institutions with the logistics to conduct the war crimes trial as per the book with renewed vigour.

http://www.thedailystar.net/editorial/fugitive-war-crimes-accused-187204

India to discuss only Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, says envoy to Pak

India’s envoy to Pakistan said on Monday the country only prepared to discuss the part of Kashmir controlled by Islamabad in upcoming peace talks, presenting a potential stumbling block days after the dialogue was announced.

High commissioner TCA Raghavan made the remarks about the disputed territory during a lecture in the Pakistani capital, after a breakthrough visit by foreign minister Sushma Swaraj at which the resumption of ministerial talks was announced.

According to a joint statement, the two sides will talk about peace and security as well as territorial disputes including Kashmir. Each country occupies part of the territory but claims it in full.

Asked where the room for negotiation lay over the Himalayan territory, Raghavan said it was India which first petitioned the United Nations to intervene when the-then princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was invaded by Pakistani forces in 1947.

“The first application was moved by India and it was on the grounds that a part of the state, which had acceded to India, is now under the illegal occupation of the Pakistan army.

“So when you say what is it that India is going to discuss or what is it discussing, it is really, if you ask most Indians, and what is our position -- it is the part of that state which is still under the control of Pakistan.”

The remarks could create a diplomatic wrinkle for the two countries as they seek to go back to the negotiation table to undertake broad-spectrum talks for the first time since the election of Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif.

Badar Alam, editor of Pakistan’s political Herald magazine, said: “I think it is a step back,” adding that Kashmir was viewed internationally as a disputed territory.

He added that given the fragile state of the dialogue, officials on both sides needed to tread “very cautiously and very carefully” to avoid a backlash.

New Delhi suspended all talks after Lashkar-e-Taiba gunmen attacked Mumbai in November 2008, killing 166 people. The attacks were later found to have been planned from Pakistan.

The countries agreed to resume the peace process in 2011 but tensions have spiked over the past two years, with cross-border shelling claiming dozens of lives since 2014.

A brief meeting between Modi and Sharif on the sidelines of the UN climate change summit in Paris on November 30, followed by talks between the two countries’ national security advisers in Bangkok, appeared to have broken the ice.

Kashmir separatists, meanwhile, said they held a detailed meeting with Pakistan high commissioner to India, Abdul Basit, in New Delhi to discuss the recent meetings of external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj with Sharif and his adviser Sartaj Aziz.

Spokesperson of hardline Hurriyat Conference, Ayaz Akbar, said party chairman Syed Ali Geelani’s personal secretary Peer Saifullah and chief organiser Altaf Ahmad Shah met Basit, deputy high commissioner and the other officials.

“The Hurriyat delegation handed them a message of Geelani Sahab that Pakistan should continue to maintain consistency and firmness over its Kashmir policy and play an active role in highlighting the human rights violations committed by Indian forces in Jammu & Kashmir on the international forums,” Akbar said.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/india-to-only-discuss-pakistan-controlled-kashmir-says-envoy-to-pak/story-49dD3xSkN4dMj3pAs1n8QN.html

India, Pakistan: love/hate successions

by Lal Khan

Pakistan and India announced on Wednesday in Islamabad that they were resuming the dialogue on outstanding issues, ending a two-year-long stalemate. The “Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue,” as it has been named, will include all elements covered under previous versions of the talks: peace and security, confidence-building measures, Jammu and Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek, Wullar Barrage, Tulbul Navigation Project, economic and commercial cooperation, counter-terrorism, narcotics control and humanitarian issues, people-to-people exchanges, and religious tourism.

The revival of yet another new round of peace negotiations was announced by Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who was here to attend the Heart of Asia ministerial conference, after her meetings with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz.

Ever since the reactionary and bloody partition of the subcontinent, the masses have witnessed love and hate, friendship, hostilities, three and a half wars, countless treaties, numerous UN resolutions, and rounds of peace talks between the two capitalist states; but alas, to no avail. In the current epoch of devastating war technology, and in particular being “proud” possessors of deadly nuclear arsenals, the perspective of a full-fledged war is remote. However, it’s very often the case that relations are intentionally strained to extremes, and their paid hirelings in the policy think tanks and corporate media can only resort to whipping up hatred and war hysteria, creating warlike conditions without an actual war, to serve the interests of the ruling elites. Similarly, as the effects of this fabricated enmity and hatred start to wane, they resort to the pretences of peace “initiatives” and “people to people” contacts to dupe the minds of the teeming millions that are being coerced, exploited, and agonised by the rule of capital. In the last analysis, the inference one can draw from the experiences of the last seven decades is that these ruling classes have reached a state of inertia where they can neither go to war nor sustain a durable peace.

This week’s visit of India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is yet another episode of these mockeries of war-and-peace successions. Ever since the BJP government came to power in May last year there has been an accentuated activity of this enmity and friendship theatrics. There was initiation and cancellation of talks, accusations and counter-accusations, and the cycle of this rhetoric accelerated on and on. However, the handshake between Nawaz Sharif and Narindera Modi on the sidelines at the World Climate Summit in Paris was no coincidence at all. It has been subsequently revealed that it was orchestrated and perhaps choreographed by top US and British diplomats who, for their own interests, are desperate to keep these hostilities at a certain sustained and controlled level, without ever abolishing them.

The “adversary” regimes needed a breakthrough to come out of the diplomatic cul-de-sac and plan two high-level visits of Indian leaders to Pakistan.

The talks between the National Security Advisors of the two countries in Bangkok, away from the gaze of the nationalistic media outlets of the two countries, provided this much-needed alibi. The appointment of Lt-Gen Nasir Khan Janjua as Pakistan’s NSA also motivated India to go ahead with peace talks. Lt-Gen Janjua represents the Pakistani military that actually is the power in the present democratic façade and calls the shots on most vital issues. It actually determines the decision-making in Islamabad. Ms Swaraj needed a ready platform to announce the resumption of peace talks in Islamabad, and the successful negotiations between the two NSAs in Bangkok gave her that. Delhi and Islamabad gave up their tough positions on two key issues to achieve this result. India agreed to keep Kashmir on the agenda, and Pakistan promised to speed up the trial of those India blames for the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

On the other hand, sections of the Pakistani and Indian capitalist class who are facing a daunting economic decline are desperate to exploit adjacent markets to overcome this burgeoning crisis of the fall in the rate of profit. These vested trade interests of the rotten elites were clearly evident in Sushma Sawaraj’s address to the “Heart of Asia” conference in Islamabad on Wednesday. She said, “Let me take this opportunity to extend our hand to Pakistan as well. It is time the two countries display maturity and self-confidence to do business with each other and strengthen regional trade and cooperation. Similarly, if Afghan trucks could carry Indian products to markets in Afghanistan and Central Asia, that would be the best way to make trucking from Afghanistan cost-effective and viable, and bestow benefits to the whole region.” Here she was, in fact, emphasising the Indian bourgeois’ aspiration to have an overland trade access through Pakistan to Afghanistan and Central Asia. Referring to the pressures of imperialism, Sawaraj said, “The entire world is waiting and rooting for a change. Let us not disappoint them . . . for its part, India is prepared to move our cooperation at a pace which Pakistan is comfortable with . . . The 'Heart of Asia' cannot function if arteries are clogged.” She also announced that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Pakistan next year to participate in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), and that she would also accompany Narendra Modi during his visit to Pakistan next year.

The more than one-fifth of the human race that resides in this South Asian subcontinent would be more than happy if durable peace and tranquillity comes to this ancient land, particularly since some sections of their leadership never stops repeating that ongoing conflict and hostility hinders growth, development, and poverty alleviation. Yet these very leaders and their reactionary religious bigots incite the violence and hatred that give rise to this climate of enmity and hostility. The imperialist military-industrial complex has a crushing domination over the Congress, Senate, and the Presidency in the US, and needs this hostility to ensure arms sales, at astronomical prices and profits. The states and the military red tapes have their own needs for this conflict to keep on simmering. The massive military expenditures would have no justification if peace and friendship prevailed. The bosses of the nuclear arsenals and the geopolitical strategists of the states, with their hegemonic designs in the region, ensure that such aggressive notions are periodically inflamed to justify their jobs, incomes, and perks.

Let us not forget the real reason for the restoration of aggressive stances, terrorist attacks, bloodletting, and the war hysteria across the borders is the fear of a revolt from below. The ruling elites on both sides have failed to deliver, and have brought misery and destitution for the teeming millions, and have turned this subcontinent which, during ancient times, was a beacon, into a dark pit of misery with the biggest concentration of poverty in the world. With these ruling classes and state bosses in power, chances of any permanent peace and friendship between the two neighbours remains a mirage.

The scars of partition have not disappeared. Rather, they are periodically scratched to keep the wounds of this religiously cleaved incision festering. This partition not only gave birth to Pakistan on the basis of religion, but it also transformed what was left of India. As years passed and socio-economic crisis in the system imposed by imperialism deepened, its political and cultural ramifications on both sides of the Radcliffe Line have become more and more tormenting for the ordinary souls of the region. Pakistan has been for decades submerging into the abyss of Islamic fundamentalist reaction perpetuated by the vicious Zia dictatorship. Now the Hindu bigots, who are slavishly liable and subservient to the reactionary RSS, are ruling India, the largest democracy in the world. The so-called secular and democratic India has been systematically plunging into this reactionary condition with the failure of Indian capitalism to build an evenly modern society. India has rather become a living museum of historical materialism. But this phase of a certain degree of terror and reaction blanketing the region is temporary and superfluous. This is the result of the failure of the left-populists and Stalinists to give a lead and destination to the revolutionary movements that have erupted time and again in this South Asian subcontinent. Capitalism has spurned and debased the working classes and the youth. There is a simmering hatred and revulsion in these societies. This lava is bound to erupt. Once this class struggle explodes, this gimmickry of war and peace and its perpetrators, the ruling elites on both sides of the border, will be swept away by the rising tide of revolutionary socialism.

#Peshawar - 'Bara dushman bana phirta hai jo bachon se larta hai'

ISPR releases song in remembrance of APS martyrs by dawn-news

#Peshawar - ISPR's new video message to terrorists is about revenge — through education

Peshawar Army Public School - The winter of the children

 

By Mina Malik-Hussain

The winter of our discontent is back. The sixteenth is this week, marking a year to the most horrific terrorist attack we have seen in our country yet. The rest of the world and its noise seems to dim when one’s mind goes back to the memory of being fixed in front of the television, the news being near-shouted by shocked newscasters. This week I don’t care about Donald Trump, or whether Farhat Hashmi will be extradited from Canada or how suspicious Tashfeen Malik’s identity card looks. This week we must bear witness, and remember.

It is the pity of our dangerous lives that ordinary people must be heroes. Tahira Qazi, the principal, who refused to leave, rushing from classroom to classroom urging students inside to lock the doors and lie on the ground. She tried to hide in a bathroom; they threw a grenade in.Fourteen year oldUzair Ali, floppy-haired and baby-faced, who flung himself over his friends to shield them, and took thirteen bullets. Teachers including Saeed Khan, who was calming students down and hiding them and twenty-four year old Afshan Ahmed, who tried to stop the attackers from coming into her classroom. They burned both teachers alive. The heart quails, as it should.

This year, winter to winter, has been one where children have suffered the most. From little Aylan Kurdi, washed up on a strange shore, to the scores of haunted children in Kasur. The trajectory of violence has taken children into its sweep and we fail, each day, to be able to do anything to stop it. Surely harming children should be the line nobody should ever cross. Why hasn’t the world made it so hauntingly terrible, so unspeakable, that even the most evil should think twice about taking action that would maim or kill a child? Probably because the world is a vast and terrible place. That there are people, even if they are few in the grand scheme of things but are more powerful and ruthless than millions put together; that those people will stop at nothing to get what they want. That includes the people who carefully planned to attack a school. Who spent time and money on making sure they would succeed. Who stood outside the gates, reconnoitering. They watched children, blazered in green and probably wearing the standard black school shoes, chattering with friends, sleepily trudging along, cramming last-minute from a textbook or hastily finishing a portable breakfast. And then they went in with guns and grenades and petrol, and they looked children in their terrified eyes and four year old Khaula died, Abdullah Ghani Awan died, Ahmed Ali Shah died.

The point here is not to horrify anew, but to remember. It is a human thing, to mourn and move on. It’s the only way we can survive the various griefs of our lives—to allow it to fade a little, to let the edges blur a bit so we can have some peace. But we also immerse ourselves back into our lives, and are swept farther away and so it is necessary to remember, collectively, a day that we all must never allow to happen again. ‘Allow’ is a lofty, idealistic word, particularly in this world of ours where so much is beyond our control or influence. But if we take anything away from the APS massacre and our Dark December, let it be that the children, all of them, must be protected. Let us recognize that we may not be able to save the Syrian children or the Palestinian ones or the American ones, all of whom are being punished for things they didn’t do, or ever had a say in. But we can save ours. We can send blankets and books to the children who, post earthquake, are homeless in the winter. We can teach a few kids at home. We can cook a little extra each week and feed some children. We can pay the school fees for the children of our household help. And most of all, we can teach our own children to be kind. To be empathetic. That the privileged are duty bound to help those without, whoever they may be. To recognize the difference between ambition and greed, to be able to let go of the material long enough to be able to give. For unless we give back, there is no hope for any of us. 16/14 didn’t just happen to those people, over there. It happened to all of us. None of us will ever send our children to school without holding our breath, just a little. None of us will ever be able to see the photographs of the 144 without their heart sinking. That’s good, for it means we care. What the teachers and students of that besieged school did for each other should be honoured forever: they were courageous, and they tried to protect each other. They were people at their finest, at that wicked and tragic hour. They cannot have died in vain. That is one thing we can take control of. We will honour the dead by supporting the living, we will fight back the dark and dastardly by being bearers of light and hope. We don’t need an army for that, we don’t need infrastructure or government support. All we need, and have, is heart.

مسلم لیگ نواز کی وفاقی حکومت کا پی آئی اے کی نجکاری کا خفیہ ایجنڈا بے نقاب ہو گیا پی پی پی پارلیمنٹیزینز

کراچی: پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی کے سینیٹرز ڈاکٹر کریم خواجہ، عاجز دھامرہ اور انجینئرگیان چند نے کہا ہے کہ پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی نے قبل از وقت ہی قوم کو خبردار کردیا تھا کہ پی آئی اے کے معاملے پر ن لیگ کی حکومت کی نیت ٹھیک نہیں ہے اور راتوں رات صدارتی آرڈیننس کے اجراء کے بعدپی آئی اے کو خریدنے میں خواہشمند منظور نظر شخصیات کے ایما پر اب پی آئی اے میں ڈاؤن سائزنگ کے سلسلے میں ن لیگ کی وفاقی حکومت نے اپنی تیاریاں مکمل کرلی ہیں جس کے نتیجے میں کم از کم 10ہزارملازمین فارغ کردیے جائیں گے اور اس کے علاوہ پائلٹس کو بھی مستقل ملازمت کے دائرے سے باہر کرکرکے انہیں کنٹریکٹ پر بھرتی کیا جائے گا۔پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی میڈیا سیل سندھ سے جاری کردہ اپنے مشترکہ بیان میں انہوں نے کہا کہ ن لیگ کی حکومت آئی ایم ایف سے ساز باز کرکے ملکی قومی اور احساس ادارے اپنے من پسند لوگوں کو اونے پونے داموں میں فروخت کررہی ہے جس سے قومی اداروں کی تباہی سمیت ملک کا وقار اور سلامتی بھی خطرے میں ہے۔انہوں نے کہا کہ قومی اسمبلی کو بائی پاس کر کے رات کے اندھیرے میں صدارتی آرڈیننس کا اجراء اس طرف واضح اشارہ تھا کہ دال میں کچھ کالا ہی نہیں بلکہ پوری دال ہی کالی ہے۔انہوں نے کہاکہ پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی ملکی وقار کے منافی اقدامات پر ن لیگ کے خلاف کل بھی سراپا احتجاج تھی اور آج بھی ہے اور اگر ن لیگ کی وفاقی حکومت نے اپنی روش تبدیل نہ کی تو پھر احتجاج کا ایسا سلسلہ شروع کردیا جائے گا کہ پھر ن لیگ کی وفاقی حکومت کو کہیں چھپنے کی جگہ نہیں ملے گی۔

https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/

Pakistan - Two Punjab University professors, student arrested for banned outfits links

Two Punjab University (PU) faculty members and one student were taken into custody by the Lahore Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) during a raid on university premises late Sunday night.

CTD sources claimed the arrest of Assistant Professor Amir Saeed of the Institute of Administration Sciences, Omer Nawab, boys’ hostel superintendent and lecturer at the College of Information Technology and seventh semester law college student Waqar.

Saeed was taken into custody at the male teachers’ hostel where he lived with his family, while Nawab was arrested from his residence near the boys’ hostel. Waqar was arrested from the university premises.

All three men are suspected of involvement with the pro-ISIS banned Hizbut Tahrir (HuT) group and Sipah-e-Sahaba aka (Ahl-e-Sunnat-Wal-Jamaat), said CTD sources.

Last week PU teacher Assistant Professor Ghalib Ata was arrested by the police’s CTD also for his alleged association with the HuT.

The CTD team raided Ata’s house and took him into custody for interrogation.

“Intelligence agencies and the CTD have been directed not to allow HuT to continue its activities,” sources said earlier, adding that Professor Ata was being interrogated for taking part in activities of the banned outfit.

SSP is a takfiri terrorist group responsible for carrying out terrorist activities against Shia Muslims, Pakistan Army and other minorities in Pakistan. SSP also operates as a political party with other name Mutahida Deni Mahaz and othesr, and its leaders have been elected into the National Assembly.

It is one of the most powerful terrorist organisations, and was responsible for attacks on Shia worshippers in Karachi in May 2004, which killed at least 50 people. The organisation was banned by President Pervez Musharraf in January 2002. Since then, the SSP had changed its name to Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan, but was banned again in September 2003. Now they are running its party entitled Ahl-e-Sunnat-Wal-Jamaat (ASWJ).

http://shiapost.com/2015/12/14/two-university-professors-student-arrested-for-banned-outfits-links/

PCC condemns CDA official version on Christian slums of Islamabad

Dr. Nazir S Bhatti, President of Pakistan Christian Congress PCC have advised Capital Development Authority CDA to advertise “Sanitary Workers Muslim only in Islamabad” if it fears that Christian slums are danger for Muslim demography in Islamabad.

“Pakistani Christians will be grateful of CDA and Interior Minister Ch. Nisar Ali if they take out yoke of slavery through imposition of profession of Sanitary Worker for them starting from capital city of Pakistan with hiring only Muslim as sweepers and push all Christians out of Islamabad by demolishing their homes to make this city more beautiful and Muslim friendly populated” said Nazir Bhatti

Pakistan Christian Congress Chief said “Muslims have been cleaning streets of cities of Indian sub-continent for centuries while profession of sanitary worker was imposed on Christians after formation of Pakistan”

Islamabad was built in 1960s and Christians from different villages of Punjab were brought to this new city with promise of lucrative jobs and ultimate housing and other facilities but only jobs of sanitary workers were given to them and tents as homes.

The Christian workers made mud or brick homes on same tents facilities where electric and water connections were deployed by CDA in different phases of time.

Nazir Bhatti expressed surprise that these Christian slum dwellers kept this city clean for decades which now CDA is declaring black mark of beauty of Islamabad.

PCC Chief demanded CDA to build apartments for Christian residents of slums because they are CDA employees from years.

CDA intends to demolish slums of Christians and statement submitted by it in Supreme Court of Pakistan in a petition that Christian slums are danger for Muslim population by itself is contempt of court and grave violation of rights of Christians in Pakistan which constitution of Pakistan declares equal citizen of state. 

- See more at: http://www.pakistanchristianpost.com/detail.php?hnewsid=5726#sthash.Yfoi0SeY.dpuf

Target: Christian-populated slums in Pakistan

“The Church is growing.” You’ve heard that said about any area where persecution is prevalent.

It’s true in Pakistan, as well, where the oppression against Christians is reaching a crisis. It’s such an issue, it seems, that the Pakistani government is cracking down on slums in Islamabad over concerns the Christian population could overtake the Muslim majority.

Bruce Allen of Forgotten Missionaries International says the Capital Development Authority (CDA) made its decision last year about the slums in and around the capital. ”In Islamabad, there [are] about 80,000 Christians in these different settlements. There have been groups calling for the eviction of these Christians.” Most people living in these areas are Christians and Afghan refugees. Allen then explains the reason they’re in the slums. “81% of Christians across Pakistan do not own their own homes…four out of five Christians. Those people, the 81%, either have to rent from landlords or else they’re kind of relegated to Christian slums or ghettos.”

Displacing 80,000 or more people with nowhere to go seems heartless. Yet, Allen confirmed the report through Brother Nehemiah, FMI’s Pakistan director. In response to the question, he wrote, “[SIC] As per military action plan, all illegal unauthorized colonies will be demolished with 30-days notification. This action was taken due to highly-populated Afghan colonies as number of high value targets arrested from these colonies. This Christian colony is also illegal and allotted to local Christian people in years ago by [a] member of national assembly to get votes in Pervaiz Musharraf’s regime [the previous administration]. Worst part of this situation is that government is not showing any interest to give some alternative place [for] people [to] stay temporary/permanent.”

The CDA tried to justify the decision. “They were generating the propaganda that these settlements were harboring Islamic terrorists.” Instead, a report offered this profile of the slum areas. “Two-thirds of the Christian families are living below the poverty line in Pakistan,” says Allen. These Christians are trapped in the cycle of poverty because most can’t afford an education. Without an education, they’re relegated to a 3D job (dangerous, dirty, and difficult). “They may be part of a church,” Allen notes, “[but] they can’t support their pastor to stay in ministry.”

A young married couple teams together to mix clay and slap it into a metal form. Their baby joins them during their workday in the “giant sandbox.”
(Photo, caption cred: FMI)

It’s here that FMI comes alongside the indigenous churches either through training, tools, or pastor support. Allen says if the eviction orders go through, a massive humanitarian effort is in the offing. FMI tells these church leaders, “We will partner with you for a number of years to help you lead your congregation to maturity. We don’t want you to leave ministry.’”

However, the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom noted in this year’s report that Pakistan represented “one of the worst situations in the world for religious freedom” and again recommended that the administration designate it a “country of particular concern.”

Given the challenges Gospel workers face, Allen says, “Pray for God’s good provision for His children. Pray for the wisdom of the pastors who serve the congregations that are made up of those folks that they would have courageous and creative leadership.” As for what’s needed to help church leaders, You have promised that when Your children ask for bread, You do not throw stones at them. You give them what they need.’”

https://www.mnnonline.org/news/target-christian-populated-slums-in-pakistan/

Music Video - Natalie La Rose - Somebody ft. Jeremih

Safe spaces - Only five US states spared from mass shooting bloodbaths in 2015

Just five US states were immune to the bloody, perpetual series of mass shootings in the United States this year, which has seen more of them than the number of days gone by.

Experts debate whether the states were spared thanks to coincidence or if circumstances there make them a safe haven.

As of December 2, 353 mass shootings have killed 462 people in 220 cities, according to the shootingtracker.com website. 

A total of 1,317 people were wounded, after adjusting for the latest toll from the last mass shooting, which saw a husband and wife couple kill 14 and wound 22 in San Bernardino, California, the deadliest such tragedy in three years.

If there is no slowdown to this frenetic pace, there will be as many such traumatic deadly events as there are days in the year. Or more.

The count includes all events that have killed or wounded at least four people.

Hawaii, New Hampshire, North Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming alone were spared such macabre fate.

All of them except West Virginia have not seen a single mass shooting since 2013, when the website first began its count based not on official figures but on reports obtained from media reports and other sources.

The outcome owes in part to the relatively low population density in those states, experts say.

Wyoming, home to 584,000 people, is the least populous state, according to 2014 estimates from the US Census.

North Dakota, with 739,500 people, is the fourth least populated state (ranking 47th out of 50 overall by population).

"Naturally, we would expect that states with smaller populations would have fewer mass shootings, on average," University of Alabama criminologist Adam Lankford told AFP.

The most populous state, California with 38.8 million people, had the second biggest number of shootings so far this year - 25.

Florida, which counted the most - 27 - shootings, has a population of 19.9 million, making it the third most populated state.

'Lucky this year'


The five states are also among the most rural. Most lack major cities, except for Hawaii, with Honolulu having a population of about 375,000.

So people in these states are less likely to live in cities than those in most other US states.

"This affects their risk and probability of experiencing a mass shooting," Lankford said.

"Although school and workplace shootings do occur in towns and other rural areas, there are many types of mass shootings that mostly occur in cities, such as mass shootings that arise from gang violence, organized crime, and other criminal activity."

But their immunity to these incidents is counterintuitive.

None of these five states, except for Hawaii, has adopted strict gun control legislation, and it is often easier to own one there than elsewhere in the United States.

Wyoming namely does not regulate the transfer or possession of machine guns and no state permit is required to purchase a rifle, shotgun or handgun.

That earns it an F from the San Francisco-based Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, an advocacy group. North Dakota and West Virginia also get that lowest possible grade.

New Hampshire fared just a hair better, with a D. 

Hawaii, in contrast, got a B+, because of its license and registration requirements, ban on assault weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines, child access prevention requirements and restriction on openly carrying of handguns and long guns.

An increasingly frustrated President Barack Obama has repeatedly called for stricter gun control legislation, but his calls have gone unheeded.

The easy flow of weapons, experts say, triggers more mass shootings because guns can end up in the wrong people's hands.

There have been numerous shootings in those five states, but always with fewer than four victims.

"None of them have done anything innovative or effective to prevent mass shootings, it just happens to be an unfortunate coincidence," said Adam Winkler of the UCLA School of Law.

Winkler, who wrote Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America, said there was "no doubt" that gun rights advocates will point to the lack of mass shootings in those states as proof that less gun control means more safety.

Yet "it is very difficult to reduce mass shootings, mainly because most of the guns used in these shootings are purchased legally," he added. 

"I don't think it is possible to stop mass shootings at the state level, even if, of course, they can take some actions."

Lankford thinks it has more to do with coincidence than anything else.

"I think these states have been lucky this year, and in the future they are unfortunately more likely to experience some mass shootings," he said.

Mass shootings remain "very rare" events in the United States, with a population of nearly 320 million, said James Jacobs of New York University School of Law.

"It is unlikely that any policy initiative can prevent such rare events," he added, noting that California has some of the nation's strictest gun controls.

So shootings can take place at random, and "luck could continue" for those five states, according to Jacobs.

SAN BERNARDINO SHOOTING: President Obama expressed sorrow in call to mayor

President Barack Obama offered deep sympathy, praise for emergency workers and prayers for the city of San Bernardino and the victims of the Dec. 2 mass shooting in a phone conversation with Mayor Carey Davis the day after the attack.

Davis described the five-minute conversation in an interview Sunday, Dec. 13.

The White House called in advance before Obama called Davis about 7:10 a.m. on Davis’ city cellphone.

“I was very appreciative of his call,” Davis said. “He was expressing his deep sorrow and concern for the victims of the terrorist attack – although at the time of course he didn’t describe it as a terrorist attack because it had not been confirmed as a terrorist attack.

“He expressed concern for our city and that he and his family would be keeping the victims and the city in his prayers. He extended a helping hand from the White House in whatever capacity we might need,” Davis said.

No specific assistance was offered or requested, Davis added.

“He also praised the courageous efforts of our police department and the fire department and how all the first responders came together in such remarkable fashion,” the mayor said.

Davis said he expressed his appreciation to the president for calling.

“I had some communication to him about how proud I was of our police department and the fire department and all the city departments that came together and didn’t have to be asked to do anything (first). They came together with great precision,” Davis said.

There was no discussion of Obama visiting San Bernardino. Obama had visited Newtown, Connecticut, almost exactly three years earlier after the massacre of 20 students and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School

Davis declined to discuss how he felt about the president passing up San Bernardino.

Obama is scheduled to leave Washington for his annual vacation in Hawaii this coming Friday.

Davis described the past 12 days as “extremely intense” for him, “with the subsequent city business that has to be continued to be conducted, but at the same time putting forth our efforts to provide for the rebuilding and recovery for the victims.”

Davis was elected mayor in February 2014 and has had to deal with the city’s emergence from bankruptcy, and now the aftermath of the shooting.

“I think that anyone going into the office of mayor or governor does need to prepare for natural disasters or man-made disasters, but certainly we don’t have that crystal ball to be able to foretell the future events that you may be placed in,” he said. “This was a team effort. I was very blessed and our city was blessed to have such an effective team serve and respond with such effectiveness. I felt the city was extremely valiant. The county also.”

http://www.pe.com/articles/davis-789222-conversation-bernardino.html

Cruz, not Trump, looking like GOP favorite for 2016

By Chris Cillizza 

The Iowa caucuses are seven weeks away. Donald Trump is still the Republican front-runner. Sen. Marco Rubio is, for now, the establishment's best (only?) hope. And Sen. Ted Cruz is the guy who looks best positioned to win.

Yes, you heard that right.

Cruz (R-Tex.), as of today, has the most direct route to the Republican presidential nomination - assuming that the past history of GOP nomination fights works as a broad predictor of where the 2016 race is headed.

Let me elaborate.

1. Cruz is positioned as the most conservative candidate in the race. Although Trump gets all the attention for his over-the-top statements, Cruz has staked out a position on the far right on virtually every major hot-button issue, including immigration, Obamacare, national security and the fight against the Islamic State militant group. And, tonally, Cruz comes across as aggressively and unapologetically conservative - a less controversial and more electable version of real estate magnate Trump.

A Washington Post-ABC News November poll showed that Cruz's numbers are in the stratosphere among voters who identify themselves as "very" conservative; 69 percent had a favorable opinion of him, while just 21 percent regarded him in an unfavorable light.

In a Republican primary - particularly one in which the GOP electorate is mad at everyone (including those in their own party) for an alleged lack of commitment to conservative principles - being the guy all the way on the ideological right is a very, very good thing.

2. Cruz has raised the second-most money in the Republican race. Bet you didn't know that! Yes, former Florida governor Jeb Bush is by far the fundraising leader in the race. Not only did we know that would be the case but we also know that it has done him, roughly, zero good. Cruz's money, on the other hand, is - or at least was - unexpected.

Cruz's nearly $65 million is all the more impressive because, unlike Bush, who raised the vast majority of his money with the support of his Right to Rise super PAC, Cruz has a relatively even balance between the funds raised for his campaign committee ($26.5 million) and those collected by a universe of supportive super PACs ($38 million). Having so much money in his campaign account means that Cruz will get more bang for his buck, because candidates get the lowest unit rate on TV ad buying, while super PACs have to pay full freight for their airtime.

Cruz's money is also what separates him from other candidates who had secured the mantle of "most conservative candidate in the primary." Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, the former senator from Pennsylvania, won the Iowa caucuses during past campaigns - more on Cruz and Iowa below - but they were unable to capitalize on that win or sustain their support because they had so little money.

Cruz is the best-case scenario for those who want to see a movement conservative nominated: He's of the conservative movement but has the fundraising ability of an establishment Republican.

3. Cruz is the Iowa front-runner. Recent history makes clear that you need to win one of the first three states - Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina - to have a realistic chance of being the party's nominee. (Remember how well former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani's "wait until Florida" strategy worked in 2008? Thought so.)

Cruz is emerging rapidly as the favorite in Iowa's caucuses. Three polls released in the past five days put Cruz at the front of the pack in Iowa - including the influential (and almost always right) Des Moines Register survey, which had the senator from Texas 10 points clear of Trump.

Winning Iowa would give Cruz momentum going into New Hampshire - where he sits in third place - and into South Carolina, a state, like Iowa, whose Republican primary electorate is quite socially conservative.

4. The calendar beyond the Big 3 favors Cruz. Winning one of the first three states is almost certainly the way a candidate makes it to March. But assuming Cruz can win Iowa (at least), the calendar starts to look very favorable to him beyond February. On March 1, what's being referred to as the "SEC primary" takes place; Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas, among others, will vote on that Tuesday.

It's difficult to handicap how those states might play out because of how much the first three states in the past have influenced who stays in the race and what their poll numbers look like. Still, Cruz's profile as the one true constitutional conservative in the race, coupled with his Southern roots and his fundraising, should make for an attractive package for voters going to the polls that day.

The next big primary day is two weeks later, on March 15, when Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio vote. There are less obvious wins in those states for Cruz, but he would almost certainly run well in North Carolina and Missouri under any circumstance and might do well in the other three states depending on who else was left in the contest.

Yes, Cruz has weaknesses - most notably that he has shown little ability to appeal beyond his conservative base and that he is far less likable than, say, Rubio, if it comes down to a one-on-one fight between the two. Rubio, of Florida, is also trying to make an issue of Cruz's immigration stance - insisting that Cruz has less of a hard line on the issue than he lets on.