TBC NewsWatch

ASIA BIBI 'HEALTHY AND SAFE'?

ChristianHeadlines.com, 10/27/15, “Asia Bibi ‘Healthy and Safe,’ Says Her Lawyer” [Excerpts]: The lawyers of the only Pakistani Christian woman to be given the death penalty for alleged blasphemy met her in prison last week, reporting that she is safe and in good health.

The final appeal for Aasiya Noreen, commonly known as Asia Bibi, is pending before Pakistan’s top court....The mother of five has been in prison since the summer of 2009, when she was arrested on allegations of insulting the prophet of Islam.

Defense lawyer Saif-ul-Malook [was] accompanied by Asia Bibi’s husband Ashiq Masih on his Oct. 21 visit in the Multan Women’s Prison.

Malook [said] that since early October several foreign news agencies...contacted him over news that Noreen’s health was worsening. “After this I decided to visit the prison and personally meet Asia, to ascertain if the news was correct,” he said.

“Only family of the inmate or the lawyer representing the convict can visit the chamber, so Ashiq and I went together to see her. Inmates on death row are separated and locked into an 8 by 10 feet chamber called a death cell,” Malook said.

Yet there also are indications all is not well inside Multan Jail. Open Doors International, a charity that supports Christians who are under pressure because of their faith, said this month that “people close to the case” have told church contacts in Pakistan that the prison is an overcrowded, unsanitary “hell hole,” and that Noreen is in poor health.

(http://goo.gl/NY9YMb)

CHRISTIAN FAITH STRONGER IN PERSECUTION

MissionNetworkNews.org, 9/8/15, “Faith of Christians in Orissa stronger in face of persecution” [Excerpts]: August 31, 2008 triggered extreme Christian persecution in Orissa, India. Seven years later, there’s still fear and persecution, but there’s also grounded faith in Christ.  

Hindu extremists–who pressured Christians to convert or reconvert to Hinduism–slaughtered 100 Christians when they refused to do so. Three hundred churches and 6,000 homes were raided and ransacked, many Christian women were raped, and around 56,000 Christians were left homeless.

“For most of us, we were prayerful and interacted with the Christian community there in India at that time,” John Sparks of India Partners says....Orissa has remained an unsafe place for Christians, even with the passage of time. Sparks shares that he was simply going into the area, a policeman told him he had to leave because it was unsafe for white people.

Sparks [said] “One of the pastors that works with our ministry there was assassinated—killed by people that were against the Gospel and…shot down in cold blood. So persecution keeps on going....” The indigenous pastor had been working with a church connected to India Partners for a number of years. He leaves behind his wife, 12-year-old daughter, and 5-year-old son.

However, the community of the church is helping to surround the family with prayer and encouragement.

(https://goo.gl/uJFcbV)

LIQUID WATERS ON MARS?

ICR.org, 10/8/15 “Liquid Water on Mars?” [Excerpts]: Scientists have announced indirect evidence of liquid water on the surface of Mars, raising hopes among secular scientists that life may be present on the “red planet.”

Full confirmation of this purported discovery will be delayed, perhaps indefinitely, as an international treaty bans “harmful contamination” of celestial bodies. Vehicles and robots that have not been completely sterilized will not be allowed to approach suspected water sites in order to prevent possible contamination with microbes that may have originated on Earth. However, if Martian water is confirmed, it would definitely be a significant discovery, though not nearly as important as evolutionary scientists would like to make it out to be.

...[I]t has long been known that large quantities of liquid water were present on the Martian surface, although likely only for a brief time. Moreover, there is extensive evidence for catastrophic flooding on Mars. It is one of the ironies of the creation-evolution controversy, that evolutionary scientists have no trouble accepting the idea of catastrophic flooding on Mars (despite the presence of, at best, miniscule amounts of liquid water on the surface today), yet they vehemently deny the possibility of global catastrophic flooding on Earth, a planet seventy percent of which is still underwater!

(http://goo.gl/nHfsyL)