Morocco: Christians Deported

clipped from www.persecution.com The Moroccan government has deported twenty-eight Christian workers so far in May, according to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts. “The Moroccan government continues political pressures against us Moroccan believers and against the foreign workers, and if it stopped for a while before, it was only to restart again and strongly,” VOM contacts said. “Please continue to pray and also to act, because if this … continues, soon we’ll not be deported but [we will be] arrested or even killed.” In recent months, the government has increased its crackdown on Christians, expelling as many as 60 Christian aid workers from the country. Moroccan police have accused Christian aid workers from the United States, Korea, Netherlands and England of violating Morocco’s anti-proselytism laws. “When [authorities] visited an American-founded orphanage in the town of Azrou, they drew several young children aside and demanded they demonstrate the ‘proper’ way to pray,”

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Volcano ash: Threat of second volcano Katla '10 times the strength'

clipped from www.telegraph.co.uk A second volcano in Iceland could erupt with 10 times the force of Eyjafyoll if history repeats itself, scientists have warned. Katla lies next to the volcano currently causing worldwide travel chaos with molten lava and ash shooting into the sky. The last time Eyjafyoll erupted in 1821-23, Katla followed shortly afterwards. The same pattern occurred in 1612. Katla erupts approximately every 60 years but has not done so since 1918, when it was 10 times as powerful greater than the ongoing activity in Eyjafyoll. Assistant professors Andy Hooper and Joris Melkert, from the University of Delft in the Netherlands, said the ongoing activity could cause trouble for months. “A new volcanic dust cloud potentially heading towards the United Kingdom underlines the very real danger that Eyjafyoll could potentially sputter on for months or even more than a year. “Even in the scenario that Katla doesn’t erupt, disruption could be continuous for many months to come from Eyjafyoll.”

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Child abuse claims sweep Catholic Church in Europe

clipped from news.yahoo.com DUBLIN – It often starts as a voice in the wilderness, but can swell into an entire nation's demand for truth. From Ireland to Germany, Europe's many victims of child abuse in the Roman Catholic church are finally breaking social taboos and confronting the clergy to face its demons. Ireland was the first in Europe to confront the church's worldwide custom of shielding pedophile priests from the law and public scandal. Now that legacy of suppressed childhood horror is being confronted in other parts of the Continent — nowhere more poignantly than in Germany, the homeland of Pope Benedict XVI. The recent spread of claims into the Netherlands, Austria and Italy has analysts and churchmen wondering how deep the scandal runs, which nation will be touched next, and whether a tide of lawsuits will force European dioceses to declare bankruptcy like their American cousins.

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Weak sea walls blamed for France storm disaster

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk Blame is being laid on weak and aged sea defences after violent storms left at least 50 dead and thousands homeless along France's Atlantic coast. Many died after the sea wall off the coastal town of L'Aiguillon-sur-Mer was breached, allowing 8m-high (26ft) waves to crash through the streets. A local governor said the walls dated back to the time of Napoleon and needed to be replaced with taller barriers. "It is a national disaster, a human drama with a terrible death toll," he said. "The urgent thing is to support the families who have members missing or dead." The Atlantic storm, named Xynthia, smashed into the western coasts of France, Portugal and Spain on Sunday, with torrential rain driven by winds of up to 140km/h (87mph). The storm has since swept north-eastwards into Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. and deaths have been reported in Portugal, Spain, Belgium and Germany.

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