Weblog: Taliban, South Korea Start Direct Talks
Also: U.S. missionary killed in Honduras, WEA announces Iraq branch, a commercial cross fight, and other stories from online sources around the world.
Compiled by Ted Olsen | posted 8/10/2007 02:49PM
Just links today.
South Korean hostages | Crime | Religious freedom | Middle East | Church and state | Education | Life ethics | 2008 campaign | Democrats' gay debate | Australian politics | Internet obscenity | ELCA synod | Anglicanism | Church life | 20/20 on Billy Graham | Art, entertainment, and media | People | Michael Gerson | Red Cross | Other stories of interest
South Korean hostages:
- Talks begin for hostage release | Face-to-face negotiation likely to break ice in 3-week-long crisis (The Korea Times)
- Taliban, Koreans negotiate on hostages | Two top Taliban leaders and four South Korean officials met face-to-face for the first time Friday to negotiate the fate of 21 members of a church group held hostage for three weeks, an Afghan official said (Associated Press)
- Taliban and Korean team begin talks over hostages | Afghanistan's Taliban began the first round of face-to-face talks with a South Korean team on Friday over the 21 hostages the group is holding, an Afghan official said (Reuters)
- Taliban demand $1million for each hostage | A high-ranking Afghan source said earlier that the kidnappers have demanded $1 million as ransom for each Korean national. But now it seems that kidnappers are likely to reduce the demand for ransom (The Korea Times)
- 3 charged for misinformation on hostages | The file explained the hostages went to Afghanistan for missionary purpose, not as medical volunteers as they had said. The file contained photographs of them singing hymns inside a Mosque. It instantly spread to not only domestic Web sites but also foreign media's sites. However, the pictures were taken in 2005, long before this trip, which was actually to provide medical service (The Korea Times)
- God is not responsible | My earnest hope is to see you Korean hostages in Afghanistan come back home safe. I hope you will come back and make your hard-earned lessons known. I hope you will graduate from your naivety with the help of Bertrand Russell and Richard Dawkins (Kim Heung-sook, The Korea Times)
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Crime:
- Honduran police investigate killing of US missionary | A 79-year-old U.S. evangelical missionary was beaten to death in his home in western Honduras by two men he had hired to do construction work, police said Thursday (Associated Press)
- Mexican priest kills secret son to save career, receives 55 years in prison | A Mexican priest has been sentenced to 55 years in prison for killing a son he did not want his superiors to discover, prosecutors said Thursday (Associated Press)
- Church feels betrayed by manager | More than $50,000 was allegedly taken in a series of thefts (Honolulu Star-Bulletin)
- More young victims could emerge in sex case | HIV-positive man faces 61 counts (The Tennesean, Nashville)
- Also: Church leader faces child sex abuse charges (WTVF, Nashville)
- Lawsuit filed against Rapid City diocese | A deceased Roman Catholic priest from Philip is accused in a civil lawsuit of sexually abusing a female parishioner in 1987 (Argus Leader, Sioux Falls, S.D.)
- Arrest wasn't first run-in for nude jogging priest | A Catholic priest who was arrested for jogging in the buff nearly two months ago in Frederick was investigated by the Archdiocese of Denver more than eight years ago for "inappropriate personal behavior," a church official acknowledged Thursday (Rocky Mountain News, Denver)
- Also: Nude jogging priest gets under residents' skin | Priest would have to register as sex offender if convicted (KETV, Omaha)
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Religious freedom:
- Christians who helped convert held in Egypt | Police have detained two Egyptian Christians who helped a man who converted from Islam to Christianity, one of their colleagues said on Thursday. The two men, named as Adel Fawzi and Peter Ezzat, also offered legal help to the family of a man who died during a police raid on his house this week, said Nader Fawzy, the president of the Middle East Christian Association (Reuters)
August (Web-only) 2007, Vol. 51