10 HELD AFTER VIOLENCE AT BOMBED VIETNAM CATHOLIC CHURCH

HANOI — More than ten people remained in Vietnamese police custody Wednesday after a violent dispute at the site of a church bombed during the Vietnam War, a local official said.
The unrest happened on Monday after about 200 people arrived at the remains of Tam Toa Catholic church in central Quang Binh province, said local government official Tran Cong Thuat, vice chairman of the provincial People's Committee.
He said the group tried to "illegally" build a structure on the site, which is listed as a historical war relic. But others, whom he identified as local residents, sought to dismantle it, leading to conflict between the two groups.
"Some extremists resorted to violence, using stones and sticks to beat each other, and forcing police to intervene. Police arrested more than 10 people," who are still being held for investigation, Thuat said.
"We don't know whether they are Catholics or not."
A priest, Pham Dinh Phung, told AFP on Tuesday night that 20 Catholics were detained by police.
Phung said about 100 police officers wanted to dismantle the newly-built structure and when the Catholics intervened "police started beating them," adding some victims were left bleeding.
He said Catholics had asked authorities' permission to rebuild the church -- bombed by US forces during the war -- because they had no place for worship and had held prayers outdoors.
The dispute over the land, which Catholics say belongs to them and the communist state says is national property, is the latest development in a long-running battle between the church and the government.
In the capital Hanoi in March, about 1,000 Catholics protested outside a Hanoi court that upheld the conviction of eight fellow believers for property damage and disturbing public order.
All had admitted taking part in rallies that peaked last August calling for the return of church property seized -- along with many other buildings and farms -- more than 50 years earlier when communists took power in what was then North Vietnam.
Vietnam has Southeast Asia's second largest Catholic community after the Philippines, with at least six million followers.

ANGLICANS ALTER COMMUNION RITUAL DUE TO FLU SCARE IN BRITAIN

LONDON — Two Anglican dioceses in Britain are changing how they handle Communion in an attempt to reduce the spread of swine flu.
Church of England parishes in Blackburn, northern England, and in Southwell and Nottingham, central England, made the switch in recent days, officials said Wednesday — as many houses of worship around the world have cut back on activities requiring close contact because of swine flu.
"Particularly where vulnerable groups are involved, we think it's important that reasonable steps are taken to minimize the risk of church worship activity facilitating the spread of the disease," church spokesman Ben Wilson said. He said the measures were precautionary, though he noted a high number of swine flu cases have been recorded in Nottingham.
Anglican worshippers in the two English dioceses will no longer drink from a communal cup of wine that is wiped with a cloth after each person sips during the Communion service. Anglicans believe the wine is consecrated as the blood of Jesus Christ.
Instead, the faithful will participate in Communion only by eating wafers consecrated during the service.
The changes, which are temporary, are allowed under the Sacrament Act of 1547, which gave the church discretion to change the service in cases of emergency. The act was created 200 years after bubonic plague swept through Europe to assuage concerns over sharing the communion cup.
The change does not represent the national church's position, however, and bishops in each diocese are making their own decisions on how best to handle the service, Wilson said.
Britain is the hardest-hit nation in Europe amid the swine flu pandemic — or global outbreak — with thousands estimated to be sickened and at least 30 deaths reported. Still, most people recover without needing medical treatment.
The decision follows similar changes made to religious services in New Zealand, Chile, Argentina and across the United States.
In New Zealand, the Roman Catholic Church has halted the sharing of Communion wine and banned priests from placing Communion wafers on the tongues of worshippers.
Church leaders in U.S. cities including Milwaukee, Washington, Miami and Austin, Texas, have advised that pastors and priests to use discretion in serving Communion wine, and that churches provide hand sanitizer and tissues for worshippers.
In Chile, authorities canceled a religious festival that typically draws tens of thousands to the northern town of La Tirana.

FIJI POLICE HOLD 7 METHODIST CHURCH LEADERS FOR QUESTIONING

The Methodist Church in Fiji has said that seven of its senior members are being held by police for questioning.
All those being held have been involved in discussions about the church's planned annual conference.
Fiji's military government has already banned the meeting once, accusing the church of being too political and setting conditions for future talks.
The Methodist Church is the largest in Fiji and hopes to hold its annual meeting next month regardless.
The church had hoped its leaders would have been released after a few hours, Radio New Zealand reported.
Instead, police, many of whom are themselves Methodists, were treating the churchmen well in detention, Radio Australia reported, with afternoon tea and a prayer.
But the interim military-led regime has banned the gathering unless the church hierarchy agrees to exclude two former presidents and remove any political discussion from the agenda.

Continuing crackdown
Among those arrested was former president of the Fiji Methodist Church, Reverend Manasa Lasaro; General Secretary, Reverend Tuikilakila Waqairatu, the Secretary for Pastoral Ministry, Tomasi Kanailagi and the Church's Finance Secretary Viliame Gonelevu. The general secretary was taken in on Tuesday night and others were detained the next morning.
The Chief of Rewa, Rotemumu Kepa, who was to host the conference, has also been arrested and detained.
The interim government authorities have not explained the detentions, but Reverend Waqairatu had earlier said that it was in relation to conference.
The church said it was planning to go ahead with the conference regardless of the interim government's stand.
Separately, Fijian police are reported to be holding on to the wands, compasses and a skull confiscated from a Freemasons' meeting in Denarau last week.
The police said all the 14 masons detained had been released but that investigations into their activities were continuing.
Fiji is currently ruled by Commodore Frank Bainimarama who took power in a coup in 2006.
Since then Fiji has suspended the constitution, detained opponents and suppressed freedom of speech.

IRATE JAFFA CHRISTIANS GET JESUS PLAY CANCELLED: PLAY POTRAYS MARY THE MOTHER OF JESUS AS A PROSTITUTE

The perfomance of Amos Kenan's play "Friends Talk about Jesus," scheduled for next week at the Arab-Hebrew Theater of Jaffa, have been canceled due to opposition from Jaffa residents.

The play was rejected by the state censorship board in 1972, when it was written, but was staged in February by the Tel Aviv University Department of Theater Arts, under the direction of Ro'i Hertz Russo.

Some Christian Arabs living in Jaffa claim the play portrays Jesus in a negaKenan's satirical play deals with the nature of being Israeli and with the occupation. In it, Jesus dies, returns to life and dies again, and is shown in various ways: as a child whose home is destroyed by the army, as a young man who is concerned about the security situation and as a reserve duty soldier who is sent to war.

After the play was banned by the censor it was also banned by the High Court of Justice. Igal Ezrati, one of the Arab-Hebrew Theater's two artistic directors, related that when the news of the play's production became public, it set off protests, and he was asked not to stage it. "I got phone calls saying, 'You should be ashamed of yourselves,' because the play hurts the feelings of Christians in Jaffa and throughout the world," the theater's head, Mohammed Desouki, related. "I talked to Igal Ezrati and together with the theater management we decided to cancel the show so as not to hurt anyone's feelings." tive light, as well as depicting Mary, the mother of Jesus, as a prostitute.