Thursday 6 August 2009

PAKISTAN PARLIAMENT OBSERVE TWO MINUTES OF SILENCE FOR MARTYRED CHRISTIANS

Pakistan Parliament was gracious enough to observe two minutes of silence for the Christians who were martyred recently in Gojra. Here's part of the story:
Pakistan Parliament on Monday condemned killings of Christians in Gojra on August 1 after Pakistan Federal Minister for Minorities, Mr. Shahbaz Bhatti presented a resolution urging parliament to condemn violence against Christians.
Pakistan Parliament unanimously passed Mr. Shahbaz Bhatti’s resolution to condemn Christians’ killings in Gojra.
The speakers extended their sympathies to the victims’ families and called for strong action against culprits.
The resolution urged the Pakistan Parliament to condemn the attack of burning of houses of Christians at Korian and Gojra and extend people’s sympathy and solidarity with the victims’ families

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AISH HA TORAH INSTALLS SECOND TEMPLE MODEL OPPOSITE WESTERN WALL

Some 50 people gathered on Wednesday to watch the installation of a Second Temple model on the roof of a yet-unfinished Aish HaTorah yeshiva building, across from the Western Wall and just a few hundred meters from where the real thing once stood.
With the Dome of the Rock and the Aksa Mosque standing conspicuously in the background, a crane lowered the 1.2-ton model onto the roof.

It took about a year for Michael Osanis, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union who has built a number of other Temple models, including one in the Temple Institute, also in the capital's Jewish Quarter, to complete this model, which is made from gold, silver, wood and Jerusalem stone.

The model will sit on a new educational building for Aish HaTorah's short-term outreach programs, which is set to open in December.

Aish, which provides a network of educational programs for Jews around the world, is also building a new "Exploratorium" - an interactive museum on Jewish history, which it expects will host 300,000 visitors annually after it opens in two years.

"What could be more appropriate than to have here, as people are standing looking out over our holiest place, the Temple Mount, a sense of what it was really like to have the Temple here?" asked Ephraim Shore, director of Aish's programs in Jerusalem.

The yeshiva hopes that this model will help people to visualize the Temple and therefore forge a stronger connection with Judaism and Jewish history.

"It is hard for us to imagine a Temple and to feel that we are praying inside the Temple," said Rabbi Hillel Weinberg, the head of Aish's Jerusalem yeshiva.

"But now, everyone who comes and sees this Temple model, it will be much easier for them to connect to the Temple and to direct their prayers to the Holy of Holies."

As the crane lowered the model into place, an argument broke out about which direction it should face. Should it mirror the way the actual Temple sat in relation to the Temple Mount, or sit the opposite way, making it easier for large crowds to see it?

Osanis swiftly decided that ease of access was more important, and positioned the model accordingly. Not everyone in the crowd was happy with the decision.

"It's up for some discussion whether it will stay like that permanently," Shore said.

He said that it is significant that the model was installed during the Hebrew month of Av, when Jews mourn the destruction of the Temple and long for its rebuilding. But despite a number of comments from the crowd about the hypothetical Third Temple, Shore indicated that the model is not a call for its immediate construction.

"We have no political intentions whatsoever," he said.

Shore wouldn't divulge how much the model cost, except to say "a lot." It was funded with the support of the R.S. Zarnegin family, heirs of a Southern California-based real estate company.

The reaction of the crowd, made up mostly of students from the Aish yeshiva next door, seemed to be both pride and wonder.

"The view from here is mind-blowing, and to have now a model here, it's astounding," said Eliyahu Khabinsky, a rabbinical student who is originally from Russia but made aliya from the US. "It really makes it so much more real and not theoretical."

Aryeh Pridonoff, a student from Cincinnati, Ohio, said the new model was a great improvement over a smaller model that used to be housed inside the yeshiva.

"It's a symbol for each Jew that this is a place for them to come and explore," he said.

DUBLIN CHURCH YOUTH MINISTER DROWNS DURING SCUBA DIVE IN SHASTA LAKE

Members of CrossWinds Church in Dublin are in mourning after a 20-year-old youth minister presumably drowned Tuesday in Shasta Lake while scuba diving alone during a church excursion, the Shasta County Sheriff's Office said this morning.
Jeremiah Murray of Dublin had gone scuba diving by himself Tuesday morning and around noon, members of his church group called authorities after he hadn't surfaced for about 70 minutes, the sheriff's office said.
About nine hours later, a dive team found Murray's body in 55 feet of water, 150 feet from the shoreline of Karin Cove in the Big Backbone Inlet, the sheriff's office said. The county's coroner's office has taken custody of the body to determine the cause of death.
Lance Hough, a production coordinator with the church, said Murray was a longtime fixture there as both a pupil of its youth ministry and most recently as a counselor and mentor. His father and brother were also heavily involved with the church, which was on an annual trip with more than 200 high schoolers who stayed in rented houseboats on the lake, forming what they called a "floating city."
"To say this is a huge loss is putting it lightly," Hough said. "He was a really wonderful guy."
Hough said the church is already making plans to remember Murray in an upcoming Sunday service, and to provide counseling and support for the youths, who are expected to return early from the trip.
"Our primary focus is making sure the families have people to talk to — resources to cope with this loss," he said. "Jeremiah was a dedicated servant to this church. We're devastated."

MOTHER KILLS SON FOR DEMANDING CHOCOLATE IN UTTARPRADESH

LUCKNOW: A mother beat her six-year-old son to death in Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli district for his repeated demands for chocolate, the police said Thursday.
"Bandana, 32, a resident of Janhia village, has been arrested for killing her son by repeatedly beating him with a wooden stick," police inspector Ashok Kumar Tiwari said over telephone.
"The body of the six-year-old was recovered Wednesday from bushes in the Balkishan locality in the village. Suspecting foul play, we looked into the matter and found that it was Bandana who was behind the killing," said Tiwari.
According to police, Bandana confessed that she killed her son in a fit of rage Tuesday. Even though she pleaded with her son, he remained adamant in his demand for a chocolate. Rae Bareli is about 80 km from Lucknow.

U.S EMLOYERS CUT 97,000 JOBS IN JULY : WARN OF MORE LAYOFFS

CHICAGO: Job cuts announced by US employers jumped 31 per cent in July to over 97,000,increasing for the first time in six months, warning of a further hike in downsizing activity by the last quarter of the year, a report said on Wednesday.

After falling to a 15-month low in June planned job cuts announced by US employers jumped to 97,373 in July. It was the first increase in monthly job cuts since January, global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc said here in its latest report.

"After June's surprisingly low job-cut total, a July rebound was not entirely unexpected. While there are signs that the economy is stabilising and the pace of layoffs slowing, we are still a long way from a full recovery. In fact, monthly job cuts are likely to return to levels in excess of 100,000 by the fourth quarter," Challenger, Gray & Christmas CEO John Challenger said.

Job cuts had fallen 33 per cent in June to 74,393, the lowest monthly total since March 2008. The July total was 6 per cent lower than the same month a year ago, when employers announced 1,03,312 cuts. So far this year, employers have announced 9,94,048 job cuts, 72 per cent more than 5,79,260 layoffs through the first seven months of 2008.

The July surge in job cuts was led by firms in the transportation industry, which announced plans to reduce payrolls by 27,954 positions, a five-fold increase from the June layoff total of 5,587.

The telecommunications sector also experienced an increase in layoffs last month with job cuts surging to 17,601 in July from 802 in June.

Meanwhile, the automotive sector, which leads all other industries in year-to-date job cuts with 1,22,212 layoffs has seen layoff announcements decline in each of the last three months. These companies announced 2,716 job cuts in July.

"Declining layoffs in the automotive industry may not be indicative of a turnaround. Instead, these employers simply may not have any room for additional job cuts if they hope to build new fleets of more eco-friendly cars," Challenger added.

With consumer and business spending at a standstill transportation companies have little choice but to make further cutbacks in staffing, it said, adding, that a surge in hiring could take place around the holidays.

Other sectors which saw downsizing during July are government/non-profit (7,131), industrial goods (6,548) and financial (5,030). While economic conditions and cost-cutting claimed over 58,000 jobs, voluntary severance led to 15,070 job cuts in July.

Employers also announced plans to hire a total of 17,183 employees with retail (14,200) and aerospace/defence (1,160) leading the pack.