CHRISTIAN MURDERED FOR DRINKING TEA FROM A MUSLIM CUP IN PAKISTAN

International Christian Concern (www.persecution.org) has learned that radical Muslims running a tea stall beat a Christian man to death for using a cup designated for Muslims on May 9.

The young man, Ishtiaq Masih, had ordered tea at a roadside stall in Machharkay village, Punjab, Pakistan, after his bus made a rest stop. When Ishtiaq went to pay for his tea, the owner noticed that he was wearing a necklace with a cross and grabbed him, calling for his employees to bring anything available to beat him for violating a sign posted on the stall warning non-Muslims to declare their religion before being served. Ishtiaq had not noticed the warning sign before ordering his tea.

The owner and 14 of his employees beat Ishtiaq with stones, iron rods and clubs, and stabbed him multiple times with kitchen knives as Ishtiaq pleaded for mercy.The other bus passengers and other passers-by finally intervened and took Ishtiaq to the Rural Health Center in the village.

The doctor who took Ishtiaq's case told ICC that Ishtiaq had died due to excessive internal and external bleeding, a fractured skull, and brain injuries.Makah Tea Stall is located on the Sukheki-Lahore highway and is owned by Mubarak Ali, a 42-year-old radical Muslim.

ICC's correspondent visited the tea stall and observed that a large red warning sign with a death's head symbol was posted which read, "All non-Muslims should introduce their faith prior to ordering tea. This tea stall serves Muslims only." The warning also threatened anyone who violated the rule with "dire consequences."

A neighboring shopkeeper told ICC on condition of anonymity that all Ali's employees are former students of radical Muslim madrassas (seminaries). Ishtiaq's family said that they immediately reported the incident to the police and filed a case against Ali. However, the murderers are still freely operating the tea stall.

When ICC asked the Pindi Bhatian Saddar police station about the murder, the police chief said that investigations were underway and they are treating it as a faith-based murder by biased Muslims. When asked about Ali's warning sign, police chief Muhammad Iftikhar Bajwa claimed that he could not take it down. However, the constitution of Pakistan explicitly prohibits such discrimination.

BUCKNELL UNIVERSITY REQUIRES PERMIT TO HANDOUT BIBLES

Giving away Bibles on the campus of Bucknell University is at your own peril, since the school requires a permit for such an activity, according to a new dispute that arose involving the school's Conservatives Club.
The organization has attempted to make several political statements on campus, and has been shut down by officials with the university repeatedly, said a complaint letter assembled by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
The revelation of other permit demand for giving away Bibles came as part of an e-mail exchange over the dispute, in which school administrator Judy Mickanis told the leader of the Bucknell University Conservatives Club that its members needed a "sales and solicitation" permit to give away anything.
"The policy is in place to protect the entire BU community and I said that consistently permission was needed to hand out anything from Bibles to other matter. You just can't hand things out without approval," Mickanis' e-mail said.
According to the report from FIRE, the school in Lewisburg, Pa., is staging an assault on student rights.

The Conservatives there have had "three events censored in two months" in their attempts to make political statements by a university "using flimsy or patently false excuses," the report said.
"Bucknell promises free speech, but it delivers selective censorship," said FIRE President Greg Lukianoff. "Bucknell administrators have gone out of their way to abuse and even invent policies in attempts to silence these students, all the while professing to respect free speech."
He said the student group in March tried to hand out fake dollar bills with President Obama's face on the front and the sentence "Obama's stimulus plan makes your money as worthless as monopoly money" on the back. Mickanis told the students they were "busted" and they needed a special permit for their "solicitation." She told the students their offense was the equivalent of handing out Bibles, FIRE said.
"Distributing protest literature is an American free-speech tradition that dates to before the founding of the United States," said Adam Kissel, director of FIRE's Individual Rights Defense Program. "And why is Bucknell so afraid of students handing out 'Bibles [or] other matter' that might provide challenging perspectives?"
Another incident happened in April, when students were staging an "affirmative action bake sale" protest. FIRE said affirmative action bake sales are a widely used form of satirical protest against affirmative action policies that treat people of different races differently. Organizers typically display suggested pricing in which African-American and Hispanic students are asked to pay lower prices than Asian and white students for the same items. The protests are thus intended to satirize and spark debate about affirmative action policies, not to raise revenue.
But Associate Dean of Students Gerald W. Commerford shut down the event, with orders to the students to obtain another permit. When students applied for one, they were refused permission.
FIRE said by shutting down events by Conservatives Club members, "Bucknell sends the message to its students that speech is to be feared, monitored, and ultimately restrained if it is deemed sufficiently controversial."
Bucknell declined to comment to WND on the issues, but delivered a statement from General Counsel Wayne Bromfield that challenged FIRE's description of the events. He explained the "dollar bills" were disallowed because students must register to participate in that activity.
The second instance, "disparate racial pricing for doughnut sales – was prohibited because we cannot and do not permit facially discriminatory practices," the lawyer said.
The school declined to comment or expand on the statements from Mickanis that giving away Bibles would require a permit.
Fire said the school's version of events didn't align with what it had been told by participants.

MORE THAN 30 HOUSE CHURCH LEADERS ARRESTED IN SICHUAN PROVINCE OF CHINA; PRAY & MAKE A DIFFERENCE

SICHUAN -- On June 9 more than 30 house church leaders were arrested while gathering in a house church in Langzhong city, Sichuan province. Thirteen leaders were given 15 days of administrative detention, and five of the leaders were placed under criminal detention. The other leaders were released.
The Christian leaders were gathered in Pastor Li Ming's house church at 5:30 p.m., in Lanzhou city, when several dozen officials in six to seven police vehicles from the local Domestic Security Protection Squad surrounded the site, then arrested all of the Christians and searched the house. The 13 leaders who received 15 days of administrative detention are: Wang Fang, Ma Zhongqiong, Wang Huaying, Pang Kaizhen, Chen Deying, Hu Xiuying, Li Daxiu, Deng Shuhua, Chen Jingfang, Wang Yulan, Song Liangqing, Wang Shixiu and Li Shufeng.
The five leaders who received criminal detention are likely to face a formal criminal indictment or up to three years of re-education through labor. They are: Pastors Gao Guofu, Pastor Li Ming, Zhang Guofen, Gu Lianpeng and Yu Zhipeng. Pastor Li Ming was sentenced to three years of re-education through labor in recent years because of his Christian faith.
ChinaAid calls on Christians around the world to pray for the imprisoned Christians and their families. ChinaAid also strongly denounces the Langzhong authorities in Sichuan for their reprehensible conduct which violates both Chinese and international laws guaranteeing freedom of religion.

WHO DECLARES SWINE FLU " PANDEMIC "

GENEVA: The World Health Organization told its member nations it was declaring a swine flu pandemic on Thursday - the first global flu epidemic in 41 years - as infections climbed in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere.
In a statement sent to member countries, WHO said it decided to raise the pandemic warning level from phase 5 to 6 - its highest alert - after holding an emergency meeting on swine flu with its experts.
The long-awaited pandemic decision is scientific confirmation that a new flu virus has emerged and is quickly circling the globe. It will trigger drugmakers to speed up production of a swine flu vaccine and prompt governments to devote more money toward efforts to contain the virus.
"At this early stage, the pandemic can be characterized globally as being moderate in severity," WHO said in the statement, urging nations not to close borders or restrict travel and trade. "(We) remain in close dialogue with influenza vaccine manufacturers."
On Wednesday, WHO said 74 countries had reported nearly 27,737 cases of swine flu, including 141 deaths.
The agency has stressed that most cases are mild and require no treatment, but the fear is that a rash of new infections could overwhelm hospitals and health authorities - especially in poorer countries.
Still, about half of the people who have died from swine flu were previously young and healthy - people who are not usually susceptible to flu.
Swine flu is also continuing to spread during the start of summer in the northern hemisphere. Normally, flu viruses disappear with warm weather, but swine flu is proving to be resilient.
The last pandemic - the Hong Kong flu of 1968 - killed about 1 million people. Ordinary flu kills about 250,000 to 500,000 people each year.
Many health experts say WHO's pandemic declaration could have come weeks earlier but the agency became bogged down by politics. In May, several countries urged WHO not to declare a pandemic, fearing it would cause social and economic turmoil.
"This is WHO finally catching up with the facts," said Michael Osterholm, a flu expert at the University of Minnesota who has advised the US government on pandemic preparations.
Despite WHO's hopes, raising the epidemic alert to the highest level will almost certainly spark some panic about spread of swine flu.
Fear has already gripped Argentina, where thousands of people worried about swine flu flooded into hospitals this week, bringing emergency health services in the capital of Buenos Aires to the brink of collapse. Last month, a bus arriving in Argentina from Chile was stoned by people who thought a passenger on it had swine flu. Chile has the most swine flu cases in South America.
In Hong Kong on Thursday, the government ordered all kindergartens and primary schools closed for two weeks after a dozen students tested positive for swine flu - a move that some flu experts would consider an overreaction.
In the United States, where there have been more than 13,000 cases and at least 27 deaths from swine flu, officials at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the move would not change how the US tackled swine flu.
"Our actions in the past month have been as if there was a pandemic in this country," Glen Nowak, a CDC spokesman, said on Thursday.
The US government has already taken steps like increasing availability of flu-fighting medicines and authorizing $1 billion for the development of a new vaccine against the novel virus. In addition, new cases seem to be declining in many parts of the country, U.S. health officials say, as North America moves out of its traditional winter flu season.
Still, Osterholm said the declaration was a wake-up call for the world.
"I think a lot of people think we're done with swine flu, but you can't fall asleep at the wheel," he said. "We don't know what's going to happen in the next 6 to 12 months."

CHINESE BOOKSTORE OWNER GETS THREE YEARS IN JAIL FOR PRINTING BIBLES TO GIVE TO LOCAL CHURCHES

A Chinese bookstore owner who was taken into custody and accused of printing Bibles to give to local house church congregations has been sentenced to three years in prison and fined nearly $22,000, according to a report from Compass Direct.
The report said a Beijing court today delivered the guilty verdict in the trial of Shi Weihan on allegations he ran an "illegal business operation."
WND has reported on the case since the businessman's original arrest, including when a report came out last year that even his friends hardly recognized him because of the deterioration of his health while in jail awaiting court proceedings.
WND first reported when the house church leader became one of the Christians in China who simply "disappeared" in 2007.
He later was tracked to prison, and although in January of 2008 he was cleared of allegations made against him, he was taken into custody again in March and has been held there since.
Officials with China Aid Association said then his life was at risk.
"According to personal acquaintances who have visited Mr. Shi, his health has degenerated to the point that he is hardly recognizable to his closest friends," China Aid said at the time.
Now, Compass Direct reports that the bookstore operated legally and sold only books for which he held government permission. But the conviction said he printed Bibles and other literature to give to churches.
Ray Sharpe, a friend of the bookstore owner, told Compass Direct a written judgment is expected within about two weeks to allow an appeal to be filed.
The report said friends and business acquaintances of Shi described him as a model citizen of China. He was known, the report said, for his work among the poor in his nation.
His wife, Zhang Jing, and their two daughters, have been under surveillance for much of his time in jail, the report said.
Shi owns a bookstore near where last year's Olympics complex was built in Beijing.
Sharpe told WND at the time of Shi's first arrest that Shi is a businessman who also works as a travel agent.
In the runup to the Olympics, WND reported on a "blacklist" of people and groups of people China was targeting specifically because of the games last August. Those targeted included religious leaders.
The case involving Shi has gotten considerable attention at least partly because he is the father of a U.S. citizen.
Grace Shi, 9, was born during the family's visit to the U.S. in 2000.