A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Two assistant pastors arrested by the Burma (Myanmar) army last December were sentenced to prison on Friday (Oct. 27) on false charges of unlawful association, defaming the military and spying, sources said.

Pastor Dom Dawng Nawng Latt, 65, received a prison term of four years and three months, and fellow pastor La Jaw Gam Hseng, 35, received two years and three months, according to sources present in court in Lashio town, in Shan state.

The two ethnic Kachin pastors, members of the Kachin Baptist Convention, were charged under the Unlawful Association Act for alleged connections with an ethnic armed group, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), and allegedly spying for it. Nawng Latt was prosecuted under a defamation statute. They deny the charges, which colleagues say are baseless. [ Source: Morningstar News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Officials and police in Tamil Nadu state, India, have ordered 10 churches to discontinue worship services, sources said.

Hindu extremists compelled state officials and police to issue orders to the churches in Coimbatore District to stop worship unless they obtain permission from the collector’s office, and the extremists intend to target 20 others in the same way, church leaders said.

“It is a well-planned conspiracy against the Christian community, as the Hindu extremists know that it is not easy to approach the collector’s office for such permissions,” pastor Johnson Sathyanathan, president of the Synod of Pentecostal Churches of Coimbatore, told Morning Star News. “The time to get such approvals can stretch from a year and a half to many more years.” [ Source: Morningstar News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Israel’s air force attacked a weapons depot situated in rural areas around Hisya, south of the Syrian city of Homs, Arab media reported Wednesday night.

Several reports claimed that the Syrian military launched a surface-to-air missile against Israeli jets from its 72nd Divison Base but did not hit them.

A commander in a military alliance fighting in support of the Syrian government told Reuters that the IAF struck a copper factory south of Homs, and did not provide details regarding any casualties.

Channel 10 reported that the aircraft were not hit and returned safely to base. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The Israel Police will establish a special unit to secure the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan announced Tuesday at an event in honor of Jerusalem District Police officers.

The unit’s officers will “protect visitors to the Temple Mount and will have the most advanced intelligence and technological resources in existence available to them,” Erdan said.

“I envision Jerusalem becoming within two years not only the holiest city in the world but one of the safest cities in the world, with the most advanced technology that exists today. The city will become a role model for advanced cities throughout the world, both in terms of the skills of the police deployed in and in terms of the technologies that exist there,” he said. [ Source: Israel Hayom (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Russian accounts bought thousands of social media ads on hot-button U.S. issues ranging from Black Lives Matter to illegal immigration, according to a batch of the ads released Wednesday by members of the House intelligence panel.

Here is a sampling of ads purchased by Russian-linked accounts and aimed at U.S. Facebook and Instagram users. [ Source: Politico (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Russian accounts bought thousands of social media ads on hot-button U.S. issues ranging from Black Lives Matter to illegal immigration, according to a batch of the ads released Wednesday by members of the House intelligence panel.

Here is a sampling of ads purchased by Russian-linked accounts and aimed at U.S. Facebook and Instagram users. [ Source: Politico (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Venezuela announced plans to begin issuing 100,000-bolivar notes on Wednesday as the government struggles to control skyrocketing inflation. One year ago, the largest bill was only 100 bolivars – an amount that is now practically worthless.

President Nicolas Maduro unveiled the note at a cabinet meeting. It will be worth about €2 euros or $2.3 on black market exchanges.

Caracas said the new bill is only a stop-gap measure amidst a more comprehensive financial overhaul, one facet of which is to eventually rid the country of paper money entirely. [ Source: Deutche Welle (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday and pointed to solid U.S. economic growth and a strengthening labor market while playing down the impact of recent hurricanes, a sign it is on track to lift borrowing costs again in December.

Investors had all but ruled out a rate hike at the central bank’s policy meeting this week and attention has largely been focused on who will be in charge of monetary policy at the end of Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s first term in February 2018.

President Donald Trump is set to announce his nomination on Thursday afternoon with Fed Governor Jerome Powell, a soft-spoken centrist who has supported Yellen’s gradual approach to raising rates, seen as having a lock on the job. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Hundreds of thousands of persecuted Christians, Yazidis and other minorities driven from battered northern Iraq are still in a perilous limbo, as humanitarian groups struggle to make sense of a new Trump Administration initiative rolled out after Vice President Mike Pence’s October 25 promise to “stop funding ineffective relief efforts at the United Nations” and “provide support directly to persecuted communities through USAID.”

Humanitarian groups have called the Administration declaration a big step forward in helping the sorely-neglected minority groups recover from genocidal waves of murder, rape, displacement and plunder inflicted by now-defeated ISIS forces.

But there is still much uncertainty about how the initiative will work, what money will be involved, and how the effort will be coordinated—and above all, when it will get going.. [ Source: Fox News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Iceland’s biggest volcano has not erupted since February 2015, but after a series of earthquakes over the past week, there are fears it could erupt again.

And this time, it might cause chaos for the airline industry.

Bardarbunga, which is under the ice cap of the Vatnajökull glacier, is “clearly preparing for its next eruption” within the next few years, University of Iceland volcanology expert Páll Einarsson told The Express. It was hit by four separate earthquakes, measuring 3.9, 3.2, 4.7 and 4.7 on the Richter scale. [ Source: Fox News (Read More…) ]