"The forced conversions come amid widening attacks on Christians here and in at least five other states across the country, as India prepares for national elections next spring. The clash of faiths has cut a wide swath of panic and destruction through these once quiet hamlets fed by paddy fields and jackfruit trees. Here in Kandhamal, the district that has seen the greatest violence, more than 30 people have been killed, 3,000 homes burned and over 130 churches destroyed, including the tin-roofed Baptist prayer hall where the Digals worshiped...
India is no stranger to religious violence between Christians, who make up about 2 percent of the population, and India’s Hindu-majority of 1.1 billion people. But this most recent spasm is the most intense in years.
It was set off, people here say, by the killing on Aug. 23 of a charismatic Hindu preacher known as Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, who for 40 years had rallied the area’s people to choose Hinduism over Christianity.
The police have blamed Maoist guerrillas for the swami’s killing. But Hindu radicals continue to hold Christians responsible...Hindu extremists have held ceremonies in the country’s indigenous belt for the past several years intended to purge tribal communities of Christian influence.
It is impossible to know how many have been reconverted here, in the wake of the latest violence, though a three-day journey through the villages of Kandhamal turned up plenty of anecdotal evidence."WP: betrayal, mistrust, and new communities in Iraq
AP: Afghans intervene in a Taliban prison break plot
"Afghanistan's intelligence service said Saturday that it had broken up a Taliban plot to attack the country's most notorious prison with a wave of suicide bombers, while the government named a new interior minister to lead the country's fledgling police."
Gdn: about 60 Taliban fighters killed in attempted attack on Lakshar Gar, the capital of Helmand province
Reuters: apparently undaunted, they tried again
"Massed Taliban attacks on major towns are rare, but an attempted assault on a provincial capital only four days after some 65 militants tried to do the same thing is an indication the Islamist movement has no shortage of recruits."
Gdn: photos and audio from an attack on an Afghan outpost near the Pakistan border
BBC: Kuchis, Afghan nomads, struggling
"The Kuchis comprise approximately six million of Afghanistan's 25 million citizens, and they primarily consist of Pashtun and Baloch nomads. Kuchis are also estimated to make up half of Afghanistan's Pashtun population."
BBC: protests in Montenegro against recognizing Kosovo's independence
WP: immigrant camps dismantled in South Africa
"Five months have passed since more than 60 people were killed in anti-foreigner beatings and burnings that shocked a nation that touts diversity. Thousands of immigrants moved to about 10 refugee-style camps that seemed incongruous in Africa's most developed country. In recent weeks, the government has torn most down, saying the neighborhoods are safe again.
But aid workers and immigrants who fled to this spot north of Pretoria -- mostly Somalis, Ethiopians and Congolese -- disagree. They say the camps' endurance and continued reports of violence underscore how little the South African government has done to tackle a long-standing hostility toward immigrants that reached a tipping point in the spring."
WP: Israeli parties close to forging ruling coalition; Livni may become PMBBC: tension ongoing in Acre
BBC: background on the returned GAM founder, and speculation on his future role in Aceh
WP: Guantanamo trials lost in translation; just when you thought they couldn't get any worse
AP: China and Russia settles territory dispute
BBC: president appoints leftist new prime minister in Peru
LAT: meth trade, violence moves to Argentina
Mexican traffickers have become the main suppliers of methamphetamine to the United States. But a crackdown in Mexico has squeezed supplies of ephedrine from Asia, leading the gangs to seek their raw material in Argentina, a nation with a robust pharmaceutical industry, relatively few controls and a reputation for corrupt cops and customs inspectors.
LAT: SV wonders what combination of order, conflict, and violence they have in other galaxies?
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