The sex scandal in the top couloirs of the IMF and the power struggle to find asuccessor to Dominique Strauss-Kahn has fascinated the Chinese. Rifespeculations about political intrigues and shadowy deals behind the scenes havespilled into cyberspace and the usually restrained media.

Jordan BlumCorrespondent Often regarded as one of the greatest slide guitarists of all time, Sonny Landreth has spent the past 40 plus years impressing his fans and perfecting his skills. His records are filled with impassioned playing, Southern blues songwriting and, occasionally, collaborations with fellow six-string masters. And, unlike many other performers, Landreth is one established musician who loves sharing the spotlight.

Craig OstroffManaging Editor Some see miracles as grand expressions in nature. Others find miracles in everyday happenings.

Anthony ScolesCorrespondent At 88 years old, with seven Grammy awards and a Grammy lifetime achievement award, you’d think that legendary folksinger Doc Watson had seen enough of the stage. And although his touring schedule has slowed down a bit over the past few years, it has by no means come to a halt.

Supporters of Amnesty International across Britain and beyond are marking the NGO's 50th birthday, pledging to continue the struggle for human rights.Supporters of Amnesty International in Britain and across the world are marking the NGO's 50th birthday, and pledging to continue the struggle for human rights.This morning (28 May 2011) the agency declared:"Amnesty International celebrates 50 years of standing up for human rights. We celebrate the thousands of political prisoners released. The lives spared as more countries have abolished the death penalty. The murderers and torturers brought to justice because of the International Criminal Court for which we campaigned. The letters written, petitions signed and people brought together across the world as one man’s idea grew into a global movement of three million people."A news report on two Portuguese students imprisoned simply for raising their glasses in a “toast to freedom” was the event that gave rise to the doyen human rights organisation in 1961.British lawyer Peter Benenson was outraged by the story, and resolved to turn his concern into action. He wrote an article called'The Forgotten Prisoners', which was first published in The Observer newspaper on Sunday 28 May 1961. It was reproduced around the world.Benenson highlighted cases like that of the Portuguese students, coining the phrase ‘prisoner of conscience’. He called for like-minded people to unite in an ‘appeal for amnesty’ on their behalf – and readers responded to that call. Very rapidly, Amnesty became truly international.In 1962, the NGO was officially named Amnesty International. Since then, what began as a small band of volunteers based in London has grown to a global movement of more than 3 million committed supporters, members and activists with 18 national sections and 850 groups in over 27 countries. The AI message has also reached many millions more.Marking the 50th anniversary, the organisation's UK blog says:"We have written letters, signed petitions, issued urgent actions, demonstrated outside courtrooms and embassies, launched hard-hitting media campaigns and lobbied officials directly. More recently, we have embraced the opportunities offered by social media and mobile communications."As the world has changed, so have we. But our objective – to protect people when their rights are denied, and end discrimination, persecution and harassment – has remained constant."* Amnesty UK:http://www.amnesty.org.uk/* Amnesty worldwide:http://www.amnesty.org/

Stressing that there is only so much money to go around, development expertsworry that the aid package the Group of Eight (G8) has announced for NorthAfrica may mean fewer funds for the rest of the continent.

Climate change in Asia is falling hardest on poor and indigenous communities and Christian communicators are making"climate justice"a key priority.Climate change in Asia is falling hardest on poor and indigenous communities and Christian communicators should adopt the concept of"climate justice"as they advocate for solutions that do not reinforce corporate control and consumerism, delegates at a conference on communications said -writes Solange De Santis.Meeting in Yogyakarta, Indonesia from 16-21 May 2011, the triennial assembly of the World Association for Christian Communication's (WACC) Asia region said in a communique that churches should take a proactive stand on the issue by promoting awareness through traditional media and among congregations.The assembly was attended by 51 delegates from Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand. Among the climate changes affecting Asians are the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas, which affects the availability of fresh water for crop irrigation and daily human use, especially in arid countries such as Pakistan and India, according to current research.However, many people don't see a connection between faith and climate change."For most of our local faith communities, climate justice is not a lens that we bring regularly to the reading of our sacred texts nor to our understanding of what it means to be faithful,"WACC president Dennis Smith said in his keynote address. Smith is with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina."What part does climate justice play in our utopian vision as followers of Jesus? What part does climate justice play in our proclamation of the Reign of God?"Smith asked. He noted that"often the struggle for climate justice takes place on the margins of our world, in those precarious communities most vulnerable to the droughts and floods spawned by climate change. Extreme weather destroys roads and changes rivers that allow precarious communities to send their goods to market and gives them access to education and health care."Among the climate events reported at the conference were last year's floods in Pakistan, which affected more than 20 million people, and rising sea levels that are threatening to flood about 4,000 Indonesian islands."The WACC Asia region is committed to keeping climate justice high on its agenda,"said WACC Asia president Samuel Meshack, who reminded participants that the Sunday in June that is dubbed Asia Communication Sunday will focus on climate issues.The conference communique also recommended that climate justice issues be incorporated in general education and in theological education and preaching. It called for preparation of"green guidelines for communicators and theologians"and for an interfaith approach to addressing climate change.After attending the conference, WACC General Secretary Karin Achtelstetter said,"I very much welcome the ideas and proposals the Asia region has on climate justice."WACC, based in Toronto, promotes communication for social change. Believing that communication is a basic human right, its worldwide membership"works with faith-based and secular partners at grassroots, regional and global levels, giving preference to the needs of the poor, marginalised and dispossessed,"according to its website.[With acknowledgements to ENInews.ENInews, formerly Ecumenical News International, is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the Conference of European Churches.][Ekk/3]

While the conflict in Indian Kashmir and the destruction it has caused oftenmakes the news, its impact on culture has hardly gotten any attention.

FRANCONIA -- It seemed almost like a‘two against one’deal.

Nothing but eternal bliss will be brought onto readers who dive into Matt Heppe’s high fantasy novel,“Eternal Knight.”Heppe describes the book as a story about a female protagonist, Hadde, who journeys on a quest to save her village from dying as a consequence of what is described as The Wasting, which is destroying the natural world.

Rachel WhitakerColumnist I love mysteries. I love to read them. Trying to solve the case before the characters do is such a thrill—especially when I’m right.

Contact: Kathy Grant, Sounds of Victories Ministries, 613-837-5998OTTAWA, Ontario, May 27, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- Multi-talented, Two-time Stellar Award-winning artist, Music Conference Founder, Choir director, Studio owner, Producer and Minister of Music, Phillip Carter will appear in Canada in May 27 - 30 for the"Be the Gem"Tour. This is Mr. Carter's first visit to Canada although he has travelled all across the United States and Copenhagen, Denmark. A rapid rise to internation Source: Sounds of Victory Ministries, LLC

Contacta: Jon D. Wilke, 615-251-2797MIAMI, Mayo, 27, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- B&H Publishing Group, la rama comercial de publicaciones de LifeWay Christian Resources, recibióvarios premios durante Expolit, una conferencia y exposición anual con el objeto de promover el crecimiento de ministerios y recursos en el mercado hispano.Los premios que recibióB&H incluyeron:-- El Desafío del Amor (The Love Dare), que por segundo año consecutivo obtuvo el premio Harold Kregel al libro Source: LifeWay Christian Resources

In the 1970s, with no Internet or social networking sites to get information out, Amnesty International managed to become a thorn in the side of the dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America, several people who benefited from its advocacy work recalled on the occasion of the rights watchdog's 50th anniversary.

The Church of Scotland General Assembly agreed, under threat, to withdraw a resolution calling for a UK ban on goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Paraic Reamonn says that the ethnically-defined nature of the current Israeli state, its treatment of Palestinians and what its policies are doing to the identity of Jewish people should be a matter of priority concern to Christians and others of goodwill.Repeatedly during the Church of Scotland's General Assembly, reference was made to South Africa – to the significant role churches and Christians played in supporting the apartheid regime there and the equally significant role churches and Christians played in finally ending it.On Wednesday 25 May, the Assembly discussed today’s apartheid regime – a regime that privileges Jewish ethnicity as the Afrikaners privileged whiteness, a regime that treats the native Arabs of Palestine as second-class citizens if they live in Israel proper, as third-class non-citizens if they live in the territories illegally occupied by Israel for over 40 years, and as fourth-class non-persons if they are the millions of Palestinians, or the children or grandchildren of Palestinians, who have been exiled from their land, while Israel steadfastly refuses their right, enshrined in international law and recognised in UN resolutions, to return home.We European Christians are doubly complicit in what Israel is and does. First, in that centuries of utterly deplorable Christian anti-Judaism prepared a seedbed for modern European anti-Semitism and ultimately for the Holocaust. Second, in that Holocaust guilt and belated repentance of anti-Judaism prompt too many of us to keep silent while Israel persists in a strategy of dispossessing the indigenous population of Palestine that began in 1948 and continues to this day – grabbing their land, demolishing their houses, stealing their water, uprooting their olives trees, and killing them.Having built an effective apartheid state, Israel is now constructing an Atlantic wall of draconian laws to defend it, aiming to silence those, in Israel and beyond, who wish to call a spade a spade and to frustrate them in pursuing a strategy of non-violent action that will finally lead Palestine to peace with justice – the only peace that will last.With the law now before the Knesset, Israel is holding our work in Jerusalem and Jaffa and Tiberias hostage, to prevent us as a church doing what we should do if we are to be faithful to the vision of justice and peace, repentance and reconciliation, that is the legacy not just of Jesus of Nazareth but also and earlier of the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures.The ban for which the Assembly will now not call, as well as the clear labelling of goods from Israeli settlements for which we continue to lobby, are part of a growing international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) that aims – as with sanctions against apartheid South Africa – to do two things.To awaken the consciousness and prick the conscience of a world that for too long has given Israel a free pass. And to hold Israel accountable, to call it to repent. Perhaps our greatest need is to challenge ordinary, decent Jews in Israel who, like ordinary, decent Afrikaners in South Africa of old, are blind – utterly blind – to the reality of what is done in their name and its human consequences.What it would be unwise and imprudent for the assembly to do, we as individuals certainly can and should do. When we return to our homes – homes to which we happily are free to return – we should urge our communities and congregations to join the BDS campaign. And we should do this for the sake of the Palestinian Arabs, who are the chief victims of this long sorry history, but also for the sake of the Jews of Israel, who in destroying the lives of their Palestinian neighbours are destroying their own souls.This article is based on the author's speech at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh on Wednesday, when the assembly agreed to withdraw a resolution calling for a UK ban on goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.Ian Galloway, Convener of the Kirk's Church and Society council, told the Assembly that were it to approve the resolution the council had proposed, legislation before the Knesset, if passed, would threaten the Church of Scotland's staff and buildings in Israel.-----------©Paraic Reamonnis a Church of Scotland minister. He served the World Alliance of Reformed Churches as Communications Secretary from September 1993 to October 2004.