Asia

Muslim mayhem under scrutiny
THE FOREIGN Office has agreed to pursue the issue of forced religious conversions in Indonesia with the new President.
The announcement comes after a police report revealed that a further two Christian women, including one aged 14, have been murdered in the region.
Ben Bradshaw, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, said that he would raise the issue at his meeting with President Megawati at the end of August in a reply to a letter from Lord Alton expressing concern at the crime.
Mr Bradshaw said: "You can be assured that I will impress on the Government of Indonesia the need to tackle religious extremists in the Moluccas."
Church meets persecutors
CATHOLIC leaders in New Delhi, India, have met with the hierarchy of a Hindu sect blamed for attacks on Christians in India.
Fr Donald de Souza, deputy secretary-general of the
Catholic Bishops' Conference in India said the closed-door meeting with leaders of the Hindu National Volunteers Corps addressed various issues affecting the two communities but not the issue of religious conversion.
The meeting took place three days after Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee accused Christian missionaries of using aid activities as a facade to`eonvert Hindus.
Initial talks in December 1998 were shelved after attacks on Christians in the western state of Gujarat.
Hindu groups have vowed to make India a theocratic nation.
Floods halt relief efforts
CHURCH groups sending relief aid to people trapped by flash floods and mud slides in northern Thailand were hampered last week when officials pumped flood waters from Udon to enable Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to visit the area.
Bishop Ytid Phimphisan of Udon Thani saih flood waters had indriaated the surrounding villages.
Relief workers took to boats to reach the victims.
Six days of continuous rain and flooding from the Mekong River have left 30 provinces devastated, 1400 homeless and 150 dead.
Flash floods are common during the June-October rainy season but environmentalists claim a programme of deforestation has worsened the situation.
International Caritas agencies have been alerted.