His Beatitude Joseph Absi - the Patriarch of Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem and all the East - has agreed to be a guest speaker at Aid to the Church in Need's Night of the Witnesses event on 30 November.

Dominican Sister Majella Dogonyaro from Northern Nigeria and Mr Xavier Bisits, ACN's head of projects for the Middle East, will be joining him.

Bernard Toutounji, the National Director of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) Australia & New Zealand, is looking forward to meeting the Patriarch and other invited guests.

They will share their insights and experiences with local ACN members during the event.

"We are overjoyed that these fellow Christians will make the long journey to share with us their experiences and lives of witness.

"In our countries, where we mostly live the faith with such casualness, it can only benefit us to hear from those who deliberately need to choose their faith daily," Toutounji says.

Desperation revealed

The Melkite Patriarch has already made it clear to ACN that Syrian and Lebanese Christians are desperate.

They "no longer have confidence in their country" he says.

Christians in the Middle East are still leaving their homelands despite the Church encouraging them to remain.

He explained that it is increasingly difficult to give hope to Christians in Syria and Lebanon where most of the Melkite faithful live.

"The young are particularly likely to leave," he says.

Between the civil war in Syria, the pandemic and extreme economic hardship in Syria and Lebanon, life has become particularly difficult for Syrian and Lebanese people over the past six years or so, he explains.

Absi says desperation is forcing people to emigrate.

"That's why they are leaving. We did a lot at the beginning to keep them in the country but the situation has not improved.

"We are still doing everything possible to help our faithful, to provide them with essential services. But we cannot replace governments.

"There is no light at the end of the tunnel, we do not see a short-term solution. Without support we can no longer convince them to stay."

Between 2016 and 2021, Syria's Christian population decreased from 6.31 percent to 3.84 percent says ACN's 2023 Religious Freedom in the World Report.

What can we in New Zealand do to help?

Absi has some ideas about how the situation in Syria could be improved.

The West could lift the sanctions which are negatively impacting the civilian population, he suggests.

"I think that our friends can exert pressure in one way or another on their governments, and sometimes even on the religious leaders to help in this direction or to ensure that the sanctions are lifted," he says.

Source

• Supplied

It was the newly-built Hagia Sophia Church's inaugural celebration.

The weapons landed just 15 meters from where clerics and the congregation were gathered in front of the building.

The attack has been variously attributed to rockets, missiles or armed drones.

The church, which is about 30 miles northwest of Hama, had been built as a replica of Istanbul's Hagia Sophia by Syria's Bashar al-Assad and Russia's Vladimir Putin governments.

It was their response to the Turkish government converting the original Hagia Sophia building into a mosque.

The local Greek Orthodox community would use it as their church. Before the Syrian war, the town had about 20,000 Orthodox Christians.

Syria's state media attributed the attack to "terrorist organisations".

Yohanna X, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, in a phone call with the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Bishop of Hama, condemned the attack.

"Our children in Suqaylabiyah are paying the price of their faith with blood… What happened in Suqaylabiyah is a despicable and reprehensible act of terrorism," he said.

Rebel Islamic militias are fighting with the government and partly control several provinces.

Source

• CNA
• La Croix

According to Save the Children, hundreds of boys and teenagers were allegedly used as human shields during the fighting.

In late January, Islamic State militants attacked the Kurdish-run Gweiran prison in north-eastern Syria.

The militants used car bombs to breach the gates of the prison, releasing hundreds of prisoners. They allegedly then holed up in childrens' dormitories to slow the counter-attack from Kurdish-led forces.

It is still unclear how many children were killed during the siege and where survivors have been relocated to.

This latest battle is another sign Western countries, must do more to ensure the safety of foreign nationals trapped in Syria.

Children trapped in Syria

Like many prisons in Syria, Gweiran houses children as well as hardened militants. It is estimated about 700 children are detained there, 150 of whom are Western nationals, including at least one Australian.

Overall, there are about 7,830 foreign children living in squalid conditions in prisons and camps in Syria. The children were either taken to Syria by their parents, or were born in the camps.

Most of them are under the age of 12 and are being detained due to the alleged crimes of their parents.

From camps to prisons

Following the collapse of the caliphate in 2019, Islamic State fighters and their families were rounded up by Kurdish forces. The men were sent to prisons, and their wives and children sent to displacement camps.

Boys remain in camps until they are about 12 years old, at which point they are sent to an adult prison that also houses hardened Islamic jihadists, whether they have committed a crime or not.

International legal experts describe the conditions in detention as akin to torture. Detention is arbitrary and indefinite, and has been likened to "Europe's Guantanamo".

What options do these children have?

Children held in the displacement camps have some hope of repatriation, depending on their nationality.

To date, Australia has repatriated eight orphaned children, with 47 children still left in the camps. Western European states have opted to repatriate children under 12 on a case-by-case basis.

However, the boys held in adult prisons have few options. In particular, Western governments have been reluctant to repatriate male children over the age of ten due to concerns they have received military training, been radicalised and could pose a risk to society.

As for the adults, the Australian government has revoked the citizenship of dual nationals who chose to travel to Syria.

In terms of further assistance to young people and children in Syria, the government argues it was their parents' decision to destroy these children's lives by taking them to Syria, and Australia will not risk its personnel to rescue them.

As Foreign Minister Marise Payne recently commented:

Australia does not have diplomatic representation in Syria, and we have been very clear about the challenges of Australian citizens who have found themselves in that part of the world, having either gone there or being the children of parents who chose to go there […].

What should the international community do?

Both Kurdish authorities and the United States government have called on Western governments to repatriate all their citizens immediately.

Kurdish forces cannot guarantee the security of the camps and prisons, and do not have the capacity to hold detainees indefinitely.

Counter-terrorism experts similarly say repatriation is the safest long-term solution. This is not without risk, but Western societies have the capacity to monitor these people, assist with de-radicalisation and provide the support needed to rehabilitate adult fighters and traumatised children.

If necessary, adult returnees can also be prosecuted for their crimes and dealt with through the judicial system.

A moral issue

Repatriation is not just a national security issue, it is also a moral one - particularly in regard to children. Leaving children in prisons and camps makes them highly vulnerable. Along with numerous health and safety risks they can also be recruited by the Islamic State.

Many of these children are innocent victims, and all have rights under international law.

This includes the right to nationality, the right to life, survival and development, the right to be treated with humanity, and the right to be protected against unlawful or arbitrary deprivation of liberty. Even if older children are suspected of being radicalised or having committed crimes, Australia still has an obligation to repatriate them and apply due process.

Islamic State has a history of using jail breaks to free prisoners to add to their numbers. This latest attack shows it intends to repeat this strategy.

The international community has a choice: either repatriate and rehabilitate their citizens, or leave them in hopeless conditions and risk them refilling the ranks of the Islamic State.

• Beth Morrison Doctoral Research Candidate, The University of Queensland and Shannon Zimmerman is a Post Doctoral Research Fellow, RMIT University
• First published in The Conversation. Republished with permission.

They have repeatedly accused Turkey of 'weaponizing water' since its military takeover of the region in October 2019.

Those especially affected are those living in the north of Syria. The past few years' religious freedom for Kurds, Christians and Yazidis is reportedly again under attack from mainly Turkish military and Syrian Islamist fighters.

Turkey has cut off the water supply to the northern city of Hassakeh and surrounding districts - home to over a million people - for nearly four weeks.

This is risking hundreds of thousands of lives amidst the coronavirus pandemic and soaring temperatures, says the Syrian Democratic Council.

"This is a crime against humanity," says Gabriel Shamoun, the council's vice president.

The present water supply problems began when Turkey and its allies shut down the Alok pumping station. This was the eighth time the water had been cut off since Turkey invaded and took over the Ras al-Ain area last October, observers say.

They aim is to choke the inhabitants of Hassakeh into submission.

The Alok pumping station provides drinking water for around 800,000 people. It is also the main source of water for tankers supplying potable water to tens of thousands of inhabitants. The pumping station became inoperable during the Turkish invasion. So far service has been only partially restored.

According to UNICEF, if people are forced to rely on unsafe water from shallow wells, children and others face increased risk of waterborne diseases. Tankers transporting potable water are expensive and beyond many people's financial means.

Saying Turkey is using water as a "provocation" against the autonomous region, Shamoun is urging the U.S., the United Nations, and Russia (the Syrian government's main backer) to pressure Turkey to restore Hassakeh's water supply.

Kurds and Syriac Christians from this area have been America's chief ally in fighting Islamic State militants in Syria and ending its territorial caliphate.

Last year's U.S. troop pullback and Turkey's subsequent offensive are raising fears of an Islamic State resurgence.

"Using water as a weapon — which is not the first time — is a barbaric act and a flagrant violation of fundamental human rights," says the Damascus-based head of the Syriac Orthodox Church, Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II of Antioch.

"Yet, there has been no response from the international community to this atrocity, despite the constant appeal of the people of the region," he wrote in a letter to the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on 21 August.

People in Afrin and the autonomous northeast were allowed to choose their own faith and religious beliefs until militant Islamists working with the Turkish military invaded Afrin in January 2018.

Since then, Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities have been persecuted; their homes, businesses and properties have been taken over by the troops, and many have been forced to flee. Those who converted to Christianity face particular danger from the Islamists.

Source

• Catholic News Service
• Image: UCA News

The chalice was rescued from a Syrian Catholic church in the town of Qaraqosh on the Nineveh plain in Iraq. It was brought to the Malaga diocese by the papal charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) to be displayed during Masses offered for persecuted Christians.

"This chalice was used by the jihadists for target practice," explained Ana María Aldea, an ACN delegate in Malaga. "What they did not imagine is that it would be re-consecrated and taken to many parts of the world to hold Mass in its presence."

"With this, we want to make visible a reality that we sometimes see on television but we are not really aware of what we are seeing." Read more

The Maronite Cathedral of Saint Elijah has special significance for Maronite Catholics in the area.

After lying in ruins for several years, Christmas Mass was celebrated in the cathedral in 2016 amid debris and ash.

The war-damaged cathedral has now been fully renovated with the help of the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). It was formally reopened July 20.

Maronite Archbishop Joseph Tobji said the moment had both symbolic and practical meaning.

"It is a message to the parishioners and Christians in Aleppo and the world that we are still in this country despite our dwindling numbers, and the restoration of the cathedral is proof of this," he said during the reopening.

Being determined to stay "is a ‘mission' and not just because we were born here, or because we are obliged to stay here against our will," he explained.

The decision to restore the cathedral, "was self-evident, just like a family who wanted to renovate our only house that brought us together" as Maronites have no other place to gather together for worship, Tobji says.

Once the fighting in Aleppo was over, Tobji said he came back to the cathedral and saw a caved in ceiling, collapsed dome, scorched walls and shards of wood and plaster were on the floor where pews and statues once stood.

"I said to myself: As we all suffered as human beings, so did the house of God and the house of the congregation."

"This house (the church) played a role in receiving the blows themselves in order to protect the surrounding civilians," so he gave thanks to God, "who uses means that we may not understand for salvation."

Tobji says the project cost over $450,000 all of which was raised and donated by he help of the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). The charity has funded about 100 additional projects in Syria.

ACN says only about a third of Syria's pre-Civil War 1.5 million Christians remain. In Aleppo, which had around 180,000 Christians, there are currently just 30,000.

Currently in its 10th year, the Civil War has left thousands dead and millions displaced. Millions more are living in poverty.

Source

• Crux Now
• Image: Twitter

"Institutions in Syria now are having a lot of difficulties … So, this project supporting these hospitals is helping them to go on," said Flavia Chevallard, project coordinator for "Operation Open Hospitals in Syria" implemented by AVSI, a nongovernmental organization founded in Italy in 1972.

The project is the brainchild of Cardinal Mario Zenari, the nuncio to Syria, who in 2016 sought practical ways to support Syrians in the midst of crippling conflict. Read more

The donations were among the first items announced by the congregation as it launched an emergency fund in response to the pandemic.

The congregation said in its announcement that the ten ventilators sent to Syria would be shared by three hospitals run by Catholic orders of women religious: the Salesians in Damascus, the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition in Aleppo and the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul in Damascus. Read more

They fled their village in a panic, the older children carrying the little ones, walking for seven hours just to getaway. The youngest children are shaking, their cheeks are bright pink from the cold.

Finally, a van stops — it's a godsend. The family piles in with their hastily filled bags containing just a change of clothes, which they managed to grab in the darkness as they ran.

In the last two months, more than 832,000 people have fled the last opposition-held territory in Syria in the wake of a relentless air campaign and a swift ground offensive by the Syrian regime and its Russian backers. Tens of thousands of people are still on the move. Nearly 700,000 of the newly displaced are women and children, according to the latest UN figures.

There is plenty of international condemnation, but little action to relieve the situation in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib and the surrounding areas.
The van takes Samar and the six kids in her care to her sister-in-law's house in a village close to the town of Atarib. It's not far enough, but for now it will have to do.

"I don't feel better here," Samar told CNN. "We need to leave but we need to try to figure out transport or something because if we try to walk it will be impossible."

Just a few doors down, Umm Abdo's kids wait outside, bundled up in their winter coats as she finishes loading a truck with mattresses and blankets. The airstrikes are getting too close. It's time to leave.

"We are only taking a little, just some clothes, only what we need," Umm Abdo said.

She walks into the bedroom one last time and pulls out the kids' toys from the closet.

Eight-year-old Dima grabs her favorite — a pink teddy bear called Hamze. The youngest, two-year-old Betoule, grabs a yellow chick. Ten-year-old Abdelbased keeps his hands in his pockets — he is too old to play with stuffed animals anyway.

They fled their home two years ago, but had created new memories and a sense of stability in this house. The kids were in school and they had friends.

Umm Abdo tells the girls to put the toys back. They don't protest or hesitate, seemingly hardened well beyond their years, and head out to the truck.

After a final look around the house, Umm Abdo walks out, locking the front door behind her. It's an incredible act of optimism as the Syrian regime onslaught continues and the future looks bleak. Continue reading

"My thoughts go once again to the Middle East. In particular, to the beloved and tormented Syria, from which dramatic news arrives again about the fate of the people of the country's northeast, who are forced to abandon their houses because of military actions," Pope Francis said in St. Peter's Square Oct. 13.

"To all the actors involved and to the international community, I renew the appeal to commit sincerely on the path of dialogue to seek effective solutions," the pope said. Read more

Syrian opposition activists and a war monitor say five people died and 21 were wounded on Sunday as the government continued its air campaign against the region.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, says two of the dead were members of the same family.

The day before, an airstrike hit a busy market killing 11 people.

The weekend's deaths add to the fast-growing list of victims. By last Friday over 100 people had been reported dead in the previous 10 days. About a quarter of those were children.

UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet blamed the attacks in rebel-held areas on the government and its allies.

But the attacks were met with "apparent international indifference" she said.

Syria and its ally Russia have both denied targeting civilians in air strikes in the Idlib region.

Like the opposition activists and the war monitor, Michelle Bachelet also blames the attacks on the Syrian government and its allies.

Bachelet is also critical of the "failure of leadership by the world's most powerful nations".

The rising death toll in the north-western province of Idlib had been met with a "collective shrug" and the conflict had fallen off the international radar. In the meantime the UN Security Council was paralysed, she says.

She says in her view the civilian targets were unlikely to have been accidental and warned that those carrying out the attacks could be charged with war crimes.

"Intentional attacks against civilians are war crimes, and those who have ordered them or carried them out are criminally responsible for their actions," she says.

Source

• RNZ News
• Starts Stripes
• Image: Politico

He also asked for the safe return of the millions of people displaced by years of fighting, information for the families of displaced persons as to their location and conditions, the humane treatment of political prisoners and the resumption of negotiations to seek a political solution to the conflict.

Dozens of schools, rescue centers and hospitals have been destroyed in aerial bombings, with more than 500 civilians believed to have been killed so far.

Cardinal Peter Turkson who heads the Vatican's department for Promoting Integral Human Development, accompanied by Italian Cardinal Mario Zenari, the pope's ambassador in Syria, delivered the letter to Assad on Monday.

The Holy See's Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, says the letter was a humanitarian gesture urging Assad to take steps towards reconciliation.

"What is happening is intolerable and inhuman," he said.

"The Holy Father asks the President to do everything possible to put an end to this humanitarian catastrophe, in order to protect the defenceless population, especially those who are most vulnerable."

Syrian state news agency SANA says Assad had told Turkson it was important to put pressure on countries supporting terrorists, a term Damascus uses to describe the rebels seeking his downfall.

Syria's war, now in its ninth year, grew out of popular protests against Assad, devastating many towns and cities. An estimated half a million people have died in the fighting.

More than 5.6 million Syrian refugees have fled to Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt and 6.6 million have been displaced within its borders.

Francis has made the situation in Syria a top political and diplomatic priority since his election in March 2013.

Source

• CruxNow
• The Tablet
• Reuters
• Crux
• Image: The Times

Save the Children, World Vision and Terre des Hommes Foundation said in a joint statement the government made a decision in April that dictated all structures made of materials other than timber and plastic sheeting will be knocked down in the border town of Arsal.

Syrians have until June 9 to make the necessary changes to their structures, after which they will be demolished, the statement said. Read more

The legislation aims particularly to help groups targeted for genocide by Islamic State militants.

It enables financial and technical assistance for the humanitarian, stabilisation and recovery needs of former and current religious minority residents of Iraq and Syria.

In addition, the act enables the US State Department - in collaboration with other federal agencies and other entities, including faith-based groups - to conduct criminal investigations.

It also enables them to apprehend individuals identified as alleged IS members and to identify warning signs of genocide and threats of persecution.

"In recent years, IS has committed horrifying atrocities against religious and ethnic minorities in Syria and Iraq, including Christians, Yazidis, Shia and other groups," Trump says.

Trump says the legislation directs US assistance to persecuted communities.

In addition, it will enable government agencies to help groups that are investigating and prosecuting what he calls Islamic State's "despicable acts."

Officials of the Knights of Columbus took part in a signing ceremony at the White House.

"The legislation signed today again reminds us of America's earlier efforts to aid victims of genocide - Christian communities targeted by Ottomans a century ago and Jewish survivors of Shoah," Supreme Knight Carl Anderson says.

With the bill now law, he says "America speaks with bold moral clarity and political unanimity."

The Chairman of the US bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace, Archbishop Timothy Broglio says the new law is a "critical" measure and "a signal of hope for the critically vulnerable of this region."

Source

• NZ Herald
• Crux Now
• Image: Crux Now

Mazen Darwish, who is a Syrian lawyer and Director of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, says Assad's victims deserve justice.

"To deny them justice is to make a mockery of all that they have suffered. We must realize the extent of what's happening in Syria. It's not just targeted killings and specific disappearances. It's mass murder. In this context, impunity is not an option.

"It is intolerable that certain key figures in the regime are participating in the negotiations taking place in Geneva and are taking advantage of this in order to demand a general amnesty," he says. Read more

• I didn't lose a wink of sleep over the Syrian women and children who died because of chemical weapons.
• I don't feel a twinge of guilt when I eat my dinner and think of hungry, homeless families sleeping under interstate bridges.
• Over 50,500 people worldwide died last night, but I didn't shed a single tear over them while I had my morning cup of coffee.

And, unless you're some kind of super-compassionate, super-merciful, lover of all humanity, you didn't either.

Do we care? Yes.

Are we concerned? Probably.

Do we want things to change? I would hope so.

But do we love these people? No, not really.

Notice: I didn't say, "Should we love these people?"

Of course we should.

Love in an imperfect world

In a perfect world, we'd love every man, woman, and child. With our whole heart. Unreservedly. But we don't. Not because we are hardhearted monsters, but because we are regular people. And regular people love a minuscule amount of the world's population.

Think of love this way: love is welcoming others into our little world.

Our little world begins with our own bodies. Only one person is welcome there: our spouse.

But our little world goes beyond our body.

It includes those who are welcome in our home and at our table, people like family and friends.

But our little world is still bigger: it includes those with whom we work, play, and worship.

The closer someone is to the little world of me, the more I love them. The farther away they are, the less I love them.

Our love is as much geographical as it is anything.

If your next-door neighbor is murdered tonight, you'll exclaim, "O dear God, poor Joe! How horrible."

But when the Mexican mafia guns down ten people on the streets of Juarez tonight, you'll just pop some popcorn and continue watching Netflix.

You don't love those people because they are far away, not in your world.

They are outside your love zone.

I say all this really for one reason and one reason only: to try and get through our thick heads just how different our love is from the love of God.

The women and children who died in Syria: God knit together every one of them in the womb, breathed life into them, laughed as they played and smiled as they grew.

He not only cared when they died horrific deaths; he loved them.

From the untouchable living on the streets of India to the millionaire in Manhattan; from the farmer in Germany to the escort in Vegas; from the missionary in Argentina to the bartender in Ireland—they are all in the love zone of the Lord.

Every. Single. One.

Every single one was on the mind of Jesus when he bled and died for them.

Every single one is the object of God's daily mercy and compassion.

Every single one is known, loved, and cherished by the Creator.

He know the number of hairs on their heads.

He knows the number of cells in their bodies.

He knows their dreams, their fears, their shame.

They are all in his big world of love. He will welcome every one into his home and at his table. He desires all to become part of the body of his Son.

Now that's true love.

And we shouldn't be surprised because, as John says, God is love.

Love isn't a trait of the divine personality but his very essence. He loves specifically, wholeheartedly, unreservedly.

We try—and fail—to imitate that love. Some of us do better than others. So be it.

But even as we fail, and try again, and seek to enlarge our own little worlds of love, we rest in the immense love of the Father. And we await that time when, in the new heavens and new earth, we will look every man, woman, and child in the eye, and truly, without reservation, echo the words of our Father as we say, "Dear brother, dear sister, I love you."

Dear God, enlarge our hearts. Expand our love. And fill us with your love, for without it, we all are lost.

• Chad Bird is an author and speaker devoted to honest Christianity that addresses the raw realities of life.
• First published at www.chadbird.com Republished with permission.
• Image: www.chadbird.com

War planes and ships launched over 100 missiles at three chemical weapons storage and research facilities near Damascus and Homs.

The airstrikes sought to punish President Bashar al-Assad for a suspected chemical attack in the rebel-held suburb of Douma, east of Damascus, on 7 April.

Forty-two people died in the attack.

According to the Pentagon, the airstrikes aimed to take "the heart out of" of President Bashar Assad's chemical weapons programme.

They say the strikes targeted a research centre in Damascus, along with a chemical weapons storage facility and command post west of Homs.

At the same time, the Pentagon acknowledges the Syrian government can probably still attack with chemical agents.

In a joint statement, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, the Melkite-Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem have denounced the strikes.

Their statement says they condemn "the brutal aggression that took place [during the weekend] against our precious country … under the allegations that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons."

They say the airstrikes are a "clear violation of the international laws and the UN Charter", and described them as an "unjustified assault" on a sovereign country that is a member of the UN.

"It causes us great pain that this assault comes from powerful countries to which Syria did not cause any harm in any way.

"The allegations of the USA and other countries that the Syrian army is using chemical weapons and that Syria is a country that owns and uses this kind of weapon is a claim that is unjustified and unsupported by sufficient and clear evidence."

Pope Francis has called for peace in the region.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Boston Globe
• BBC
• ABC
• The Tablet
• Image: Daily Star

In the last week or so, the Assad regime is dealing with the last remaining rebel enclave near Damascus, Eastern Ghouta.

This enclave has a population of over 300,000 people, and is slowly being reduced by starvation and indiscriminate bombing.

These were the same methods used to reduce other rebel-held territories such as Eastern Aleppo.

The outlook for people in Eastern Ghouta does not look good.

But even though Mr Assad may win the war in Eastern Ghouta, it is unlikely that he will ever be able to reassert full control over the whole of Syria, given the fact that his army, even with his foreign allies, is simply not big enough to do so.

The truth is that Mr Assad is still in power thanks to two things.

• The failure of the West to intervene decisively against him (a failure in which even the Vatican played a part.)
• The military assistance from Russia, Hizbollah and Iran. If these allies were to desert him, he would not last long.

At the close of last year, Iran seemed to be on the brink of revolution, a real revolution which would have undone the one that overthrew the Shah.

The widespread protests, which now seem to have stopped, were sparked by economic discontents and the rise in the cost of basic foodstuffs, a familiar phenomenon in the history of revolutions.

The people were also protesting about the way the regime was spending lots of money propping up Assad, and interfering in Yemen and Lebanon, while not looking after its own people.

If (and it is a huge if) these protests start again (and the basic discontents have not gone away), and if there is regime change in Tehran, then the client government in Damascus would be doomed. Continue reading

According to Open Doors USA the pastor was talking about a church event involving feeding the people who were still in the city and sharing the Gospel to those who were there.

"And as he's preparing to do it, he and the other pastor saw a Muslim extremist man with a beard without a moustache, which is an indication of a more fundamental, extremist Muslim, so they were concerned. Read more

The first two generally come in the form of packages from the United Nation's World Food Program or other nonprofit organizations.

The latter, however, traditionally came in the form of kerosene lamps, which are less than ideal. In fact, they're often dangerous.

According to the Word Health Organization, roughly 1.5 million people a year die from toxic kerosene fumes.

In India, where the impoverished population heavily depends on kerosene, the lamps cause over 30,000 yearly house fires.

In South Africa, 200,000 people are injured or lose property due to kerosene-related fires.

Not to mention, kerosene users spend 30% of their income buying it.

"They can save that money for food, education, building homes," explains Alice Min Soo Chun, founder and CEO of Solight Design, who created a unique alternative: a slim solar lantern.

The SolarPuff is a two-ounce, flat-pack solar lamp which quickly expands into a 4.5-inch cube.

The lantern can last eight hours and easily recharges with clear sunlight.

It provides enough light for refugees or people in impoverished areas to perform tasks at night, without instigating any dangerous fires or needing batteries. There are even different settings (high or low), and a blinking option to scare off wild animals or signal distress.

To some degree, we likely take light for granted, but 1.06 billion people have no access to electricity or clean sustainable lighting, according to the World Bank.

Child trauma, kidnappings and sex trafficking

Chun explains how many Syrian refugees—often starving and sick—arrive by boat in the middle of night, at times when they cannot see where to land or how to safely disembark.

They are handed lights by NGO volunteers to navigate the waters so they don't crash into rocks.

From there, they might need to walk up to 30 miles in the dark to arrive at a camp, where there are no lights. (Refugees without access to kerosene lamps often find themselves burning plastic trash, "which is even more toxic," notes Chun).

SolarPuff brightens the trek—and their new life.

"A lot of times the kids are suffering from trauma and they're frightened, but when they're handed the light, they perk up."

The popping element of the design, she explains, "gives them a sense of wonder."

The SolarPuff has proven to be extremely useful in reducing camp crime, such as child kidnappings or sex trafficking. Continue reading