Archive
Reuters blog archive
from India Insight:
Firing on LoC: Blame game and spillovers continue
Firing between India and Pakistan along the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed region of Kashmir has left five soldiers dead (two Indians and three Pakistanis). In India, the issue became a front-page story with the media expressing outrage over reports that the body of one Indian soldier was allegedly mutilated by the Pakistanis.
The incident fuelled tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours and Indian political parties have minced no words in their calls for retribution.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday called the act “barbaric” and said it was no more “business as usual” with Islamabad.
Anti-Pakistan sentiment spilled over in India in the fields of art and sports, reminiscent of the snub of Pakistani players in the cash-rich Indian Premier League after the Mumbai attacks of 2008.
from FaithWorld:
South Korea’s religious harmony put to the test by Christian president
(South Korean President Lee Myung-bak at the presidential Blue House in Seoul June 9, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Jo Yong-Hak)
Many South Koreans concerned about the country's increasing religious polarisation are haunted by a single image - their president on his knees. While attending a national prayer breakfast in March, President ??Lee Myung-bak knelt to pray at the urging of Christian leaders.
from FaithWorld:
Egyptian Christians to end two-week sit-in protest
(Coptic Christian women protest after clashes between Christians and Muslims in downtown Cairo May 8, 2011/Mohamed Abd El-Ghany)
Egyptian Christians holding a sit-in in downtown Cairo agreed to end nearly two weeks of protests on Friday, state television reported, after authorities promised to meet some of their demands. Witnesses said some of the protestors had begun preparing to go home after one main protest leader, Father Metyas Nasr, an Orthodox priest, agreed to a government offer to free five young men detained on Thursday following clashes outside a church in the eastern Cairo suburb of Ain Shams.
from FaithWorld:
Bahrain crisis could worsen Sunni-Shi’ite sectarian tensions in the region
(Rally organized by Lebanon's Hezbollah in front of the U.N. headquarters in Beirut March 16, 2011, in support of Bahraini protesters. Around 2,000 mostly Shi'ite Lebanese demonstrators rallied in central Beirut on Wednesday in support of an uprising by Bahrain's Shi'ite Muslim majority/Cynthia Karam)
A Bahraini police crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, two days after Saudi Arabia sent in 1,000 troops to bolster its longtime Gulf Arab ally, will heighten Sunni-Shi'ite tensions in Bahrain and beyond. At least five people were killed and hundreds wounded when police cleared demonstrators from Manama's Pearl Square on Wednesday in an attempt to halt weeks of popular unrest.
from FaithWorld:
Egyptian revolution brings show of religious unity after tensions
(A Muslim holding the Koranand a Coptic Christian holding a cross in Tahrir Square in Cairo February 6, 2011/Dylan Martinez)
The surge of popular unity that toppled Hosni Mubarak last week has eased tension between Egypt's Muslims and the Coptic Christian minority and raised hopes for lasting harmony. Muslims and Christians joined hands and formed human shields to protect each other from riot police as members of the different faiths prayed during the protests in Cairo.
from Reuters Investigates:
Israel and hydrocarbons
It's taking a while to filter through to those of us who don't follow these things that Israel might become an energy exporter. Ari Rabinovich in Tel Aviv explores some of the potential consequences. 
"I see it becoming a source of considerable tension until the location and the scale of the reservoirs are better understood," says Catherine Hunter, a Levantine energy analyst at IHS in London.
