A fire broke out on a ferry off Spain’s Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean on Tuesday, forcing the evacuation of 156 passengers and crew in lifeboats and injuring three crew members, officials said. The ferry operated by Trasmediterranea was travelling from Palma de Mallorca, the capital of the Balearic Islands, to the eastern Spanish port of Valencia when the blaze broke out in its garage for still unknown reasons, the company said in a statement. ‘Everyone has been evacuated,’ a company spokeswoman told AFP. Passengers and crew abandoned the Sorrento ferry in lifeboats after it became clear that the fire could not be brought under control with the means on board, Spain’s coastguard said in a statement. Three crew members who were rescued by helicopter suffered smoke inhalation, the Mallorca port authority said. It had initially said there were about 170 passengers on board the ferry.
The U.S. Department of State published a statement on 22 April saying that the Russian military has continued moving heavy weapons and additional troops to the Ukrainian border, and has deployed additional air defense systems into eastern Ukraine, creating the highest concentration of air defenses in the area since the height of the conflict last August. Russian and Russia-backed separatist forces have been conducting increasingly complex training in eastern Ukraine. Also NATO Secretary General said Russia is building up forces along the Ukrainian border and actively delivering weapons and supplies to eastern Ukraine militants, which allows them to start rapid attacks. Meanwhile the United States and Russian officials are waging a war of words, with each accusing the other of threatening to undo the ceasefire.
Amid ongoing fighting, evangelical Christians say they face persecution in Crimea and fear similar problems in other areas. One year after the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by Russia, Ukrainian Christians say they are still facing persecution there by pro-Russian separatists who already have killed several believers. Evangelical congregations in particular have come under severe restrictions in Crimea, according to activists and church officials. In comments distributed by the Voice Of the Martyrs Canada (VOMC) advocacy group, a key church leader said that separatists accuse evangelical Christians in Ukraine of spying for the West. ‘Separatists have confiscated their church buildings,’ added the official, only identified as ‘Paul’ amid security concerns. Paul, who reportedly planted many churches in the former Soviet Union, said some believers in occupied areas were even killed. ‘After annexation, Ukrainian churches [were told] they had no right to exist there. Every church has had to be re-registered,’ he explained in comments obtained by BosNewsLife.
In Norway, an Iraqi Islamist is keeping the entire country on tenterhooks. The man, who calls himself Mullah Krekar, was granted asylum in Norway in 1991, but in the meantime has been held responsible for terrorist attacks by an Islamist group in northern Iraq. Now he's about to be confined to a small village in northern Norway. Krekar has been facing deportation for ten years because he is seen as a danger to Norwegian national security, but according to international law he cannot be sent to Iraq because he would be subject to torture and possibly the death penalty there. The Norwegian government is sending him to the isolated village of Kyrksaeteroera, on a fjord southwest of Trondheim, where he will remain until a deportation order can be enforced.The village residents - neither the Norwegians, nor the 200 well-integrated asylum seekers already there - are enthusiastic.
Heads of eleven Evangelical churches have asked people not to give or take bribes and oppose corruption the main inner enemy of Ukraine, reports The Christian Telegraph in reference to the Institute for Religious Freedom. ‘Losses from corruption are huge. The sin of theft cruelly destroys our nation. The experience of other countries has shown that all good changes in a person’s life or the life of the whole nation begin with changes in the worldview,’ said the appeal made by the Alliance of Evangelical Protestant Churches of Ukraine. The heads of the of Evangelical churches noted the importance of healthy spiritual guide-lines, which the Bible contains. All officials should remember ‘the oath of civil servants, and, what is more important, the responsibility before the Almighty Creator and Lord.’ the ministers called on the government to make transparent reformation of ‘courts, local governments and other important components of the state.’
A new report by the Pew Research Centre said, ‘The religious profile of the world is rapidly changing, driven by differences in fertility rates and the size of youth populations among the world’s major religions, as well as by people switching faiths. Over the next four decades Christians will remain the largest religious group, but Islam will grow faster than any other major religion if current trends continue. By 2050, Christianity is set to decline further in the UK and Europe. 25% of all Christians lived in Europe in 2010. By 2050 this is set to drop to 15.6 % and Africa will have the most Christians. In 2010, 24% of the world's Christians lived in sub-Saharan Africa by 2050 it will exceed 38% according to Pew. Europe’s ‘absolute number’ of Christians will fall from 553 million in 2010 to 454 million in 2050.
Four hundred migrants drowned in the Mediterranean in the latest migrant tragedy taking place inside the European borders. On Monday, the Italian navy said that it managed to rescue 144 people. Survivors said the boat was carrying about 550 people who wanted to enter the European Union through Italy. The survivors were brought to a southern Italian port on Tuesday morning, the International Organization for Migration and the charity Save the Children reported. Most of the migrants were sub-Saharan Africans. ‘There were 400 victims in this shipwreck, which occurred 24 hours after their vessel left the Libyan coast,’ Save the Children said in a statement, citing survivors. ‘There were several young males, probably minors, among the victims’ and also children among those rescued'. IOM spokesman in Italy, Flavio Di Giacomo, told AFP that the Italian authorities are ‘continuing to investigate in order to understand how the shipwreck happened.’
Thousands of people have gathered in 50 cities across Hungary to protest what many say is an erosion of democratic freedoms and government corruption. Sunday’s (19 April) demonstrations came after the European Commission suspended payments to Hungary over suspected corruption and irregularities in the awarding of tenders. ‘Listening to my heart I would make them resign and call an early election,’ a woman told Euronews. ‘For me, anybody else would be better than them, They have no shame.’ Euronews correspondent Attilla Magyar filed the following report from Budapest: ‘The last months have seen several demonstrations against corruption and the actions of Orbán’s government. The most recent protest demonstration was sparked by the recent disagreement between the European Union and the Hungarian government. The organisers have promised more demonstrations.’