Latest news with #missionaries
Daily Mail
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Six Americans arrested for trying to smuggle rice into North Korea
Six Americans have been detained in South Korea for trying to float 1,600 plastic bottles filled with rice, miniature Bibles, $1 bills, and USB sticks toward North Korea. The Americans, missionaries aged from their 20s to 50s, were apprehended on front-line Gwanghwa Island about 1.06am on Friday, local time. Cops grabbed them before they could throw the bottles into the sea so they could float toward North Korean shores on the tides, two Gwanghwa police officers alleged. They said the Americans are being investigated on allegations they violated the law on the management of safety and disasters. The officers, who requested anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to media on the issue, refused to provide personal details of the Americans in line with privacy rules. Gwanghwa police said they haven't yet found what is on the USB sticks. 'Because the suspects do not speak Korean fluently, we plan to conduct further questioning with the assistance of an interpreter,' they said. Plastic bags containing Bible passages are prepared prior to being thrown into the sea by North Korean defector activists on Ganghwa island, west of Seoul on May 1, 2018 The US Embassy in South Korea had no immediate public comment. For years, activists have sought to float plastic bottles or fly balloons across the border carrying anti-North Korea propaganda leaflets and USB thumb drives carrying South Korean dramas and K-pop songs. This practice that was banned from 2021-2023 over concerns it could inflame tensions with the North. North Korea responded to previous balloon campaigns with fiery rhetoric and other shows of anger. Last year the country launched its own balloons across the border, dumping rubbish on various South Korean sites including the presidential compound. South Korea´s Constitutional Court struck down a controversial law in 2023 that criminalized the sending of leaflets and other items to North Korea, calling it an excessive restriction on free speech. But since taking office in early June, the new liberal government of President Lee Jae Myung is pushing to crack down on such civilian campaigns with other safety-related laws to avoid a flare-up tensions with North Korea and promote the safety of frontline South Korean residents. Police detained an activist on June 14 for allegedly flying balloons toward North Korea from Gwanghwa Island. Police created a dedicated task force to prevent items crossing the border into the North, in response to Friday's arrests. 'We will strengthen coordination with relevant bodies to completely block these leaflet operations and respond strictly to any violations according to the law,' they said. Lee took office with a promise to restart long-dormant talks with North Korea and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula. Lee's government halted frontline anti-Pyongyang propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts to try to ease military tensions. North Korean broadcasts have not been heard in South Korean front-line towns since then. But it's unclear if North Korea will respond to Lee's conciliatory gesture after vowing last year to sever relations with South Korea and abandon the goal of peaceful Korean reunification. Official talks between the Koreas have been stalled since 2019, when US-led diplomacy on North Korean denuclearization derailed.
South China Morning Post
05-06-2025
- Lifestyle
- South China Morning Post
Interwar Hongkongers' summer destination of choice? Indonesia
Since the colony's earliest years, the summer months of dankly humid weeks of near-constant rain, followed by a few baking-hot, magnificently clear days, punctuated by passing typhoons, have been the season to escape. But before air services expanded everyone's travel horizons, where lay within reasonable reach by sea, offering pleasant, modern resort localities with warm daytime weather, fresh mornings and cool afternoons? Regional options were limited. In mainland China, modest hill stations, mostly established by missionaries, were scattered across the interior but none were readily accessible from Hong Kong. Farther afield, yet close enough for relatively short visits, Japan, and Japanese-ruled Taiwan, offered several attractive mountain resorts. Established from the early 20th century and accessible by road and rail from major cities, places such as Nikko became popular destinations for a while. By the early 1930s, however, as Japan descended into fascist rule, foreigners found themselves subject to official surveillance, which diminished that country's pull. So where else as erstwhile peaceful, interesting and accessible also offered a range of cooler-climate options? The Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia), and more specifically, the island of Java , was the premier interwar summer destination of choice for those Hongkongers able to afford leisure travel. An early 20th-century advertisement for steamship connections to Java. Photo: Handout Dramatically beautiful, cool-weather mountain resorts had been a noted feature on Java from the early 19th century. Linked by modern railways and excellent road networks to international ports at Surabaya and Batavia (present-day Jakarta), modern Dutch-built highland cities including Bandung, in West Java, and Malang, in East Java, offered convenient access to smaller hill towns found at higher altitudes nearby, such as Garut, Sukabumi, Lawang and Tretes.
Associated Press
04-06-2025
- General
- Associated Press
AP PHOTOS: On remote Nagasaki islands, a rare version of Christianity heads toward extinction
IKITSUKI, Japan (AP) — On the rural islands of Nagasaki, a handful of believers practice a version of Christianity that has direct links to a time of samurai, shoguns, and martyred missionaries and believers. On Ikitsuki and other remote sections of Nagasaki prefecture, Hidden Christians pray to what they call the Closet God — scroll paintings of Mary and Jesus disguised as a Buddhist Bodhisattva, hidden in special closets. They chant in a Latin that has not been widely used for centuries. Now, though, the Hidden Christians are disappearing. Almost all are elderly, and as the young move away to cities or turn their backs on the faith, those remaining are desperate to preserve evidence of this unique offshoot of Christianity — and convey to the world what its loss will mean. ______ This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
Washington Post
04-06-2025
- General
- Washington Post
Takeaways from AP's reporting on looming extinction of rare version of Christianity in rural Japan
IKITSUKI, Japan — On the rural islands of Nagasaki a handful of believers practice a version of Christianity that has direct links to a time of samurai, shoguns and martyred missionaries and believers. After emerging from hiding in 1865, following centuries of violent persecution by Japan's insular warlord rulers, many of the formerly underground Christians converted to mainstream Catholicism.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Man, reportedly under the influence, assaults missionary group member
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KREX) – A man was arrested Friday afternoon after he was reportedly intoxicated while being visited by a group of missionaries before he assaulted one of the members. The initial incident occurred around 1:25 p.m. The Grand Junction Regional Communication Center received a report of a man who threatened to kill his roommate at their home in the 2100 block of North 26th Street, according to the Grand Junction Police Department. While the missionaries were visiting with the suspect at his home, the man allegedly assaulted one of the members in the kitchen. The group immediately left the house before his roommate arrived not long after. The suspect reportedly tried to stab his roommate with a knife but he was able to restrain the man before law enforcement arrived. GJPD then took the suspect, Joel Ballantyne, 33, into custody. He was transported to the Mesa County Detention Facility and booked on attempted first-degree assault, felony menacing, attempted second-degree assault on a peace officer, menacing, harassment and restraining order violation. The police department said it believes this was an isolated incident and there's no ongoing threat to the community. The investigation is ongoing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
