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GIs Told to Bring Afghans to Jesus DOHA, Qatar -- U.S. Soldiers have been encouraged to spread the message of their Christian faith among Afghanistan's predominantly Muslim population, video footage obtained by Al Jazeera appears to show. Military chaplains stationed in the U.S. air base at Bagram were also filmed with Bibles printed in the country's main Pashto and Dari languages. In one recorded sermon, Lt. Col. Gary Hensley, the chief of the U.S. military chaplains in Afghanistan, is seen telling Soldiers that as followers of Jesus Christ, they all have a responsibility "to be witnesses for him". "The special forces guys -- they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down," he says. "Get the hound of heaven after them, so we get them into the kingdom. That's what we do, that's our business."

More than 200,000 sign petition for reporter jailed in Eritrea - Monsters and Critics : "Stockholm - Five Swedish editors-in-chief on Monday presented the Eritrean embassy a petition signed by over 200,000 people calling for the release of a jailed Swedish-Eritrean journalist held for almost eight years in Eritrea. Dawit Isaak has as of Monday been jailed for 2,780 days. The petition calling for his release was launched March 27, and may be the largest of its kind. It was signed by almost 210,000 people in Sweden, which has a population of around 9 million. 'We were allowed to present our views,' Thomas Mattsson, editor in chief of the Expressen daily, told reporters, adding that they were also 'allowed to ask questions about Dawit Isaak and Eritrea.' Eritrea's charge d'affaires Yonas Manna Bairu said he would convey the petition to the Eritrean government. The petition noted that Isaak has been held without charge or sentence. The editors of the dailies Af

US Strike Kills Dozens of Afghan Civilians -- News from Antiwar.com Following clashes in the Bala Baluk district of the Farah Province, US aircraft bombed the area. Afghan officials are now confirming that the attack hit civilian homes, killing women and children, and some officials say the final toll could easily rise into the dozens. Provincial council member Abdul Basir Khan confirms that villagers brought the mutilated bodies of roughly 30 people killed in the air strike, and that many of them were women and children. It was not immediately clear if all the bodies were civilians or if militants were also killed in the attacks. One former district official who also confirms seeing dozens of bodies said it was too early to tell how many civilians were killed, but predicted that there were “more than 100 civilians dead” in the attacks, and many other civilians badly burned. It seems likely now that the final civilian toll will at least be the highest so far in 2009, though it remains