5 Kerala priests caught in 'sleaze', suspended
Kottayam, June 26 : Five Kerala priests of the Kottayam-headquartered Malankara Orthodox Church have been suspended over allegations of sexually exploiting a woman from the same church, an official said.
Speaking to IANS, Secretary of the Church Biju Oommen said as soon as they received complaint from the husband of the victim, they took immediate action.
"The Church has acted in the utmost responsible manner ... Today as things stand, the five are suspects. Commission has been appointed to probe the episode.
"The probe is on and when the report comes, the Church will again act on it," said Oommen.
The husband has said one of the priest who first exploited his wife was blackmailing her. When she sought help on this from another priest, he too, threatened her and shared her contact with another fellow priest and in the end she came under the duress from at least five priests.
The Orthodox Church was shocked as the episode was criticized heavily on the social media which dented its image.
"We are certainly worried about the huge publicity that the incident has generated and we suspect that there are vested interests who are out to malign our Church in the social media," added Oommen.
The victim has not yet filed a police complaint.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Israeli police make arrests after flares fired at prime minister's private residence
Tel Aviv (AP): Israeli police said on Sunday that they have arrested three suspects after flares were fired at the private residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the coastal city of Caesarea.
Authorities said the prime minister and his family were not at the residence when two flares were fired at it overnight, and there were no injuries.
The police did not provide details about the suspects, but officials pointed to domestic political critics of Netanyahu. Israeli President Isaac Herzog condemned the incident and warned against “an escalation of the violence in the public sphere”.
Netanyahu has faced months of mass protests over his handling of the hostage crisis unleashed by Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack into Israel, which ignited the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
Critics blame Netanyahu for the security and intelligence failures that allowed the attack to happen and for not reaching a deal with Hamas to release scores of hostages still held inside Gaza.
A drone launched by Lebanon's Hezbollah group struck Netanyahu's Caesarea residence last month, also when he and his family were away.
