Kerala-origin man shoots wife, injures 2 in United States church shootout

A violent domestic quarrel stretching from California to India to New Jersey over the past year resulted in tragedy on Sunday morning for families of three migrant nurses from Kottayam in central Kerala.

Pallipurath Joseph, 27, walked into the small St Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church, set up by Malayali migrants, in Clifton, New Jersey, during Sunday service and killed his estranged 24-year-old wife and wounded two others with shots to the head.

As more than 100 worshippers dived under the pews, the assailant fired four shots from a silver handgun, striking his wife, who had refused to leave the church with him a relative who had recently taken her in and a man who either happened upon or tried to intervene in the confrontation, the police and witnesses said.

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Cabbies held for NRI’s kidnap, murder

Nine days after Gurgaon police found an unidentified body on National Highway-8 and later learnt it was that of an NRI businessman, Delhi Police today arrested two persons for the kidnap, robbery and murder of K T Shameer.

The 39-year-old cloth merchant from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was abducted from outside IGI Airport by private cabbies late October 10 evening. He was robbed and the body thrown in the bushes on Delhi-Jaipur highway, near Manesar. Shameer, whose business trip to India began on October 7, had arrived that evening (October 10) from Ahmedabad on a Spice Jet flight (SG-218).

Palam police today arrested Manish, 24, and Monu, 25, from Sanjay Gandhi T-point when the duo was returning from Haridwar. A third accused, one Anil, is still absconding, Joint Commissioner of Police (Operations) Amulya Patnaik said. “They were interrogated and were found involved,” Patnaik said.

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Alphonsa is first Indian woman Catholic saint

“She suffered herself to heal the suffering of others.” This is how Pope Benedict XVI poignantly described Kerala’s Sister Alphonsa while declaring her a saint at a canonisation ceremony at St Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Sunday. Saint Alphonsa became the first Indian Catholic woman to be so anointed.

Around 25,000 people of Indian origin as well as a large delegation from India watched the ceremony, which began at 12 noon (India time) and culminated at 2.40 pm. Alphonsa is the first woman saint of the Indian Church, which claims 2,000 years of history.

[In a speech after the ceremony, the Pope also made sharp references to the antiChristian violence in India and asked its perpetrators to “renounce these acts” and work to build a “civilisation of love”, reports PTI.]

Sister Alphonsa’s “heroic virtues of patience, fortitude and perseverance in the midst of deep suffering remind us that God always provides the strength we need to overcome every trial,” the Pope said, addressing thousands of Christians from around the world.

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