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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2012
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS OF THE WORLD
Associated Press
SOUTH AMERICA
Evangelical fashion hits Brazil
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dresses made by the Brazilian brand Kauly, which promotes itself as "Moda Evangelica" or "Evangelical Fashion," are worn by mannequins behind a shop window in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
ITABORAI, Brazil — Strolling down the main shopping drag in this working-class Rio de Janeiro suburb, it's not the second-skin dresses in shocking pink spandex that catch the eye or even the strapless tops with strategically placed peekaboo paneling.
On the tiny high street of Rio suburb itabora, not one but two evangelical clothing stores compete to dress the faithful.
The newest look can instead be found in stores like Silica Eva- gelical Fashion, where the hot items are the demure, long-sleeved frocks with how low-can you-go hemlines and the polyester putty-colored potato sack dresses.
Once so difficult to procure that evangelical women tended to make much of their own clothes themselves, the modest garb is now popping up all over Brazil.
In the birthplace of the "fo dental" or dental floss string bikini, so-called evangelical fashion has emerged as a growing segment of the country's $52 billion-a-year textile industry, catering to the conservative sartorial needs of Brazil's burgeoning numbers of born-again Pentecostals.
M&A Fashion got its start two decades ago as a conventional clothing shop, selling the short,
tight styles favored in this tropical country, but shifted to evangelical offerings five years ago. Silica Evangelical Clothing, two doors down, opened in March.
"It used to be that the word 'evangelical' had a tacky connotation," said M&A manager Marcelo Batista, who converted from Catholicism a decade ago. "But now, we're not afraid to show who we are."
"Evangelical women now wear this clothing proudly," he said, gesturing at the racks of ample dresses, long A-line denim skirts and ribbed sweaters that in the 100-plus degree heat were enough to make you sweat just by looking at them.
Introduced in the mid-19th century by American missionaries, Brazil's neo-Pentecostal churches were long regarded as fringe groups.
Aggressive proselytizing, particularly among the poor and disenfranchised, has produced a dramatic spike in the community's numbers in recent decades and eaten away at Brazil's status as the world's largest Catholic country.
In 1980, evangelicals represented just over 6 percent of the population, according to the country's IBGE statistics agency.
In the 2010 census, more than 42 million people, or 22 percent of the
country's 190 million, identified themselves as evangelicals. Some statisticians predict that if current trends hold, evangelical Christians could become the majority here by 2030.
With the spiraling numbers have come increased visibility and political and economic strength. Three senators and 63 congressional representatives belong to evangelical churches, and a candidate with links to the Universal Church has a considerable lead in poll ahead of next month's mayoral race in Sao
Paulo, South America's biggest city.
The Universal Church also owns one of Brazil's main television networks, TV Record.
Still, Brazil's evangelicals are far from a unified block. Today hosts of homegrown Pentecostal denominations have their own dress codes, which range from draconian to permissive.
Evangelical men are also expected to dress modestly, in long-sleeved shirts and slacks that are more readily available in regular stores.
EUROPE
Russian tycoon charged for hooliganism
MOSCOW — A Russian tycoon who has financed a newspaper critical of the Kremlin and supported the opposition has been charged with hooliganism and assault for punching a businessman during a television talk show. He dismissed the criminal case as politically motivated.
Russia's top investigative agency, which announced the charges Wednesday, said the defendant, Alexander Lebedev, cannot leave Moscow while the probe is under way. In Russia, filing charges marks the start of a criminal investigation, which may or may not lead to a trial.
Lebedev said in comments carried by the Interfax news agency that he considers the charges against him political and "completely made up"
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Russian billionaire banker Alexander Lebedev, who has financed a newspaper critical of the Kremlin and supported the opposition, was charged over an incident during a TV talk show a year ago in which he punched another businessman.
He could face up to seven years in prison, if he's convicted on hooliganism charges similar to those that were filed against three members of the feminist rock band Pussy Riot. They were sentenced to two years each last month for performing a "punk prayer" against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow's main cathedral.
The charges refer to a September 2011 incident when Lebedev punched property developer Sergei Polonsky during a TV discussion of the financial crisis, sending him tumbling to the ground.
After the recording, Polonsky complained he had sustained a
hand injury and that his jeans were ripped. According to the charges, however, an expert medical opinion dated Aug. 31 determined that Polonsky also received bruises to his hips and face that he did not realize were harmful at the time.
Russia's hooliganism statute also requires proof the accused grossly violated social norms. Though Polonsky began the exchange by pointing at Lebedev and saying "I just feel like whacking somebody in the face right now," the charges assert he was not referring to anyone in particular and that Lebedev was "motivated by political hatred."
A few days after the incident, Putin referred to the fight as "hoo-liganism," and a criminal investigation was launched in October. Putin has taken an increasingly tough course against dissent after massive protests against his rule last winter, with searches and interrogation of opposition activists and the passage of repressive bills.
Lebedev, whose net worth was reported by Forbes magazine to be $1.1 billion, made his money in the banking industry. He has financed the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, which is fiercely critical of the Kremlin, and the British papers the Independent and the Evening Standard.
Lebedev's son, Yeyeng, who owns the two British publications, tweeted that his father is "being targeted by people who don't like his stance against corruption, and
hate Novaya." He later described the charges as "extraordinarily disproportionate".
"My father has been targeted because of his determination to
fight against corruption and to be a crusader for democracy in a country where this has not always been welcome," Lebedev's son said in a statement.
MIDDLE EAST
Cabinet minister granted amnesty
ISLAMABAD — The Pakistani Taliban announced Wednesday that they were giving a Cabinet minister "amnesty," taking him off their hit list, because he offered a $100,000 bounty for the killing of an anti-Islam filmmaker.
Separately, a breakaway faction of the Afghan Taliban announced its own bounty for those behind "Innocence of Muslims," the film that has sparked deadly protests across the Islamic world. The group is offering almost $500,000 in gold.
Muslims have been angered by the crude, amateurish film's portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a child molester. Dozens of people, including the U.S. ambassador
to Libya, have died in violence linked to protests over the movie.
The main figure behind the video, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, has put his home up for sale and gone into hiding since violence erupted over the 14-minute YouTube trailer for "Innocence of Muslims," which also has sparked debate over freedom of expression in the U.S. and in Europe.
Some of the most intense protests have erupted in Pakistan, where the role of Islam in society is sacrosanct and anti-American sentiment runs high. It was in that atmosphere that Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour offered his $100,000 reward Saturday for anyone who kills Nakoula.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pakistani protesters burn a representation of a U.S. flag and an effigy of U.S. President Barack Obama in the Pakistani border town of Chaman along the Afghanistan border.
AFRICA
Guinea's foreign debt cancelled
CONAKRY, Guinea — More than $2.4 billion of Guinea's foreign debt is being cancelled in a major boost for the deeply impoverished West African nation whose mineral riches were looted over decades of corrupt dictatorship, government officials said Wednesday.
Two-thirds of Guinea's total foreign debt is being eliminated because it has qualified for the IMF and World Bank program for heavily indebted poor countries, according to a government statement.
"This will allow Guinea to free up substantial resources," said Anoumature Camara, an economist and consultant in Conakry who said the money could be redirected toward improving health and educational programs.
Guinea's finances were left in ruins after nearly a quarter-century of rule by Lansana Conte, who pillaged state coffers to make
his family fabulously wealthy before his death in 2008, according to economists.
In 2010, the country held its first democratic election but the political reforms have not translated into immediate improvements for the lives of most Guineans, who remain deeply impoverished. About 75 percent of the country's 10 million people live below the poverty line, according to the United Nations.
Fatou Bonte Bangoura, who sells smoked fish at a port in Guinea's capital, said Wednesday's announcement would mean little for Guineans who are struggling to support their families.
"Our children need to eat, they need to be taken care of, they need to go to school," she lamented. Guinea's debt elimination won't result in individual families receiving money. "It doesn't feed me," she says.
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