CP World Report: Afghanistan Shooting, Japan Nuclear, Child Trafficking, The Lorax

By World Report, The Christian Post in partnership with Crossroads, Monday, March 12, 2012

NATO detained a U.S. soldier in the killings of 16 Afghan civilians, including 9 children. Afhgan officials called it a massacre. It's being described as one of the worst of its kind since the U.S. led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

Sunday marked the anniversary of the massive earthquake that hit Japan. It triggered an epic tsunami that barreled into the east coast leaving about 19,000 dead and communities wiped off the map. The tsunami also created a nuclear crisis with three reactors at Fukushima melting down . Revelations from new documents were released on Friday that showed Japan's leaders knew the damage was so severe the reactors could melt down, but they kept their knowledge secret for months. The documents also revealed confusion, lack of information, delayed response and miscommunication among government and local officials. The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Yu Kia Amano said the crisis at Fukushima had many lessons for the operators of Japan's other nuclear plants.

The disaster was recorded as one of the five most powerful earthquakes in the world since modern record keeping began in 1900.

International envoy Kofi Annan has left Syria without a deal to end the conflict in the country. And regime forces mounted a new assault on rebel strongholds in the north. Annan called for reforms to create a democratic Syria. But Assad replied such reforms are impossible as long as "terrorist groups" threaten the country. The opposition also rejected dialogue calling it impossible given Assad's crackdown that has killed 7,500 people.

The U.S. is being called on to intervene in Sudan where the Islamist government is reported to be systematically killing the people of the Christian dominated Nuba Mountain. Back in July the Southern territory seceded and established South Sudan. But then the Government of Sudan broke the peace agreement. Now there is fear of a possible renewed genocide against the Christians in the south.

Protestantism has been on the rise in the past few years in Haiti, due to a rise in ministries that spreading the Gospel since the devastating earthquake of 2010. Mark Williams of Mission Aviation Fellowship described the wide spread conversion of Haitians from voodoo to Christianity as "amazing." The Aviation company and mission…. stood out after the Haitian earthquake disaster because its services made it possible for all other groups to fly into the nation.

A total of 77 children have been rescued during a recent crackdown on child trafficking across 14 provinces in China . 310 suspects have been arrested. The operation began about five months ago and investigations continue . More than 7,000 police officers from 14 provinces joined forces to rescue the children, an operation overseen by the country's Ministry of Public Security.

29 year old Toronto Ski racer Nik Zoricic died in a tragic high speed crash during a World Cup ski cross race in Switzerland. It was the second tragedy to rock the Canadian ski community in the past two months; in January freeskiing legend Sarah Burke died after a crash while training in Utah in January.

AND IN ENTERTAINMENT NEWS

The beloved "Dr. Seuss' made it big at the box office with the movie "The Lorax"  The flick took in more than 39 million dollars in its second weekend on the big screen.  Disney's latest blockbuster production "John Carter" had to settle for second place.  The 3D sci-fi adventure earned 30.6 million dollars.  "Project X" rounded out the top 3.