World IN BRIEF / INDIA : Assailants Kill Catholic Missionary

Unidentified assailants armed with bows and arrows killed a Christian missionary in the east Indian state of Orissa, the Press Trust of India said. Arun Das, a Roman Catholic priest in remote Anandpur village in Orissa state, was attacked Wednesday night while camping in a village where 15 Christian families live, the news agency said. The area is 750 miles southeast of New Delhi. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee promptly condemned the killing, which took place in the same region where an Australian missionary, Graham Staines, and his two young sons were burned to death in January as they slept in their jeep after attending a Bible study. The Staines’ killing was the most serious of dozens of attacks on Christian property linked to Hindu radicals, who accuse missionaries of illicitly inducing conversions to Christianity.