According to an Israeli expert on global Islam, recent reports that Washington agreed to back a Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its capital constitute more than a diplomatic manoeuvre aimed at shoring up Arab support for the current US-led war against terror.
IMRA – “Today a Russian plane en route from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk, carrying 66 passengers and 12 crewmen, went down.
This is a terrible tragedy for both Israel and Russia. I spoke today with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and we agreed on full cooperation between Israel and Russia in investigating this tragic incident.
A further six Christian men have been arrested in the coastal city of Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, as the crackdown on believers in the city escalates, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
ZARIA, Nigeria (Compass) — Five Christian students died during a clash between Muslim and Christian students of the Kaduna State Polytechnic University in Zaria city in northern Nigeria.
The conflict broke out on Monday, August 27, during students’ union elections of the school, which saw the Christian students’ candidates sweeping the polls.
At least 13 foreign Christians have been arrested since mid July in Jeddah, where Saudi Arabia’s religious police are apparently trying to track down Saudi nationals thought to have contact with expatriate house churches in the city.
Right now in approximately 40 countries throughout the world, Christians are being persecuted, tortured and killed for their faith. One Christian is martyred every three minutes.
The liberal Lebanese intellectual Hazem Saghiya, who resides in London, wrote a column in the Al-Hayat daily placing some responsibility for the attacks in the US on the Arab world, and calling for the extradition of the terrorists:
Taliban authorities arrested 35 more Afghan aid workers over the weekend, bringing the total to more than 50 Afghans jailed by the strict Islamist regime since early August on suspicion of aiding covert Christian missionary work.
More than 50 foreign staff members of the US based Christian aid organizations International Assistance Mission (IAM) and Serve began leaving Afghanistan Saturday, September 1, after the Islamic Taliban regime closed their offices Friday.
Iran and Syria are preparing to upgrade their strategic relations in face of the prospect of war with Israel.
raq is claiming that eight civilians were killed and three others injured when US and British warplanes attacked targets in southern Iraq on Sunday.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has affirmed that Israel’s use of American-supplied weapons in pre-emptive strikes against Palestinian terrorists is not a breach of the contractual terms of sale, while other Bush administration officials continue to stand behind Israel’s dogged fight against Palestinian terrorism. Yet the question remains whether US President George W. Bush is about to cave in and finally hold his first meeting with PLO chief Yasser Arafat.
It was a brutal start to the Israeli work week, as two suicide bombings and a drive-by shooting left 5 Israelis dead and 110 injured on Sunday. The spate of attacks hit the nation hard, as one of the suicide bombers is believed to be the first recruited from the Israeli Arab community, while pressure is growing to cancel a pending meeting between Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO chief Yasser Arafat this week.
A high rank military official here who spoke on condition of anonymity told ASSIST News Service that American missionary couple Martin and Gracia Bunrham will have a white Christmas as they will have their freedom from their captors before Christmas.
Parents of two American women have seen their daughters for the first time since they and 22 other aid workers were arrested August 5th on charges of spreading Christianity in Islamic Afghanistan. The Bakhtar News Agency (BNA) described the visit as an “emotional reunion” between the mother of Dana Curry, and the father of the other woman, Heather Mercy.
AgapePress) – The underground church in Vietnam is planning to plant some 10,000 new churches in the next five years.
Joseph Lee is founder of Tribes and Nations Outreach based in Manila, Philippines. He tells Assist Communications that the underground church in Vietnam is composed of 21 major groups, and their leaders have requested his outreach to print 20,000 sets of worker training books in Vietnamese.
MANILA, PHILIPPINES (ANS) — Tribes and Nations Outreach (TNO), a mission organization committed to build the “Body of Christ” in Asia, and based in Manila, Philippines, has launched an ambitious five-year church-planting program in Vietnam.
Members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have visited in Kabul eight Western and Sixteen Afghan aid workers, who face possible execution for allegedly spreading Christianity in war ravaged Afghanistan. The Sunday visit was the first contact the prisoners had with the outside world, since being detained three weeks ago under the Taliban regime’s strict interpretation of Islamic law.
“When we came to the village, these little girls–only four or five years old–started pulling our hands, wanting us to go to their mothers,” says Arun Massey, director of Rahab’s Trust, an indigenous ministry in India that works with temple prostitutes.
Expanding from 14 churches in 1993 to 50 today, one native ministry in Uganda reports that the gospel of Jesus Christ is making headway in that central African nation.