World News

In the final days of the snap Israeli election for prime minister, incumbent Ehud Barak courted the Arab and Russian immigrant blocs, but had little chance of catching the surging Likud candidate Ariel Sharon, especially after the ultra-Orthodox jumped on his bandwagon.

Though widely expected, Likud candidate Ariel Sharon’s lopsided victory in Tuesday’s special election for prime minister was so potent, it drove incumbent Ehud Barak into political retirement and has left the Labor party in turmoil.

Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon is pressing on with his bid to persuade vanquished Israeli leader Ehud Barak and the Labor party to join a national unity government, but differences still remain over the coalition’s policy guidelines and the distribution of cabinet portfolios.

While Western envoys are pressing Israel to help alleviate raging Palestinian poverty caused by their own violent uprising, Arab states are withholding the bulk of $1 billion pledged towards the renewed intifada because they do not trust PLO chief Yasser Arafat with their money.

Arab foreign ministers met in Cairo over the weekend and demanded that Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon stick to the land-for-peace script laid out in UN resolutions and the Madrid and Oslo peace talks or else.

Palestinian rioters and terrorists escalated the renewed intifada in recent days throughout Gaza and Judea/Samaria, including Jerusalem, in a move meant to “test” Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon even before he formally assumes office.

Likud leader Ariel Sharon’s decisive win in last week’s election and the subsequent escalation in Palestinian violence have spurred calls for Labor to hurry up and join a unity coalition.

In what appears to be a growing divide between US and European approaches to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the European Union this week expressed support for the Palestinian position that Israeli concessions made since the Camp David talks should serve as the starting point for future negotiations.

Britain’s security services have discovered a plot by an unidentified “Middle East group” to perpetrate a terrorist attack on London’s Underground rail network using the highly lethal sarin gas.

LAGOS, Nigeria (Compass) — Disturbed by some northern Nigeria states’ widespread declaration that they are Islamic states and have adopted Islam as the state religion, Nigerian Christian churches have resolved to go to court to challenge what they see as an onslaught on their rights.

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia (Compass) — In late June, the government of Peru initiated a special task force, the National Human Rights Council, which is charged with freeing persons wrongfully imprisoned as terrorists.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (BP)–Pro-life activists in the Netherlands are facing an uphill struggle as they mobilize opposition to a government proposal to legalize euthanasia and “assisted suicide” — even for children as young as 12.

“The emergence of a civilization in which knowledge moves freely and almost instantaneously throughout the world… has spurred a renewed investigation of the wisdom distilled by all faiths. This panreligious perspective may prove especially important where our global civilization’s responsibility for the earth is concerned. Native American religions, for instance, offer a rich tapestry of ideas about our relationship to the earth.”[1] Al Gore, Earth in the Balance

KAMPALA, UGANDA (November 1, 2000) — Former Canadian grid iron and nightclub singing star Peter Simon Turko, who is now a pastor in Kampala, Uganda, ministering to homeless children and those infected with the AIDS virus, has written an update from the mission field concerning the recent outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus now claiming lives in Africa.

The Netherlands has become the first country in the world to legalise euthanasia, after the Dutch senate formally approved a bill allowing mercy killing.

UCHAUD, FRANCE (ANS) — An American pastor who runs a church and seminary in France says that religious liberty in that country is still in the balance.

SANTIAGO, Chile (Compass) — The issue of religious discrimination is in the public spotlight in Chile, due to the case of San Pedro de la Paz, a town some 300 miles south of Santiago. There a Baptist lawyer named Raul Romero has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Education and Gospel Task Force for Chile because of evident acts of religious discrimination against evangelical students in the community schools.

ANHUI

“Here we only have one registered church, which is packed out with people standing in the courtyard. However, since the church was opened, none of the accounts listing all the believers’ donations have ever been made public to them. The pastor has dismissed several Christians who originally were responsible for the finances. He also hands over the donations to the Religious Affairs Bureau to use. Not long ago, several elderly believers formed a church, but the Three Self pastor asked the Religious Affairs Bureau not to grant them a license and called the police to come and arrest them. Can such a church be blessed by God? How can it cause the gospel to spread?”

— Letter from a Christian in Anhui dated March 29, 2000

ISTANBUL, May 9 (Compass) — An Egyptian criminal court stalled again today on delivering a verdict against Shaiboub William Arsal, the Coptic Christian defendant in the highly-publicized El-Kosheh double-murder trial.

ISTANBUL, December 8 (Compass) — A criminal court in Egypt’s Sohag governate yesterday released without bail all 89 defendants charged in the New Year’s massacre in El-Kosheh village, promising a final verdict against the suspects on January 9.