World News

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.

Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak delivered on Monday his most outspoken comments yet on the violent Palestinian intifada since it drove him from office last February, insisting there should be no more negotiations with PLO chief Yasser Arafat.

In recent days, Hamas Sheikh Ahmed Yassin has defended Islamic suicide bombings as a “democratic right,” a leading Egyptian newspaper urged Palestinians to kill Israelis everywhere, and Saddam Hussein has called on Jordan to open its borders to Iraq’s 6.5 million volunteer army recruited to “liberate Jerusalem.”

The latest edition of Biblical Archaeology Review asks an interesting question: Did some ancient Jews observe the Zodiac and worship Helios, the Greek sun god? Raiders News Update believes 2 Kings 23: 11 and similar verses prove this to be true–but what does this mean?

A militant fundamentalist group from Idaho is spreading terror across the Midwest-and federal troops are siding with the attackers.

Despite assurances from Muslim and government rulers in northern Nigeria that Sharia law would not be enforced on the Christian population living there, VOM sources in Nigeria report that several incidents point to the fact that this is not taking place.

This is one of the most difficult reports I have ever written. I debated waiting a bit to send it out, due to the deep grieving that is still gripping my native land as decaying bodies are dug up from the rubble of the destroyed World Trade Center, and as people gather for a special national day of prayer. But it was precisely the day of prayer that led me to send this out now, so that it might play a role in some people’s intercession on this mournful day, and during the traumatic ones that lie ahead.

We had hoped that Shimon Peres’ seemingly irrational appointment of Carmi Gillon as ambassador to Denmark would open up his role in the Rabin assassination. So far, that has not happened, but it will. Instead, and from the most unexpected source, Gillon’s role in the planning and execution of the Hebron massacre of February 1994 is being raised. Read what Dr. Linda Efroni writes in the highly influential but staid Israeli business daily, Globes:

By Eric Wayman Special Correspondent to Assist News Service Costa Mesa, CA (ANS) — An appalling epidemic of child rape is emerging in sub-Saharan Africa. This region, roughly the lower one-third of the African continent, is all ready being decimated by AIDS. Now recent crime statistics reveal a growing epidemic of rape involving young children. According to a recent report by the South Africa Police Service, children (under the age of 18) are the victims of 41 percent of all reported rapes and attempted rapes. Even more disturbing is the fact that over 15 percent of the total reported rapes … Read more

On Monday, an Egyptian appeals court overturned a controversial verdict that absolved most defendants in the country’s worst massacre of Christians in decades in early January 2001 and ordered a retrial. Over the weekend of December 31, 1999 – January 2, 2000, as the much of the world was concerned about Y2K, Egyptian Christians were being attacked and murdered by Muslim mobs in El-Kosheh, a small village 300 miles south of Cairo. One year later, an Egyptian court acquitted all of the defendants charged with the murders of 21 Christians.

Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs met last night under CIA mediation, but the meeting broke down after 90 minutes amid angry accusations by both sides.

Yesterday the Israeli Supreme Court made an important decision as a result of the petition submitted by The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement.

Yesterday the Israeli Supreme Court made an important decision as a result of the petition submitted by The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement. T

Israeli police thwarted a major bomb attack in the northern port city of Haifa yesterday, when a Palestinian suicide bomber was arrested before carrying out an attack in a crowded area.