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Today’s Headlines:

HINDU EXTREMISTS IN INDIA RELEASE KIDNAPPED MISSIONARIES RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES FORCE JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES TO CANCEL CONGRESS PROLIFERATION OF SECTS IN ANGOLA ALARMS BAPTIST SEMINARY LEADER MINISTRY SENDS AID TO DROUGHT-STRICKEN AREA OF TANZANIA FORMER HOSTAGE TO TESTIFY AGAINST ABDUCTORS IN PHILIPPINES SURVEY: TURKISH IMMIGRANTS IN GERMANY BECOMING ‘MORE RELIGIOUS’

Today’s News Stories:

HINDU EXTREMISTS RELEASE KIDNAPPED MISSIONARIES IN INDIA The five native missionaries serving with Gospel for Asia (GFA) who were abducted by Hindu extremists in the southern India state of Karnataka Saturday, July 24, have been freed. Radicals kidnapped the five, falsely accusing them of committing a robbery before beating and releasing them, says GFA President K.P. Yohannan. One of the men escaped before the beatings took place. While India’s Congress Party is giving Christians hope for religious freedom, Hindu extremists want it restricted, Yohannan explains. “Since they cannot directly attack Christian workers, they are now finding a new way to persecute our missionaries by accusing them of stealing things, or causing trouble or whatever else. This was the disguise they used to kidnap these five missionaries.” Yohannan says Hindus are angry with the large number of people who are turning to Christ in India. Meanwhile, GFA is working to distribute Bibles across India. “One of our greatest needs right now is to produce at least 10 million to 15 million Bibles in the country’s major languages,” he says. “We have two printing presses working full time.” (Mission Network News)

RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES FORCE JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES TO CANCEL CONGRESS On the second day of their annual regional congress in Russia’s Ural region Saturday, July 24, more than 5,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses were forced to abandon the city stadium in Yekaterinburg which they had rented for the event. “We couldn’t imagine such a thing happening — it took us completely by surprise,” local Jehovah’s Witness representative Sergei Tantsura said, adding that the group had held a congress at the stadium every year since 1996. On Friday, July 23, the stadium management abruptly demanded four times the agreed fee. Then on Saturday men claiming to be security guards tried to block the entrance. Next the electricity supply was switched off, and then 1,000 delegates were evicted from their accommodations. The stadium management also played loud music to drown out the speakers, and finally the management ordered the delegates to disperse. In April, authorities in nearby Tyumen canceled a similar large-scale Protestant Easter service in a city stadium. That same month the House of Culture in Yekaterinburg abruptly canceled its rental contract with the Jehovah’s Witness congregation following the court decision barring the group’s activity in Moscow, 930 miles to the west. (Forum 18 News Service)

PROLIFERATION OF SECTS IN ANGOLA ALARMS BAPTIST SEMINARY LEADER Rev. Mateus Justino Chaves, head of the Baptist theological seminary in Angola’s Huambo province, recently urged believers to fight against the proliferation of religious sects in the country. Speaking at a celebration to mark the seminary’s 18th anniversary, Chaves said one of the mechanisms to combat this phenomenon is to adequately train religious leaders. The entrance of sects in Angola is a “great danger to this society because they try to implant the cultures and beliefs of the countries they come from,” he said. “Joining these sects represents an ill and distortion of the culture and customs of our society.” Chaves explained that cults often appeal to the poor as leaders make promises to improve their lives. He added that citizens should continue to keep faithful to their customs, “respecting the Angolan tradition instead of distorting it.” (WorldWide Religious News/Angola Press Agency)

MINISTRY SENDS AID TO DROUGHT-STRICKEN AREA OF TANZANIA Tanzania’s yearlong drought has created a food shortage threatening nearly 2 million people. Among them are more than 11,000 children sponsored through Compassion International. Food prices in some areas have doubled, and unemployment is up dramatically. At the end of 2003, nearly 85 percent of the maize, sorghum and groundnut crops in northern Tanzania were affected by drought, leaving thousands of people without enough to feed their families. In desperation, people have been eating seeds intended for planting and traveling to other areas to look for work instead of farming their land. Compassion has distributed about $500,000 in aid to the neediest people in an effort to reduce the food crisis. (Mission Network News)

* Staff members from the HCJB World Radio Engineering Center in Elkhart, Ind., have worked with local churches, the Lutheran Radio Center and Trans World Radio to put FM radio stations on the air in three Tanzanian cities. HCJB World Radio is also working with Radio Africa Network, a ministry of partner CCFm in South Africa, to build a radio network based in the capital city of Dar es Salaam. The first of these stations went on the air in March 2002.

FORMER HOSTAGE TO TESTIFY AGAINST ABDUCTORS IN PHILIPPINES An American missionary who was held hostage by Muslim extremists for 377 days has returned to the Philippines under tight security to testify against her abductors, officials said Tuesday, July 27. Gracia Burnham, whose husband, Martin, was killed during a bloody military rescue mission on June 7, 2002, was invited to testify July 29 against her Abu Sayyaf abductors, prosecutors said. Ferdinand Sampol, the Manila airport’s immigration chief, said Burnham arrived earlier this week accompanied by U.S. FBI agents. The Burnhams, missionaries for the Florida-based New Tribes Mission, were celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary when they were snatched by Abu Sayyaf terrorists from the Dos Palmas resort on Palawan Island on May 27, 2001, and taken by speedboat to Basilan Island. Fellow American Guillermo Sobero and 17 Filipinos also were kidnapped. Sobero, from Corona, Calif., was among several hostages beheaded by the rebels. Martin Burnham and a Filipino nurse were killed during the military rescue raid. (WorldWide Religious News/AP)

SURVEY: TURKISH IMMIGRANTS IN GERMANY BECOMING ‘MORE RELIGIOUS’ Turkish immigrants in Germany, almost all of them Muslims, are becoming more religious. They are strengthening their cultural and religious identity as a reaction against a perceived aversion to their faith by Germans. Many Turks have come to Germany as foreign workers since the 1970s. The 2 million Turkish immigrants form the biggest group of foreigners and Muslims in the country. Faruk Sen, director of the Center for Turkish Studies in Essen, recently conducted an extensive survey among Turks in North Rhine-Westfalia, the most populous of the 16 federal states. The survey indicates that the percentage of Turkish immigrants who describe themselves as “religious” has risen to 71 percent, up from 57 percent, between 2000 and 2003. Nearly 20 percent — 12 percent more than in 2000 — said they are “very religious.” The results of the survey were published in the news magazine Der Spiegel. The magazine reported that up to 10 percent of all Turkish immigrants live in ethnic isolation with no contacts with Germans at home or the workplace. German Christians have made little effort to evangelize Turks in their country. (IDEA) * * * * * * * * * * * * * James A. Ferrier HCJB World Radio U.S. Ministries Communications Director E-mail: Phone: 1-719-590-9800 Fax: 1-719-590-9801 Web: http://www.hcjb.org http://www.beyondthecall.org * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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