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Today’s Headlines:

URBANA TEEN MISSIONS CONFERENCE MOVING TO ST. LOUIS IN 2006 RELIGIOUS MINORITIES IN BELARUS FEAR CRACKDOWN AFTER ELECTIONS EXTREMISTS SUSPECTED OF RAIDING CHURCHES IN ZANZIBAR JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES FACE INCREASING PRESSURE IN UZBEKISTAN U.N. WARNS OF AIDS EPIDEMIC SPREADING ACROSS ECUADOR IBS DISTRIBUTES SCRIPTURES TO SURVIVORS OF BESLAN SCHOOL TRAGEDY

Today’s News Stories:

URBANA TEEN MISSIONS CONFERENCE MOVING TO ST. LOUIS IN 2006 InterVarsity Christian Fellowship has announced that its 21st Urbana, the world’s largest teen missions event, will move to St. Louis, Mo., when it convenes in 2006. The triennial North American Student Mission Convention has been held on the campus of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana since 1948. “Moving to a new location gives you an opportunity to look at the program through new eyes and new ways of doing things,” said Jim Tebbe is InterVarsity’s vice president and missions director. Another thing is growth. “At any given time we get 20,000 people who attend Urbana. Well, there are 15 million students in the U.S., and we’ve been maxed out for the past 20 years.” The change will also allow the event to expand program offerings, helping students get more connected. “Every person who comes to Urbana should be a part of God’s mission and be actively engaged in that with a worldwide perspective whether they serve overseas or remain in the U.S. working. We want to see their eyes opened up so that they’re looking at a much broader vision of what it is that God’s doing in the world.” (Mission Network News/InterVarsity Christian Fellowship)

RELIGIOUS MINORITIES IN BELARUS FEAR CRACKDOWN AFTER ELECTIONS Members of Belarus’ religious minorities are bracing for a new wave of persecution following controversial elections Sunday, Oct. 17, that boosted the power base of President Alexander Lukashenko and led to the arrest of dozens of dissidents. The weekend elections and referendum in Belarus “fell significantly short” of international standards, Western observers said. The referendum approved the lifting of a constitutional ban on a third term for President Alexander Lukashenko who has been in power since 1994. “Democratic freedoms were largely disregarded by the authorities,” said Tone Tingsgaard, head of the observer mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Human rights groups have accused Lukashenko of creating a “military-style state” reminiscent of the former Soviet Union. The government claims that 77.3 percent of voters backed a constitutional amendment allowing Lukashenko to seek a third term in office, and no opposition candidates were elected to the parliament. Both votes were “very strongly disputed.”

Forty-six opposition members were arrested in Minsk the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 19, for holding an unsanctioned demonstration and face a maximum penalty of 10 days in jail, Belarus Interior Minister Vladimir Naumov told the Russian Interfax news agency. At least one dissident, Anatoly Lebedko, leader of the United Civil Party, arrived at an emergency room after he was arrested at a demonstration near the presidential palace in Minsk and reportedly beaten by police. Police denied reports that they also beat up Baptist street evangelist Andrei Fokin; however, they admitted repeatedly detaining Baptists who were running a street library. Lukashenko is expected to implement what human rights groups describe as one of Europe’s strictest religious laws, jeopardizing religious groups and churches that the president deems as a threat to his rule. With the next presidential election due in the fall of 2006, Lukashenko claims that a third term is for the good of the nation, but his opponents have accused him of trying to become leader for life. (BosNewsLife/BBC)

EXTREMISTS SUSPECTED OF RAIDING CHURCHES IN ZANZIBAR Several churches have been attacked on the predominantly Muslim island of Zanzibar off the Tanzanian coast, a church official said on Tuesday, Oct. 19. “One church was burned totally last week,” said Julian Kangalawe of the Tanzanian Episcopal Conference. No one was injured. The church attacked last weekend was Roman Catholic. It was the third recent attack on a church on the island. Earlier in the week, a Lutheran church was set on fire, and the wall of another Roman Catholic church was destroyed. Suspicion has fallen on Muslim extremists as religious and political tension rises on the island. Presidential and legislative elections are expected in 2005. The last elections in 2000 were marred by voter intimidation, politically motivated violence and other irregularities. In April three other churches were attacked. Kangalawe said that religious intolerance is increasing on the island. For example, during Ramadan last year, people were attacked for eating during the day. (WorldWide Religious News/Sapa)

* 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.

JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES FACE INCREASING PRESSURE IN UZBEKISTAN Dilshod Akhmedov, a Jehovah’s Witness in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, who was imprisoned for 15 days in May, and who refuses to give up public preaching, is now being investigated under the criminal code by police. Conviction carries a penalty of a fine of between 50 and 100 times the minimum wage, or up to three years in prison. Also, officials in the city of Samarkand have threatened to fire a female Jehovah’s Witness, Lolya Nurmanova, for her beliefs. The authorities also have compelled a woman sympathetic to the Jehovah’s Witnesses to report to the authorities “everything that goes on in the religious community.” Pressure continues on Jehovah’s Witnesses throughout Uzbekistan with some being convicted and fined without being given a chance to defend themselves in court. (Forum 18 News Service)

U.N. WARNS OF AIDS EPIDEMIC SPREADING ACROSS ECUADOR The spread of AIDS in Ecuador’s most populated province is reaching levels comparable to Africa and the Caribbean a decade ago and could mushroom into a national epidemic if left unchecked, U.N. officials warned Tuesday, Oct. 19. “In 10 or 15 years, if there isn’t important prevention work, we are going to have a frightening epidemic starting on the coast and spreading to the entire country,” Paul Martin, a U.N. Children’s Fund representative, told reporters. “In certain zones on the coast in Guayas the levels of AIDS infections are approaching levels reached 10 years ago by Africa and the Caribbean,” he said during a press conference called by the U.N. to draw attention to the problem. He said the U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS has budgeted $14 million for Ecuador, Ecuador’s Health Ministry noted that between 4,800 and 5,000 AIDS cases have been reported in the country of 12 million, but the number of unreported cases could be as high as 50,000. Mauricio Valdez, the U.N.’s coordinator in Ecuador, said “80 percent of the cases are on the coast in Guayas” which has as its capital, Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city with 3.3 million people. Miguel Machuca, a representative of the Pan American Health Organization, says the AIDS situation in Ecuador is especially alarming because of the predominance of infections in women and children. “This means the epidemic is advancing out of control,” Machuca said. (Associated Press)

* HCJB World Radio is working to battle the AIDS crisis in both Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. The ministry’s Vozandes Hospital in Quito operates an AIDS clinic, and the education department recently produced a series of TV spots that urge prevention of AIDS through Christian values such as fidelity and abstinence. HCJB World Radio also sends short-term ministry teams to South Africa on a regular basis to help at Hope Community Center, an HIV/AIDS ministry of Fish Hoek Baptist Church in Cape Town.

IBS DISTRIBUTES SCRIPTURES TO SURVIVORS OF BESLAN SCHOOL TRAGEDY International Bible Society (IBS) moved quickly to provide the hope and comfort of God’s Word to survivors of the worst terror-related human catastrophe in the history of Russia. Chechen terrorists seized the school building on Sept. 1, taking 1,181 people hostage, most of them under the age of eighteen. After a three-day standoff, hundreds of children and adults dead or wounded in a shootout. IBS-Europe’s Scripture response began mid-September, when Vladimir Sazhin, coordinator for the North Caucasus region, delivered “Jesus and His Life” illustrated Gospels of Mark to Beslan children and “When Your Whole World Changes” Scripture booklets to their parents. “We are giving out these Scripture materials as quickly as possible to people who were involved in this crisis,” Sazhin said. “We hope the Scriptures will truly ease people’s pain and point them toward God.” A total of 54,000 pieces of literature will be distributed. Since establishing its Emergency Scripture Fund in 2001, IBS has provided these and other specialized Scriptures to churches and ministries to use in crisis outreaches worldwide. (International Bible Society)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * 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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