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Today’s Headlines:

CHINESE SCHOOL OFFICIALS TO ADD BIBLE TO STUDENTS’ READING LIST 29 NORTH KOREAN DEFECTORS SEEK ASYLUM AT KOREAN SCHOOL IN BEIJING RISING FUEL COSTS, STAFF SHORTFALL PUT PRESSURE ON SHIP MINISTRY MAN SHOT NEAR CHURCH IN INDONESIA IN LATEST ATTACK ON NON-MUSLIMS PAKISTANI MAN GETS LIFE SENTENCE FOR BURNING COPY OF KORAN RELIEF GROUP EXPANDS MEDICAL MINISTRY IN AFGHANISTAN

Today’s News Stories:

CHINESE SCHOOL OFFICIALS TO ADD BIBLE TO STUDENTS’ READING LIST For the first time a communist education authority in China is suggesting that children read the Bible. Within the next two weeks the Shanghai Education Commission is expected to publish a recommended reading list for middle school children, which includes Kung Fu novels — and the Bible, reported The Shanghai Daily Tuesday, Oct. 19. The commission has suggested in the past that students read Chinese classics such as “A Dream of Red Mansions” as well as some Western literature. This year the list will include the Old Testament and the works of Jin Yong, China’s most popular author of Kung Fu stories. Education officials noted that the Bible plays an important role in Western culture and that Chinese students should understand it in order to truly know foreign countries. The Bible is still a scarce commodity in China and may only be sold at special outlets for Christians. Some parents are worried that teenagers will get involved in religion at an early age. Ren Xiaomei, the mother of the 14-year-old boy, said that reading the Bible at such an age “does him no good.” Teenagers in Shanghai are eager to read the Kung Fu novels because of the popularity of martial arts. “We are no longer asked to only read those monotonous classics,” said Wang Wenjia, a local student. (IDEA)

29 NORTH KOREAN DEFECTORS SEEK ASYLUM AT KOREAN SCHOOL IN BEIJING As many as 29 North Korean asylum seekers entered a South Korean school in Beijing, China, Friday, Oct. 22, adding to a surge in large-scale defections by people fleeing the country, the Associated Press reported. The defectors are seeking asylum in South Korea. Twenty-three women and six men entered the school on the rural northern outskirts of the Chinese capital the morning of Friday, Oct. 22, reported Yonhap, South Korea’s national news agency. South Korean officials reportedly have asked China not to arrest defectors and planned to move the group to a consular office. Hundreds of North Koreans fleeing their repressive government have been allowed to leave for South Korea in the past three years after seeking asylum in embassies and other foreign offices in China. The latest group entered the unguarded five-story building through a rear entrance and crowded into the headmaster’s office on the ground floor. The school, which has 556 South Korean students, immediately informed the South Korean embassy of the incident and called for support and guidance. Despite the risks, many North Koreans are prepared to take the chance to flee. Activists estimate that about 200,000 South Korean dissidents are hiding in China. (Assist News Service)

RISING FUEL COSTS, STAFF SHORTFALL PUT PRESSURE ON SHIP MINISTRY As the world price of crude oil continues to escalate, resulting in higher fuel costs, Operation Mobilization’s ship ministry is feeling the pinch. OM ships have visited ports in more than 135 countries in the past 30 years, but the high cost of fuel is putting pressure on those visits, says OM’s Myles Toews. “We buy fuel by the ton for our ships,” he says. “It’s now costing us about $750 more per ton than we had planned. We’ve had to draw from other operating reserves to cover these costs. So far we’ve been able to manage those trips, but it’s going to catch up to us.” Toews says contributions haven’t kept pace with the rising fuel costs. Meanwhile, a lack of crew members is putting an additional crunch on the outreach. “We’ve really been stretched to get the volunteer engineering officers that we need,” Toews says. “Pray that we can get the professional seafarers that we need to keep these ships operating. We had to postpone one visit earlier this year due to unavailability of officers.” (Mission Network News)

MAN SHOT NEAR CHURCH IN INDONESIA IN LATEST ATTACK ON NON-MUSLIMS Indonesian police say that a man has been shot and wounded in Central Sulawesi in the latest attack against non-Muslims in the area. Police say the victim was inside the grounds of the Bethany Church in Poso when he was shot in the neck late Thursday, Oct. 31. No suspects have been arrested. Last week a Hindu woman was killed and two Christian men were wounded when a group of attackers fired randomly into houses in Poso. On the some day in a rural district south of the provincial capital of Palu, two Christians died in a machete attack. (WorldWide Religious News/ABC News)

* HCJB World Radio worked with local Indonesian partners to establish local Christian stations in Sumba Island and Kupang, West Timor, with help from the HCJB World Radio Engineering Center in Elkhart, Ind. Plans are also being made to establish a station on Roti Island later this year.

PAKISTANI MAN GETS LIFE SENTENCE FOR BURNING COPY OF KORAN A Pakistani man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for burning a copy of the Koran. A court in Lahore found Mehdi Hassan, 36, guilty under Pakistani laws covering offences against Islam, the prophet Mohammed or the Koran. The defendant had denied the charge, which can carry the death penalty, saying the case had arisen from a property dispute. Hassan’s lawyer said his client planned to appeal to the Lahore High Court. The judge said the prosecution “had proven its case.” Hassan was detained in December 2001 after a complaint by a councilor in eastern Lahore. He was accused of burning a copy of the Koran in his yard. Rights groups have criticized Pakistan’s blasphemy laws as “draconian” with the burden of proof too easy for the prosecution. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has in the past called for changes in procedures so investigators can test the validity of blasphemy accusations before cases reach the courts. Analysts say judges are often too scared of the reaction from powerful local Islamic leaders to throw out cases. No one has been hanged for blasphemy in Pakistan, largely because higher courts often overturn blasphemy convictions. (WorldWide Religious News/BBC)

RELIEF GROUP EXPANDS MEDICAL MINISTRY IN AFGHANISTAN As Afghanistan prepares to announce its first freely elected president, Michigan-based International Aid (IA) is preparing to open a second medical clinic in the country. IA President Myles Fish said the ministry has operated a clinic in Taingi Saidan, a city of about 12,000, for the last two years. The outreach has received considerable attention by Afghanistan’s interim government. “We’re now being asked to take on a much larger territory to provide similar kinds of services,” Miles said, adding that the outreach opens up many opportunities to share the gospel. “It’s a means of demonstrating and articulating our faith in Christ.” (Mission Network News)

* HCJB World Radio is bringing words of hope and encouragement to people across Afghanistan via radio. Together with partners, Christian broadcasts go out via AM in three of the country’s major languages, Turkmen, Uzbek and Southern Uzbek.

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