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Today’s Headlines:

CITY OFFICIALS IN VIETNAM SHUT DOWN 500-MEMBER INTERNATIONAL CHURCH VENEZUELA HALTS MISSIONARY PERMITS AFTER PAT ROBERTSON’S COMMENTS LAOTIAN CHRISTIANS FACE MOUNTING PRESSURE FROM AUTHORITIES INVESTIGATIVE AGENCY SEEKS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR STAINES’ KILLER MIDWIFE IN THE PHILIPPINES BRINGS NEW BABIES, NEW BIRTHS

Today’s Top Stories:

CITY OFFICIALS IN VIETNAM SHUT DOWN 500-MEMBER INTERNATIONAL CHURCH Local authorities shut down a 500-member church in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Saturday, Aug. 27. The church had been seeking a permit to meet since its inception eight years ago. Eric Dooley, pastor of the interdenominational New Life Fellowship, said District 5 police ordered the church to close because it had no permit — though the government has repeatedly ignored New Life’s efforts to obtain permission to worship. On Sunday morning, Dooley stood outside the hotel where the church has been worshiping to inform those showing up that they would not be able to meet. Church leaders hope the action does not represent an effort by the national government to harass the church. (Compass)

VENEZUELA HALTS MISSIONARY PERMITS AFTER PAT ROBERTSON’S COMMENTS Venezuela’s government has temporarily suspended permits for foreign missionaries after U.S. televangelist Pat Robertson said that Washington should assassinate President Hugo Chavez. The policy announcement came four days after he said Washington should execute Chavez, a former soldier who often accuses the U.S. of plotting to kill him. The chief of the Justice Ministry’s religious affairs unit, Carlos Gonzalez, said Friday that authorization of permits for missionaries would be curbed while the government tightened regulations on preachers within Venezuela. The permits “are suspended for a short time . . . while we organize a system to see what additional data we need for people coming into the country to preach,” Gonzalez said. “We were already working on this, but these declarations have made us speed things up.” Robertson later apologized, but his comments illustrated the political gulf that has opened up between the U.S. and one of its biggest oil suppliers since Chavez was elected in 1998, promising populist reforms. (Reuters)

* HCJB World Radio worked with local partners to establish a Christian station in La Morita, Venezuela, in 2000. Partner stations in two additional Venezuelan cities are also affiliated with ALAS, the ministry’s Latin American satellite radio network with 89 outlets in 17 countries.

LAOTIAN CHRISTIANS FACE MOUNTING PRESSURE FROM AUTHORITIES Across Laos, village chiefs and other workers have been pressured by communist authorities to give up their Christian faith. Human rights workers say the government regards church activities as questioning the communist system and threatens the government’s power. In recent months communist-backed local authorities and police have raided several villages where possibly dozens of believers were tortured and detained on false charges ranging from owning “illegal weapons” to holding “illegal gatherings.” An underground evangelical church leader says: “We know of several incidents near the Vietnam border where Laos police raided villages and forced locals to stand for three days with their hands in the air until they renounced their faith in Christ. Nobody is able to keep up with that kind of torture for so long.” Those who refused to obey were allegedly put in jail. He knows of six Christians in jail, including two brothers who were imprisoned about six years ago while another man sentenced with them died in recent years. (Voice of the Martyrs/BosNewsLife News)

INVESTIGATIVE AGENCY SEEKS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR STAINES’ KILLER The Graham Stewart Staines case took a fresh twist Monday, Aug. 29, as India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a special leave petition before the country’s Supreme Court, challenging the Orissa High Court’s order which had reduced the accused Dara Singh’s punishment to life imprisonment. The Sessions Court of Bhubaneshwar had sentenced him to capital punishment. On May 19 the Orissa High Court acquitted 11 persons convicted by the Sessions Court for the gruesome murder of the Australian missionary and his two young sons in January 1999. “We have relied on criteria laid down by the Supreme Court in the Macchi Singh case and have categorized the Graham Staines case as a ‘rarest of rare’ case because the motive was communal,” said a CBI spokesperson. “We have, therefore, pressed for reimposition of capital punishment on Dara Singh. The investigative agency has challenged the court’s judgment on the basis of legal points which the court either did not consider or considered erroneously.” (WorldWide Religious News/The Times of India)

MIDWIFE IN THE PHILIPPINES BRINGS NEW BABIES, NEW BIRTHS Hilary Overton, 24, began her Glory Reborn Organization which provides free maternity care to the homeless and poor mothers in Cebu City, Philippines, in 2003. Since then she has delivered more than 400 healthy babies and helped many women with medical care. Expectant mothers are offered prenatal and postnatal checkups, vitamins, health teachings and a feeding program as well as weekly prayer and worship sessions before their babies are delivered. Overton estimates that at least 200 women have accepted Christ through the ministry. “It’s amazing to see the many lives that have been transformed not just physically but spiritually throughout the course of pregnancy and delivery, and how many little lives will be impacted to live for Jesus,” she said. Overton launched the outreach three months after joining a Youth With a Mission trip to Cebu in June 2000. She lived in Cebu for 15 months while working on her midwifery degree by correspondence through a school in New Mexico. Overton said Glory Reborn’s name is based on 2 Corinthians 3:18, “It sums up the process of going from glory to glory after we are born again.” (CharismaNow) * * * * * * * * * * * * * Harold Goerzen HCJB World Radio 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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