Today’s Headlines:

ANTI-ISLAMIC CARTOONS SPARK VIOLENT ATTACKS IN NORTHERN NIGERIA

UNIDENTIFIED MEN AMBUSH, BEAT PASTOR IN SRI LANKA

INTERNATIONAL BIBLE SOCIETY PITS BIBLE AGAINST HIV/AIDS

SCRIPTURE TRANSLATION WORK MAKES SOLID PROGRESS WORLDWIDE

REVIVAL SWEEPS ACROSS ASBURY COLLEGE CAMPUS IN KENTUCKY

Today’s Top Stories:

ANTI-ISLAMIC CARTOONS SPARK VIOLENT ATTACKS IN NORTHERN NIGERIA

Up to 100 people may have died in the violence that rocked parts of northern Nigeria Saturday, Feb. 18, following the publication in Europe of satirical cartoons aimed at the Islamic prophet Mohammed.

Sources in northern Nigeria report that at least 30 churches and 250 shops and houses were destroyed in Borno state when a peaceful protest in the capital city of Maiduguri turned violent and a crowd armed with sticks, machetes and iron bars rampaged through the town, destroying Christian properties and targeting members of the clergy.

In one incident a husband and wife in Gamboro lost their six children and all of their belongings when their house was torched, and in another a mob placed a tire around one man, doused him with gasoline and set him on fire. Eyewitnesses report that corpses were piling up in hospitals in Maiduguri due to a lack of sufficient burial sites for casualties of the violence.

Borno police said they had arrested 115 people. However, the violence only abated when the Nigerian army was sent to the area to assist the police in peacekeeping following appeals by local Christians for an evacuation and a curfew.

On the same day, sources in Katsina state reported attacks on the Christian and Igbo properties in the capital city. Although a curfew was quickly put in place, reports indicate a death toll of at least seven although the local police force insisted that one rioter had died, two police officers were injured and 25 people arrested during the violence. Religious tension was also reported to be growing in Kano and Niger states.

Tensions escalated in Jos with a violent attack on a prominent Christian family. In Wase, in Plateau state, Muslim students stabbed the driver of a car and critically injured a pregnant woman and seven others after a road incident. (Christian Solidarity Worldwide)

UNIDENTIFIED MEN AMBUSH, BEAT PASTOR IN SRI LANKA

As the pastor of the Assembly of God Church in Yakkala, Sri Lanka, was returning from the market on the evening of Wednesday, Feb. 8, he was approached by three men he did not recognize. A report received from the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka indicated that the men asked the pastor to identify himself. When he did, the men said they had been waiting for him and began beating him. The pastor was admitted to a local hospital with minor injuries, and a police report has been filed. This was the latest in a series of attacks against the pastor and his wife in recent years. (Voice of the Martyrs)

INTERNATIONAL BIBLE SOCIETY PITS BIBLE AGAINST HIV/AIDS

Uganda’s abstinence-based program, which now serves as a model for countries around the world, is credited with reducing HIV prevalence in that country from 18 percent in the early 1990s to 7 percent in 2005. Following a similar track, the International Bible Society (IBS) is seeing growth in its Scripture-based “Reach 4 Life” program, said Nancy Barrazotto of IBS. “We are creating, through Reach 4 Life a biblical model that gives the kids an understanding of who they are in the Lord.” The resource contains a gospel tract and a 40-day Bible study. The Reach 4 Life book contains a New Testament and 250 pages of notes that promote a message of abstinence. Even a Muslim imam requested a copy of the book. “Please, may we have it?” he asked. “HIV does not know whether a teen is a Muslim, a Christian or a Hindu.” (Mission Network News)

SCRIPTURE TRANSLATION WORK MAKES SOLID PROGRESS WORLDWIDE

In 2005 an additional four language groups received the full Bible in their mother tongue for the first time, bringing the number of languages in which the complete Old and New Testament exists to 426. The latest Scripture Language Report, published by the United Bible Societies in Reading, England, also showed that the New Testament was made available for the first time in an additional 39 languages, making a total of 1,115. Along with the 826 languages in which Bible portions exist, at least some part of God’s Word is now available to speakers of 2,403 languages. Experts estimate more than 4,000 language groups still lack Bible translations. (Assist News Service)

REVIVAL SWEEPS ACROSS ASBURY COLLEGE CAMPUS IN KENTUCKY

A student-led chapel service at Asbury College in Wilmore, Ky., that began early Monday, Feb. 6, ended up lasting four days after students refused to leave in what Asbury President Paul Rader called “a wonderful sense of the Spirit’s ordering.” During Tuesday’s chapel Rader said, “God continues to move across the campus. We have had students in Hughes Auditorium continuously since Monday at 10 a.m. when God came in such power and blessing. Throughout the day there was a beautiful awareness of the holiness of God. Many students took off their shoes with a sense of standing on holy ground. God is answering the passionate and persistent prayers of committed students who have been fasting and praying for weeks for this kind of spiritual breakthrough. We are all rejoicing in it.” (Religion Today)