Today’s Headlines:

7.7-MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE TRIGGERS ANOTHER INDONESIAN TSUNAMI

LEBANESE CHRISTIANS CAUGHT IN ‘TERRIBLE VISE’ AMID VIOLENCE

2 CHRISTIAN MEN TORTURED TO DEATH IN VIETNAMESE PRISONS

FEMALE HOUSE CHURCH LEADER ARRESTED ALONG WITH 17 OTHERS

* HCJB WORLD RADIO TEAM RESPONDS TO ERUPTING VOLCANO IN ECUADOR

Today’s Top Stories:

7.7-MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE TRIGGERS ANOTHER INDONESIAN TSUNAMI

A powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake beneath the ocean off the Indonesian island of Jakarta triggered a six-foot high tsunami that crashed ashore near the village of Pangandaran earlier today. Initial reports place the death toll as high as 80 with searches for survivors continuing in the popular resort town. The huge wave hit at 3:19 p.m. local time, destroying hotels and throwing boats onto the beach. Thousands, warned by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, took refuge on high ground and in mosques, displacing more than 2,000 people. Today’s temblor follows a 6.3-magnitude quake less than 100 miles east of Pangandaran in Yogyakarta that killed more than 5,800. More than 130,000 people died in Indonesia during the December 2004 Asian tsunami. (BBC/Fox News)

* HCJB World Radio has helped with relief efforts in Indonesia since the 2004 earthquake/tsunami and subsequent quakes that devastated parts of the country, including the May 27 quake. In addition, the mission has worked with local partners to establish more than 14 local Christian radio stations nationwide since 2004. Indonesian broadcasts from HCJB World Radio-Australia’s shortwave station in Kununurra also encourage listeners nationwide.

LEBANESE CHRISTIANS CAUGHT IN ‘TERRIBLE VISE’ AMID VIOLENCE

The Christian community in Lebanon is facing terrible times as military action by Israel against Hamas and Fatah factions escalates. Open Doors’ Carl Moeller says Christians there are caught in a “terrible vise” between warring factions and Israel. Moeller says Open Doors is committed to supporting the remnant church in the area because, “Who else can speak to the warring factions, both internally among the Fatah and the Hamas in Gaza, and also between the extremist Muslims and the Israelis?” Amin, a Christian who runs children’s programs at schools says there is a cycle of hatred and extremism that can be clearly seen in schoolyard conflicts. “Children of Gaza can’t forgive each other, not even minor mistakes,” he says. “In our programs we do speak about loving and forgiving. Gradually you see them change.” Moeller feels the Christian community in Lebanon is strategic at this point. “Without a Christian community, there’s almost no one who can speak to both sides,” he says. (Mission Network News)

2 CHRISTIAN MEN TORTURED TO DEATH IN VIETNAMESE PRISONS

Two Vietnamese Montegnard Degar Christian men were killed in prison as a result of torture, lack of water and starvation. Held since 2004, 62 year old Siu Lul was denied food and water in Ha Nam prison and then tortured to death on April 24. Initially his wife lacked money to transport his body back to their home village so she agreed he could be buried locally. Prison officials later refused to release the body until the original prison sentence was past. In a second case, a Christian man named Siu Dolel was killed by “kicking, boxing, and beating him with electric batons until his right and left rib cages were broken.” His wife was notified of his death on June 25 and lacked money to go view the body. The Montegnard Degar people have been the targets of years of government persecution and abuse in Vietnam. (Assist News Service)

FEMALE HOUSE CHURCH LEADER ARRESTED ALONG WITH 17 OTHERS

Prominent female house church leader Wang Jinhua was arrested along with her husband and 8-year-old son on Friday, July 14, in Jilin city. The boy was released after church members petitioned authorities while Wang was interrogated for three days and nights. Her husband was then released while she was transferred to a Jinlin provincial prison. Other leaders of her church are in hiding. Meanwhile in Henan province, Sunday, July 9, about 20 police interrupted a house church meeting of 30 worshipers, confiscating an offering box and a loudspeaker while arresting 15 people. Eleven of the Christians remain in custody with several receiving formal charges of engaging in “evil cult” activities. (China Aid Association)

* HCJB WORLD RADIO TEAM RESPONDS TO ERUPTING VOLCANO IN ECUADOR

HCJB World Radio sent a four-person team to the site of central Ecuador’s erupting Mount Tungurahua today to assess the situation and bring relief supplies, medical help and spiritual encouragement to those affected by the volcano that began spewing lava and toxic gases on Friday, July 14.

“We’re traveling with two physicians and our photographer,” said Healthcare Director Sheila Leech. “We’re taking food — things such as rice, tuna, sugar and cooking oil. We don’t know of anyone being injured or killed, but farm animals have been injured and crops damaged. Our doctors will look at evacuees in the refugee centers who have been affected by the ash. For example, irrigating their eyes as needed.”

Leech added that the team will stay overnight in Penipe where some of the evacuees are located. “We’ll take a look and see if we need to return with a mobile medical clinic immediately or at a later date.”

The Associated Press reported that some 3,700 people have abandoned their homes in half a dozen hamlets since Friday, Ecuador’s Civil Defense said. “There have been no victims, but all the vegetation has died, and we have lost cattle,” said Juan Salazar, mayor of Penipe county which includes two villages where 300 families have been forced to flee.

In May the volcano, 105 miles south of Quito, began emitting its loudest and most frequent explosions since it rumbled back to life in 1999 after being inactive for nearly eight decades.

On Friday the Geophysics Institute reported that the 16,470-foot-high volcano had changed its behavior drastically by expelling at least four lava flows — the first since activity resumed. Hugo Yepes, director of the institute, said the wind was carrying ash from the explosions up to 75 miles west of the volcano. Some roads near the volcano have been blocked, and at least one bridge was destroyed.

Leech said the explosions are facing in the opposite direction as Ba ±os, a town of 20,000. “There are reports of pyroclastic flows and explosions every 45 minutes to an hour,” she said. “The volcano has settled down a bit, but volcanologists are very noncommittal about what could happen next. The danger is not over.” (HCJB World Radio)