SUDAN AND NORTH KOREA TARGETED AS RELIGIOUS LIBERTY VIOLATORS A hundred Christian leaders this week called for U.S. human rights policy to crack down on Sudan and North Korea as the worst violators of religious liberty. In a “statement of conscience” drafted by the National Association of Evangelicals and Freedom House, the second Summit for Christian Leaders on Religious Persecution in Washington, D.C., also said China indirectly should be policed because it aids the two regimes, “The Washington Times” reported. The group wants to force “special attention” on the two nations in the hope that “achieving clear victories on behalf of their persecuted communities of faith will also have powerful and positive ripple effects” in other oppressive countries, the “Times” reported. North Korea is one of five remaining communist dictatorships, while Sudan is a radical Muslim regime. Summit leaders said Christians abroad more than ever face imprisonment, torture, slavery, anti-Christian propaganda, killing of converts, destruction of Bibles and churches. (Charisma News Service)

ARSONISTS DESTROY SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH IN RUSSIA Seventh-day Adventists in western Russia are urging a full investigation into a fire that destroyed a church building in Kovrov in the early morning hours of April 15. Arsonists broke into the church and ignited a fire inside a gas oven which then exploded. Witnesses say the wooden building, where more than 100 church members worshiped each week, was destroyed within minutes. Valery Ivanov, Adventist communication director in Russia, calls the destruction of the church a “hate crime” and “terrible loss for the local Adventists in Kovrov.” But Ivanov says those responsible for the fire do not speak for the average citizen in the city. “Adventists have done good things for this city,” he says, “and city officials have been good to us also.” Church leaders are reluctant to speculate about who set the fire, but some people believe it was the work of young nationalists known as skinheads. Russia endured a wave of violent hate crimes in April, the month of Hitler’s birthday. Across the country, an Afghan translator was murdered, a synagogue vandalized, and countless young men beaten. Members of the destroyed church plan to rebuild. (Adventist Press Service)