Presbyterian Christians are forced to meet secretly in the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan as the authorities are increasing pressure on non Muslim groups, ASSIST News Service monitored Thursday March 13.
Jerusalem (ICEJ) — While Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was getting battered at home, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was hosting Sharon’s chief opponent in the upcoming Israeli elections, Labor Party chairman Amram Mitzna. Blair said on Thursday that he would work toward reversing England’s restrictions on exporting security-related equipment to Israel.
Bulgaria’s Protestant churches have urged President Georgi Parvanov to veto a law that would force non-Orthodox Christians and other minority groups to obtain court approval to operate in the Balkan country.
WASHINGTON (BP) — Baptists in Yugoslavia have asked for urgent prayers for their country caught in the grip of political crisis as opposition forces try to force President Slobodan Milosevic to step down from office after being narrowly defeated at the polls by Vojislav Kostunica.
Pushing a key element in its alternate agenda for survival, the shrunken cabinet of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud decided to close the Religious Affairs Ministry by the end of the month. The move is a key plank in Barak’s “social revolution,” a second option to rebuild a secular/left coalition in case peace talks with the Palestinians collapse.
WASHINGTON (BP)–Great Britain’s apparently impending approval of the cloning of human beings for the purpose of medical research will cause repercussions throughout humanity, a Southern Baptist bioethics specialist predicts.
SANTA ANA, CA (ANS) — Turkish security police ordered a Protestant Christian congregation meeting for 40 years in the southeastern port city of Iskenderun to close its doors in mid-June, declaring the church had “no legal basis” and that its activities were harmful to society, Compass Direct reported today.
ISTANBUL, May 7 (Compass) — Protestant pastor Ahmet Guvener goes on trial in Turkey’s southeastern city of Diyarbakir in late May, accused by the state prosecutor of making illegal changes in the architectural plan of his nearly completed church building.
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (ANS) — A Hungarian Reformed Pastor continues to preach the Gospel despite alleged death threats and opposition from Russia and Communists who he says still rule the Hungarian village of Doboz, near the Romanian border.
BUDAPEST/PRISTINA (ANS) — The NATO peacekeeping force in Kosovo (K-FOR) has identified a British soldier who died while guarding a Serbian Orthodox Church in the regional Capital Pristina, ASSIST News Service learned Wednesday December 19.
Four security police from Gaziantep’s anti-terrorism division raided a Turkish Christian’s home on the night of April 11, placing him under arrest for five days pending investigation of accusations against him.
WASHINGTON (BP)–A bill to prohibit the Federal Communications Commission from restricting religious speech on noncommercial educational channels passed the House of Representatives by a 264-159 vote June 20.