*Tato a další zprávy jsou (pouze v aktuální den) v originální anglické verzi zde.

Muslim pupils who perform daily prayers complain they are now being persecuted in schools in southern Kyrgyzstan's Bazar-Kurgan district. Local resident Salimakhar Batirova explained how the director of her daughter's school had entered the class and asked who practiced Islam. Five pupils came to the front of the class, whereupon the director wrote down their names and left. "Then the teacher, Mashrapkhan Isakulova, started to hit the children on their heads and faces. She told them to conceal the fact that they were carrying out Islamic practices. She kept the children in after lessons and sent for their parents." Khaldarabai Shamsuddinov, head of the district administration, categorically denied that any order had been given to find out which pupils are studying Islam. "We are simply concerned about the activity of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir party," he said. "Its activity has become much more dangerous since the launch of military action by the U.S. and Great Britain." (Forum 18 News Service)

BAPTIST INTERNATIONAL MISSION BOARD, 43 MISSIONARIES PART WAYS

The Southern Baptist Convention's missionary service said Friday that 43 people have left the organization, including 13 who were fired because they refused to endorse a faith statement that opposes female pastors and says wives should submit to their husbands, reported the Associated Press. The Southern Baptist International Mission Board (IMB) wants all its overseas workers to support the 2000 "Baptist Faith and Message," a statement of the conservative denomination's beliefs. In addition to the dismissals, trustees of the Richmond-based organization voted at a meeting Wednesday and Thursday in Framingham, Mass., to accept the resignations of 20 workers who said the requirement to affirm the statement played into their decision. The trustees also approved early retirement for 10 missionaries who declined to endorse the statement. "We regret that any of our missionaries have chosen to resign rather than affirm the faith statement, but we feel it is time to move forward and keep our focus on sharing Christ with a lost world," IMB President Jerry Rankin said in a statement released after the meeting in Framingham. "It is not appropriate to expect Southern Baptists to support those who are not willing to work in accord with what the denomination confesses to believe." Rankin, who leads one of the nation's largest missions agencies with 5,500 missionaries worldwide, had sent most of the affected workers an April 11 ultimatum letter regarding their status with the agency. (AP/Religion Today)

RECORD CROWDS ATTEND BILLY GRAHAM MISSION IN SAN DIEGO

As troops return home from Operation Iraqi Freedom -- more than 20 percent of whom were deployed from San Diego -- record crowds received spiritual freedom at Billy Graham's Mission San Diego May 8-11 at Qualcomm Stadium, site of the 2003 Super Bowl. "When we saw the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln come in here and saw the people get off that had been at sea for 10 months, the rejoicing -- the thrill of it -- sent chills up and down your spine," Graham said. "In the same way there will be great rejoicing when God receives you into heaven. He is willing to forgive you and to change your life." Press officer Larry Ross said crowds averaged 54,000 nightly during the four-day campaign of with an average of 3,200 of these coming forward at Graham's invitation to make a commitment to Christ. A record 40,000 children and parents gathered for "Kids Mix" on Saturday morning, and 74,000 young people attended Saturday evening's "Velocity, a Concert for Our Generation." Graham's messages aired for the first time on the Armed Forces Radio and Television Network to more than 800,000 military personnel and their families on every ship and base around the world. What remained unchanged was gospel message. "We've aimed for personal happiness and missed the mark of God's plan for our lives," Graham said. "But God has intervened. He does not condemn us. He loves us and gives us hope." Nearly 25,000 volunteers from 650 churches representing 66 denominations helped out during the campaign, including 8,000 counselors, 6,000 adult choir members and 5,000 children's choir members. Graham's next mission will be at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, Okla., June 12-15. (Assist News Service)

CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC CHANNEL DEBUTS ON INTERNET

United Christian Broadcasters (UCB) launched an intensive contemporary Christian music channel in the U.K. Saturday, May 10, broadcasting 24 hours a day on the Internet. "We were concerned that a generation of younger Christians between the ages of 20 and 30 who are more interested in music than the spoken word, might be missed out," said a UCB spokesman. "After much prayer and debate on how to reach this generation, we concluded that the best solution was a music-intensive, upbeat Christian radio station with occasional short, thought-provoking, evangelistic messages," the spokesman said. To listen, visit thewordismusic.com. (Assist News Service)

'NEW TYPE OF MISSIONARY' NEEDED TO ENTER RESTRICTED COUNTRIES

A new type of missionary is being recruited to go to the field, says Hanz Finzel, president of CBInternational. "For years we've thought, if you're really going to be a long-term missionary you've got to go to Bible college or seminary. But, we're finding today, in the closed countries it's actually a liability to have a degree from a Bible college or a seminary. And in the closed places -- which are often the most needy places where the least evangelized are -- we're looking for a whole new generation of Christian professionals who have a skill to offer that can get them in the door." Finzel says the mission is looking for people that have been successful in industry, small business, education or medicine. "Perhaps they want a shift in career later in life, moving from what we call success to significance," he says. "We're definitely looking for people with marketplace skills who we can place in restricted-access countries." (Mission Network News)

ROMANIAN ASTRONOMERS CLAIM TO HAVE PINPOINTED TIME OF CRUCIFIXION

Two Romanian astronomers say they have pinpointed the exact time and date of the crucifixion of Jesus, the Internet news service Ananova reported. Liviu Mircea and Tiberiu Oproiu of the Astronomic Observatory Institute in Cluj, Romania, say Jesus died at 3 p.m. Friday, April 3, 33 A.D. According to their reading of the New Testament, Jesus was crucified on the day after the first night with a full moon following the vernal equinox. If the crucifixion took place some time between the years 26 and 35, this could mean either Friday, April 7, 30, or Friday, April 3, 33. But it was only in the latter year that records show a solar eclipse as having occurred in Jerusalem. They pointed to Mark 15:33, "And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour." The two astronomers also claim to have timed the resurrection precisely at 4 a.m. the following Sunday, April 5. (Religion Today)

* HCJB World Radio broadcasts the gospel locally in seven Romanian cities via the partner ministry, Radio Voice of the Gospel. The network is a cooperative effort with the Evangelical Alliance of Romania and the Romanian Missionary Society.

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