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

Unknown assailants shot and killed a Baptist missionary pastor in the northern Tajikistan town of Isfara late Monday, Jan. 12. An investigation has been launched into the killing of Sergei Besarab who was shot with automatic weapons through a window in his home while he was on his knees praying. Although this area is known for its devotion to Islam, it's unclear if Besarab was targeted because of his faith. When his wife, Tamara, heard the shots and rushed in from another room, he was already dead. Abdurahim Qahhorov, Tajikistan's deputy interior minister, said that law-enforcement agencies are taking measures to detain the perpetrators. Local police have refused to comment on the case, but there are reports that the pastor's active missionary work, including the distribution of Tajik-language evangelistic booklets, had aroused the anger of some local people. A week before his death, the local newspaper published an article sharply criticizing Besarab's missionary work. The article pointed out that Besarab had been imprisoned four times. A former criminal, Besarab was "completely changed" after coming to Christ through a prison ministry led by Rashid Shamsizade, a Baptist pastor from Dushanbe. (Forum 18 News Service)

TURKISH CHRISTIAN MAKES SLOW IMPROVEMENT AFTER BRUTAL BEATING

After being beaten into a coma three months ago for alleged "missionary propaganda," Turkish Christian Yakup Cindilli has been slowly improving from a nearly helpless state. Cindilli, 32, was hospitalized the third week of October after four men linked with the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) beat him severely on his head and face for distributing New Testaments and "doing missionary work." At a court hearing on Dec. 17, about 60 MHP sympathizers gathered outside the courthouse in a show of support for two of Cindilli's assailants who remain in jail. Metin Yildiran, president of the local MHP chapter, was released at an earlier court hearing. The crowd of sympathizers began shouting angrily when they learned that the defendants had been remanded back to jail custody following the hearing because, a defense lawyer stated, there was "hard evidence" against them. Cindilli was discharged from the intensive care unit of Bursa State Hospital on Dec. 2, shortly after beginning to emerge from unconsciousness. He is now at his family's home and starting to speak, although he still can't care for himself. (Religion Today/Compass)

RELIEF MINISTRY WORKS TO AVERT FURTHER DISASTER AFTER QUAKE IN IRAN

Cholera and dysentery now threaten the survivors of Iran's devastating earthquake Dec. 26 that killed more than 30,000 people and leveled much of the ancient city of Bam. In response, Food for the Hungry's Beth Allen says the ministry is handing out hygiene kits to help people keep themselves clean, along with emergency supplies and food. "We realize and recognize, along with other organizations, that there is a potential for outbreaks of waterborne diseases and other diseases as well. One of the things we will be doing is continuing to provide these hygiene kits so that people can keep themselves clean. Washing your hands with soap and water goes a long way to preventing disease." Allen says the kits are opening up opportunities for team members to share the hope of Christ with Iranians. "Being dirty is no fun. But it's not completely about taking care of food and water and hygiene," she says. "It's also how do you take care of a person's emotional and spiritual life." (Mission Network News)

* HCJB World Radio, in cooperation with FEBA Radio, broadcasts weekly Christian programs to Iran via shortwave in the Luri language. There are less than 100 known believers among the 4 million Luri speakers.

TRIAL POSTPONED FOR PASTOR OF HOUSE CHURCH IN VIETNAM

Less than 24 hours before his trial for "resisting an officer doing his duty" was to begin in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Rev. Bui Van Ba was served a notice postponing the trial to a later date, ostensibly because a judge was unable to attend. Ba has been under house arrest since a police raid of a prayer meeting at his home in Vietnam on Aug. 18, 2003. But local sources believe vigorous and direct appeals by house church leaders to authorities -- including the threat to send demonstrators into the streets, the wide international publicity and interest shown by Western embassies -- are the real reasons for the postponement. Christian leaders in Vietnam warned that authorities could announce a new trial date for Ba at any time, and urged Christians worldwide to pray with them in the battle to secure rule of law and religious freedom. (Compass)

FLORIDA MINISTRY USES FISH FARMING TO BATTLE WORLD HUNGER

Hans and Sigrid Geissler, a German-born couple living in Dade City, Fla., are using fish farming to help alleviate world hunger. Founded in 1993, MorningStar Fishermen is a Christian organization with the mission statement, "Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. . . . Teach a man to raise fish and the whole community eats." Hans, who loves the sea, has participated in competitive spearfishing events and helped build more than 2,000 multi-hull sailboats in 27 years when he operated his own business. The ministry operates a 10-acre fish hatchery near San Antonio, Fla. A training center also teaches people from Third World countries how to "raise and harvest fish while utilizing the fish waste to nourish gardens and teach people how to use the techniques of aquaponic gardening to efficiently utilize water and fertilizer to produce abundant crops of vegetables." The ministry houses up to 20 students who come to learn these skills. Hans got the idea for the outreach while visiting Guatemala and Mexico in 1990. Troubled by the dire poverty he saw there, he thought, "If I could somehow show these people how to raise fish as a reliable source of high-protein, fresh, nutritious food, just think how many of these poor people could be fed!" (Assist News Service/ MorningStar Fishermen)

BOOK CHRONICLES GROWING 'WAR AGAINST CHRISTIANITY' IN U.S.

Christmas got the boot from New York City public schools, but Jewish, Islamic and Kwanzaa celebrations and symbols got a free pass. School administrators at Colorado's Columbine High School, the site of the 1999 student massacre, picked through and pried loose more than 90 of the 2,100 ceramic tiles in tribute to those killed and placed in a hallway above student lockers. The offense? The tiles were painted with messages such as "God is Love" and "4/20/99 Jesus wept" and were deemed "objectionable." An "Easter Can Drive" sponsored annually by a Warriors for Christ club at a Hampton, Va., high school was changed to "Spring Can Drive" by administrators because they found the word "Easter" potentially offensive. The drive was to raise funds for the local YMCA women's shelter. These and examples of attacks against religious liberty that fill the book, Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christianity, by David Limbaugh, brother of well-known talk-show host Rush Limbaugh. "Anti-Christian discrimination in our society is getting more blatant and more widespread every day," he writes. "The cultural assumptions of our society influence changes in the law, and the culture is moving against the public expression of Christian belief. He concludes that if America is to remain a free nation, it must "must rededicate itself to its foundational Judeo-Christian moral underpinnings. And for that to happen, Christians must champion unfettered religious freedom, oppose those forces that threaten it, and strengthen their own churches without which any hope to influence the political system and our culture will be futile." (Baptist Press)

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