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Religious believers of the many illegal faiths -- including all Protestant, Armenian Apostolic, Shia Muslim, Jewish, Hare Krishna, Baha'i and Jehovah's Witness communities -- were taken by surprise in a March 11 decree from Turkmenistan President Saparmurat Niyazov. The decree allows religious communities to gain official registration regardless of how many members they have or what faith they belong to. Some are optimistic that conditions will improve, but others --especially groups that have regularly suffered fines, beatings and threats -- are skeptical. Under the country's harsh religion law, communities have previously needed 500 adult citizen members, and unregistered religious activity was a crime. The new decree makes no mention of decriminalizing unregistered religious activity. Bibi Agina, an official at the Justice Ministry, said the decree does not mean unregistered religious communities can start meeting freely in private homes. "As before, religious communities can only function after they get registration," she insisted. "The decree simply gives religious communities the possibility of meeting legally." Protestant leaders such as Vladimir Tolmachev are concerned that those who apply for registration will face ostracism and persecution in their communities. Believers are also concerned that registration would bring all churches "under state control." (Forum 18 News Service)

* HCJB World Radio works in partnership with Back to the Bible to air Christian Turkmen programs. Twice-weekly broadcasts began airing from an undisclosed site outside of Turkmenistan in 2001 and moved to daily programming in 2003.

FIRE DAMAGES CAMPUS CRUSADE FOR CHRIST HEADQUARTERS IN AUSTRALIA

A major fire swept through the building housing Campus Crusade for Christ's Australian headquarters in Sydney the evening of Sunday, March 14. No one was injured, but the blaze caused "significant damage," said Bill Hodgson, the ministry's national director. By the time he arrived on the scene at about 10 p.m. Sunday, the fire had already been extinguished. When he went upstairs to inspect the second-floor offices, the damage from smoke and water became clear. Thousands of gallons of water had flowed through the ceiling and collapsed ceiling panels onto desks, computers and printers and other equipment. The information technology area was hardest hit with the main servers dripping wet and out of action. The ministry's resources department on the ground floor suffered only minor damage with some stock loss. However, the office is uninhabitable and alternative accommodations are being sought. "We are working as hard as we can to get back up as soon as possible," Hodgson said. "We have all the data back-ups, and the insurance will assist with expenses of recovery." However, it will take time before normal day-to-day operations can resume. "Fortunately, the fruitful work of sharing the gospel and making disciples through the 13 different field ministries through which our people work in Australia and abroad will not be affected," he said. Cause of the blaze and damage estimates have not been determined. (Campus Crusade for Christ)

JEHOVAH'S WITNESS SENTENCED UNDER CRIMINAL LAW IN UZBEKISTAN

A Jehovah's Witness from the town of Samarkand in southwestern Uzbekistan has been given a criminal sentence after a meeting with fellow believers in a private apartment last October was raided by police. Vladimir Kushchevoy had earlier been punished under the code of administrative offences. In what appears to be a growing trend, the court ordered that religious literature confiscated from him at the meeting be destroyed. Other Jehovah's Witnesses continue to be fined for meeting together. The criminal court of Samarkand's Temiryul district found Kushchevoy guilty on Jan. 17 for "failing to observe the prescribed manner of communicating religious doctrine." He was sentenced to three years of "corrective labor." He is under house arrest but assigned to a certain job with 20 percent of his wages to be deducted and transferred to the state budget. The court also ruled that all the religious literature confiscated from him -- including the Bible and New Testament -- be destroyed. "In fact, it has not been proven that Kushchevoy was actually giving religious instruction," said church member Andrei Agafonov. "No one can forbid people from drinking tea together and talking about subjects that interest them, including the subject of God. However, in Uzbekistan, tea-drinking sessions like these are more and more frequently being viewed as unlawful religious meetings." (Forum 18 News Service)

SUDANESE BUSINESSMAN ACCUSED OF FUNDING ATTACKS IN NIGERIA

Government security agents in Nigeria have reported the arrest of a Sudanese Muslim businessman who heads a Saudi Arabia-funded charity in connection with financing bloody Islamic attacks on Christians. Sheik Muhiddeen Abdullahi, director of the Al-Muntada Al-Islami Trust, was arrested on Friday, Feb. 20, in the northern Nigerian city of Kano following the "discovery of financial transactions running into millions of dollars between him and an Islamic fundamentalist cleric Alhaji Sharu, in Kano," an official of the State Security Service said. Trust funds have reportedly gone to propagate the Wahhabi sect of Islam in Nigeria and to finance a fundamentalist Muslim uprising in December 2003 that left two policemen and a dozen militants dead and thousands of Christians displaced. When authorities released Abdullahi 10 days after his arrest, more than 5,000 Sufi Muslims protested, calling for the immediate closure of Al-Muntada Al-Islami Trust offices and demanding that the Wahhabi sect be banned from the country. (Religion Today/Voice of the Martyrs)

* HCJB World Radio, together with partners In Touch Ministries, SIM and the Evangelical Church of West Africa, began airing weekly half-hour programs to Nigeria in the Igbo language in 2000. In 2003 weekly broadcasts were added in two additional languages, Yoruba and Hausa.

UNREGISTERED CHURCHES IN BELARUS DEEMED 'DANGEROUS TO SOCIETY'

The opposition in Belarus has warned of worsening relations with neighboring Russia at a time when the Minsk leadership is already increasingly isolated amid reports of human rights abuses against active Christians, including Baptists and other groups. United Civic Party Deputy Chairman Yaraslau Ramanchuk told local media he expects relations between Belarus and Russia to deteriorate following the re-election of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The row has been linked to Russia's recent move to cut off natural gas supplies to Belarus because the nation of 10 million has reportedly failed to pay its bills due to apparent economic difficulties. Besides a reported crackdown on dissidents, independent media outlets and nonprofit groups, there is also concern about the oppression of non-traditional churches, especially those that refuse to register with state authorities, adhering to a rigid principle of separation of church and state. Police in at least one region of Belarus are trying to halt the activity of a network of Baptist churches that they describe as "destructive sects." Three pastors were fined in recent works for the "creation and leadership of a religious organization without registering its charter (statutes) in accordance with established procedure." The state has deemed such churches as "dangerous to society." (Assist News Service)

CHRISTIAN SCHOOL TO HELP BRIDGE GAP FOR NEEDY NICARAGUANS

A new education project in Nicaragua is expected to narrow the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots." Worldwide Christian Schools' Steve Geurink says the ministry is working in partnership with the Nehemiah Center to develop the Timothy Project. "This school will be tuition-based, but at one-fifth the cost of the National Christian Academy," he says. The school will serve Managua's growing middle class. "We feel it has significant potential to help spread the gospel of Christ through Christian education," Geurink says. Government permission just came through to begin construction. "Hands teams" (short-term mission teams) will help build the facility that will house classes ranging from preschool through ninth grade. (Mission Network News)

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