Nearly 21 months after the murder of a Christian student in Pakistan’s Punjab region, police have arrested a Muslim cleric suspected of torturing the young man so that he would convert to Islam. Umar Hayat was arrested last week under charges that he and two other Islamic seminary members in the town of Toba Tek Singh had tortured Javed Anjum for five days. Another suspect, Maulvi Ghulam Rasool, was re-arrested in November after Pakistan’s Supreme Court revoked his bail. Judge Javed Iqbal Warraich ordered police protection for Anjum’s father, Pervez Masih, and his lawyer, after Masih filed a formal complaint that armed members of Rasool and Hayat’s madrassa (Islamic school) were harassing him at court hearings. (Compass)

* HCJB World Radio recently sent two medical teams from Ecuador to Pakistan to help SIM International in relief efforts following the Oct. 8 earthquake that left tens of thousands dead and thousands more injured and homeless.

RENEWED FIGHTING MAY JEOPARDIZE PEACE AGREEMENT IN SRI LANKA

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has vowed tough measures to prevent further attacks that undermine a ceasefire with the Liberation Tamil Tiger separatists. Attacks on troops have increased since the beginning of December, raising fears that a 2002 truce will fail and the island will slip back into civil war. At least 115 people have been killed in fighting in the past month. The violence is also taking its toll on ministry, says Gospel for Asia (GFA) President K.P. Yohannan. GFA has more than 250 churches and two Bible schools in Sri Lanka and took part in a large tsunami recovery effort in eastern Sri Lanka that is controlled by the Tamil Tigers. Yohannan says because Rajapakse has support from hard-line Buddhists and communists, he doesn’t expect any resolution to the problem. “These are the people who wanted to pass the anti-conversion bill so that no one can be converted from Buddhism to Christianity,” he said. (Mission Network News)

NTM MISSIONARIES FIGHT YELLOW FEVER OUTBREAK IN GUINEA

Missionaries with New Tribes Mission (NTM) have become involved with the distribution of yellow fever medications in the needy West African nation of Guinea. The government has responded to continuing deaths from yellow fever with a large-scale vaccination program. The World Health Organization reports that the intent is good, but because roads are often nearly impassable, the practicality of the distribution has proven to be challenging. It’s also difficult to keep the medicine refrigerated as health workers travel from village to village. NTM’s Ginny Bryant is helping by mixing the medications together and filling syringes. With her help, 800 syringes were filled in a single 24-hour period and distributed to several villages. The team reports feeling helpless when they take a villager to the hospital, but the reality of sickness and death has led to many opportunities to share the gospel. (Mission Network News)

MINISTRIES REACH OUT TO TEENAGE GIRLS IN MIDDLE EAST COUNTRIES

In some Middle East countries sons provide future economic value to families but daughters do not, says a Missions Insider press release. As a result, daughters have little value. Often such families are large and poor. A young teenage girl is often considered an unwanted “added expense,” and consequently she is provided with little education, may be abused and is married off as soon as possible. In response, a number of ministries in the Middle East are reaching out to these teenage girls. In one major city about 1,500 young women come to weekly meetings to hear about God’s love and cleansing. Another ministry assisted by Christian Aid Mission touches teenage girls in 104 rural villages. More than 1,000 girls attend 10 different meetings held before and after school. After sharing the gospel, these ministries teach them biblical principles to help them deal with the emotional and spiritual scars, providing literacy and employment training while trying to help them to understand that it is “not wrong to be 18 years old and unmarried.” (Religion Today)

SURVEY: BRITISH EVANGELICALS DEMONSTRATE FAITH WITH A CHECKBOOK

Evangelical Christians in the U.K. give nine times as much to charity as the average householder in the country, donating more than 12 percent of their net income each year, according to a new survey. British evangelicals are even more generous than their American counterparts who give 10 percent of their income, the report found. The survey also found that evangelicals in Britain had three times the average level of household savings and a tiny fraction of the debt. Many were debt-free. The survey of 1,200 evangelicals was conducted by Christian Research for the Kingdom Bank, set up by the Assemblies of God denomination, to offer banking with a “Christian ethos.” The bank takes literally the words of Billy Graham, “A checkbook is a theological document -- it shows who, and what, you worship.” Evangelical churches are the fastest-growing segment of all Christian denominations in Britain. (WorldWide Religious News/The Times)

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