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5 Linfen Church Leaders Sentenced to Labor Camps Without Trial
by Staff
December 3, 2009
SHANXI, China, (christiansunite.com) -- On November 30, five more church leaders from Linfen Church, Shanxi, were each sentenced to two years re-education through labor, in an arbitrary administrative sentence by the Public Security Bureau which circumvents the court and prosecution systems. The sentence allegedly took effect November 11th, while they were already detained.
The five Christian leaders included Mr. Li Shuangping, Ms. Yang Hongzhen, Ms. Yang Caizhen (whose husband, Yang Xuan, received three years sentence on Nov. 25), Ms. Gao Qin (a.k.a. Gao Fuqin), and Ms. Zhao Guoai. Among the five, ChinaAid confirmed three members' two-year re-education through labor sentences through their family members--including Yang Caizhen, Yang Hongzhen and Mr. Li Shuangping. The other two members' sentences were confirmed indirectly by Linfen-Fushan church leaders, since their family members were being held under severe government surveillance.
The five church leaders were accused of "gathering people to disturb the public order, " referring to the one-thousand-believer prayer rally held on September 14 for the victims of the midnight attack on Fushan Church. 17 church buildings were destroyed and over 30 believers were seriously wounded during the unprecedented mob attack on September 13.
According to a witness, Ms. Yang Caizhen was seen being beaten severely during an interrogation. One of her front teeth was knocked out during an interrogation, and Ms. Yang is reported to look very fragile.
Government authorities asked the prisoners' family members to sign the Notification-to-Family-Member sentence document, but refused to give them official copies. They claimed the church leaders themselves had received the documents while held in detention (a procedure which violates Chinese law). The family members of Yang Caizhen, Yang Hongzhen and Li Shuangping all signed the notification papers respectively. All ten Linfen church leaders plan to appeal.
"To arbitrarily send five innocent citizens to labor camps directly violates the international human rights covenants and norms the Chinese government has signed and even ratified, " said ChinaAid President Bob Fu. "This case shows the Chinese government is determined to be on the wrong side of history by clenching its power with suppressing the basic freedom of religion and conscience for Chinese citizens. We call upon the international community to hold these rights abusers accountable."
source: http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion08796.shtml
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Christian from Muslim background martyred in Somalia
by Staff
December 2, 2009
(christiansunite.com) - The body of a 23-year-old Somali convert from Islam to Christianity, Mumin Abdikarim Yusuf, was discovered on the morning of November 14 in Mogadishu's Yaqshid district.
On October 28, members of al-Shabaab, an Islamic militant group, apprehended Yusuf and searched his home for Christian materials after a 15-year-old Muslim boy accused Yusuf of trying to convert him to Christianity. In an attempt to extract evidence against him and to gain information about other Somali Christians, the militants knocked out all of Yusuf's front teeth and broke several of his fingers.
They then shot him twice in the head and discarded his body on an empty residential street. Since it is unknown whether Yusuf disclosed any information during his torture, the underground Christians who knew him have relocated for their safety. Yusuf's Muslim family members are also in danger as militants have accused them of failing to report his conversion to Christianity. (Source: Compass Direct)
Pray for all those mourning the death of this brother in the Lord. Pray for safety for the relocated believers. Pray that Yusuf's faithful witness will be a testimony to his Muslim family members and that they will turn to Jesus for their salvation.
source:http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion08795.shtml
December 2, 2009
(christiansunite.com) - The body of a 23-year-old Somali convert from Islam to Christianity, Mumin Abdikarim Yusuf, was discovered on the morning of November 14 in Mogadishu's Yaqshid district.
On October 28, members of al-Shabaab, an Islamic militant group, apprehended Yusuf and searched his home for Christian materials after a 15-year-old Muslim boy accused Yusuf of trying to convert him to Christianity. In an attempt to extract evidence against him and to gain information about other Somali Christians, the militants knocked out all of Yusuf's front teeth and broke several of his fingers.
They then shot him twice in the head and discarded his body on an empty residential street. Since it is unknown whether Yusuf disclosed any information during his torture, the underground Christians who knew him have relocated for their safety. Yusuf's Muslim family members are also in danger as militants have accused them of failing to report his conversion to Christianity. (Source: Compass Direct)
Pray for all those mourning the death of this brother in the Lord. Pray for safety for the relocated believers. Pray that Yusuf's faithful witness will be a testimony to his Muslim family members and that they will turn to Jesus for their salvation.
source:http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion08795.shtml
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Europe agrees to recognize Palestinian state
Israel's Ha'aretz daily newspaper reported on Tuesday that a resolution to be discussed and probably approved at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers next week calls for the establishment of Jerusalem as the capital of "Palestine," and grants recognition to a Palestinian state declared unilaterally outside the framework of a peace deal with Israel.
The controversial wording is being pushed by Sweden, though many EU representatives are believed to support it.
Palestinians lauded the report, and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' spokesman also lobbied the UN General Assembly on Monday to likewise recognize a unilateral declaration of independence by the Palestinian Authority.
The official was addressing the General Assembly on the anniversary of the 1947 vote on the UN Partition Plan, which recognized Jewish and Arab states west of the Jordan River. Israel accepted the vote, but the Arabs did not, and instead invaded the nascent Jewish state. Despite that fact, the UN marks the day as a day of mourning, and uses it to blast what it calls Israel's "illegal occupation."
Meanwhile, Israeli officials cried foul over the international community's willingness to accept dangerous unilateral Palestinian declarations just days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to a settlement freeze in order to get peace talks going again.
"After the important steps taken by the government of Israel to enable the resumption of negotiations with the Palestinians, the European Union must now exert pressure on the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table," read a statement released by Israel's Foreign Ministry.
source:http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=20073
The controversial wording is being pushed by Sweden, though many EU representatives are believed to support it.
Palestinians lauded the report, and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' spokesman also lobbied the UN General Assembly on Monday to likewise recognize a unilateral declaration of independence by the Palestinian Authority.
The official was addressing the General Assembly on the anniversary of the 1947 vote on the UN Partition Plan, which recognized Jewish and Arab states west of the Jordan River. Israel accepted the vote, but the Arabs did not, and instead invaded the nascent Jewish state. Despite that fact, the UN marks the day as a day of mourning, and uses it to blast what it calls Israel's "illegal occupation."
Meanwhile, Israeli officials cried foul over the international community's willingness to accept dangerous unilateral Palestinian declarations just days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to a settlement freeze in order to get peace talks going again.
"After the important steps taken by the government of Israel to enable the resumption of negotiations with the Palestinians, the European Union must now exert pressure on the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table," read a statement released by Israel's Foreign Ministry.
source:http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=20073
Netanyahu: We won't freeze settlements again
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday tried to drum up international pressure on the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table by warning that Israel's current settlement freeze is only temporary and won't be repeated.
Government inspectors began handing out stop-work orders at construction sites in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria on Monday in line with Netanyahu's decision last week to comply with international demands that Israel stop building homes for Jews in areas claimed by the Palestinians.
But while addressing an economics conference near Ben Gurion Airport, Netanyahu insisted that the 10-month time limit on the freeze is firm, and that he will never make such a gesture again if the Palestinians do not respond in a positive manner.
"This is a one-time and temporary decision," Netanyahu said. "Just as was written in the security cabinet decision, and just as I have made clear in both public and private meetings, we will go back to building at the end of the suspension."
But as most observers of the Middle East conflict know, once Israel makes a concession, international pressure makes it very hard to go back on it. Israel's current settlement freeze is likely to become a new red line for the Palestinians, and most Palestinian red lines have been happily accepted by the world.
Government inspectors began handing out stop-work orders at construction sites in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria on Monday in line with Netanyahu's decision last week to comply with international demands that Israel stop building homes for Jews in areas claimed by the Palestinians.
But while addressing an economics conference near Ben Gurion Airport, Netanyahu insisted that the 10-month time limit on the freeze is firm, and that he will never make such a gesture again if the Palestinians do not respond in a positive manner.
"This is a one-time and temporary decision," Netanyahu said. "Just as was written in the security cabinet decision, and just as I have made clear in both public and private meetings, we will go back to building at the end of the suspension."
But as most observers of the Middle East conflict know, once Israel makes a concession, international pressure makes it very hard to go back on it. Israel's current settlement freeze is likely to become a new red line for the Palestinians, and most Palestinian red lines have been happily accepted by the world.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
From Monkey to Man? Darwin Being Challenged
By Gailon Totheroh
CBN News Science & Medical ReporterTuesday, November 24, 2009RSSPodcasts
On Tuesday, Nov. 24, 1859, Charles Darwin's book on his theory of evolution, The Origin of Species, was published.
Since then, evolutionists have developed elaborate theories about man coming from lower animals, especially apes. However, those theories are not going unchallenged.
Fossil Finds & Fossil Faults
In May, a fossil find was announced with great fanfare in New York City and was said to be an early link from monkeys to man
"We are not dealing with our grand, grand, grand, grandmother, but perhaps with our grand, grand, grand aunt," the Senckenberg Research Institute's Dr. Jens Franzen said.
"This skeleton is going to inform almost anything that we talk about in trying to determine the ancestor of higher primates," explained the University of Michigan's Dr. Holly Smith.
Despite this confident mood, critics like Dr. David Dewitt have been finding fault with fossils like these for years.
"The underside of the skulls for the apes, they're very similar," said DeWitt. "And the human skull is different, the odd one out. And you can tell because of the position of the foramen magnum -- in the apes is up and in humans coming from the bottom."
Likewise, scientists eventually debunked that celebrated fossil. But there was no media hoopla. There was merely silence, leaving the public with the impression that man is an ape.
God-like or Ape-like?
In his presentation Image of God or Planet of Apes, DeWitt says the stakes are high.
"Either man is created by God in His image or evolved over millions of years from pond scum through ape-like ancestors," DeWitt said.
PBS recently produced a series of programs promoting that ape-like ancestry for mankind. The NOVA series is entitled "Becoming Human."
"Somehow over time, they would become us," the Nova narrator said. "We know it happened, but we've never known when or why until now."
In the first episode, NOVA discusses the fossil known as Lucy's Child. But DeWitt notes how every new insight from Lucy's Child shows it is like an ape, not man.
The vocal bone, inner ear organ for balance, and curved fingers are like a chimpanzee's. The shoulder blades and heavy neck verterbrae closely resemble a gorilla's and is consistent with knuckle walking. Yet the NOVA program shows the creatures upright, not walking on their knuckles.
By contrast, man's entire skeleton allows him to balance on two legs for running, even with the hindrance of a gorilla suit, after all it is the human race.
Most importantly, the brain capacity of Lucy's Child falls in the range of a chimpanzee's.
Evolution Based More on Belief Than Real Evidence
DeWitt says one weakness for evolution is that it is often based more on belief than real evidence, in spite of the certainty evolutionists usually claim. As more data is considered, widely held Darwinist ideas are shown to be false.
For example, walking on two legs was thought to be how ape brains got pushed into becoming human brains. But now the idea is fading.
The new theory is that the ancient climate was unstable and that pushed the development of bigger brains.
"Africa's gradual drying trend was punctuated by burst of wild climate fluctuations," the NOVA narrator explained. "Then came 200,000 years of widely varying climate - careening unpredictably between wet and dry…"
DeWitt, who is trained in neuroscience, says that makes no sense. He says the great complexity of the human brain cannot arise from weather changes and random mutations.
The evolutionists themselves debunk each other to get their pet theories accepted - while they last.
Even The New York Times found humor in the climate theory in an article published on Nov. 3, 2009.
"Brains got bigger because only smarter beings could survive in such climatic conditions. So there you have it: global warming should have the same effect, which means we'll all be super-geniuses soon."
Hijacked Into a Fossil Family Tree
DeWitt says the climate change theory of human intelligence will eventually be replaced when it becomes obvious that there really wasn't evidence for it in the first place.
In fact, interspersed amid the evolutionary certainty, there are hints of weak evidence. The few skeletal bones that have been found. A depression that could very likely be and animation fills in the gaps.
These ancient creatures must have spent time in the trees, possibly sleeping there at night.
DeWitt says all the power and money of the evolution establishment can create stunning visual presentations, but can't prove that man evolved from lower life forms. They've even robbed the apes of their ancestry
"Toumai was hailed a few years ago as our oldest ancestor," DeWitt explained in his "Image of God" presentation.
"The suggestion was made instead that perhaps this is an ancestor to female gorillas," he said. "And this is very important, because there are virtually no other examples of fossil apes. They've all been hijacked into the human evolutionary tree."
So the next time you hear someone contending that man's basic nature is mere monkey biology, remember there is another side to the issue.
source: http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/healthscience/2009/November/From-Monkey-to-Man-Darwin-Being-Challenged/
CBN News Science & Medical ReporterTuesday, November 24, 2009RSSPodcasts
On Tuesday, Nov. 24, 1859, Charles Darwin's book on his theory of evolution, The Origin of Species, was published.
Since then, evolutionists have developed elaborate theories about man coming from lower animals, especially apes. However, those theories are not going unchallenged.
Fossil Finds & Fossil Faults
In May, a fossil find was announced with great fanfare in New York City and was said to be an early link from monkeys to man
"We are not dealing with our grand, grand, grand, grandmother, but perhaps with our grand, grand, grand aunt," the Senckenberg Research Institute's Dr. Jens Franzen said.
"This skeleton is going to inform almost anything that we talk about in trying to determine the ancestor of higher primates," explained the University of Michigan's Dr. Holly Smith.
Despite this confident mood, critics like Dr. David Dewitt have been finding fault with fossils like these for years.
"The underside of the skulls for the apes, they're very similar," said DeWitt. "And the human skull is different, the odd one out. And you can tell because of the position of the foramen magnum -- in the apes is up and in humans coming from the bottom."
Likewise, scientists eventually debunked that celebrated fossil. But there was no media hoopla. There was merely silence, leaving the public with the impression that man is an ape.
God-like or Ape-like?
In his presentation Image of God or Planet of Apes, DeWitt says the stakes are high.
"Either man is created by God in His image or evolved over millions of years from pond scum through ape-like ancestors," DeWitt said.
PBS recently produced a series of programs promoting that ape-like ancestry for mankind. The NOVA series is entitled "Becoming Human."
"Somehow over time, they would become us," the Nova narrator said. "We know it happened, but we've never known when or why until now."
In the first episode, NOVA discusses the fossil known as Lucy's Child. But DeWitt notes how every new insight from Lucy's Child shows it is like an ape, not man.
The vocal bone, inner ear organ for balance, and curved fingers are like a chimpanzee's. The shoulder blades and heavy neck verterbrae closely resemble a gorilla's and is consistent with knuckle walking. Yet the NOVA program shows the creatures upright, not walking on their knuckles.
By contrast, man's entire skeleton allows him to balance on two legs for running, even with the hindrance of a gorilla suit, after all it is the human race.
Most importantly, the brain capacity of Lucy's Child falls in the range of a chimpanzee's.
Evolution Based More on Belief Than Real Evidence
DeWitt says one weakness for evolution is that it is often based more on belief than real evidence, in spite of the certainty evolutionists usually claim. As more data is considered, widely held Darwinist ideas are shown to be false.
For example, walking on two legs was thought to be how ape brains got pushed into becoming human brains. But now the idea is fading.
The new theory is that the ancient climate was unstable and that pushed the development of bigger brains.
"Africa's gradual drying trend was punctuated by burst of wild climate fluctuations," the NOVA narrator explained. "Then came 200,000 years of widely varying climate - careening unpredictably between wet and dry…"
DeWitt, who is trained in neuroscience, says that makes no sense. He says the great complexity of the human brain cannot arise from weather changes and random mutations.
The evolutionists themselves debunk each other to get their pet theories accepted - while they last.
Even The New York Times found humor in the climate theory in an article published on Nov. 3, 2009.
"Brains got bigger because only smarter beings could survive in such climatic conditions. So there you have it: global warming should have the same effect, which means we'll all be super-geniuses soon."
Hijacked Into a Fossil Family Tree
DeWitt says the climate change theory of human intelligence will eventually be replaced when it becomes obvious that there really wasn't evidence for it in the first place.
In fact, interspersed amid the evolutionary certainty, there are hints of weak evidence. The few skeletal bones that have been found. A depression that could very likely be and animation fills in the gaps.
These ancient creatures must have spent time in the trees, possibly sleeping there at night.
DeWitt says all the power and money of the evolution establishment can create stunning visual presentations, but can't prove that man evolved from lower life forms. They've even robbed the apes of their ancestry
"Toumai was hailed a few years ago as our oldest ancestor," DeWitt explained in his "Image of God" presentation.
"The suggestion was made instead that perhaps this is an ancestor to female gorillas," he said. "And this is very important, because there are virtually no other examples of fossil apes. They've all been hijacked into the human evolutionary tree."
So the next time you hear someone contending that man's basic nature is mere monkey biology, remember there is another side to the issue.
source: http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/healthscience/2009/November/From-Monkey-to-Man-Darwin-Being-Challenged/
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