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BIBLE TRANSLATION: Finishing the task of getting God’s word in every language won’t take as long, thanks to “Epic Partnership,” which involves Campus Crusade for Christ International, Wycliffe International, International Mission Board and Youth With A Mission. Most who speak the 2,737 languages that still don’t have Bibles are illiterate people from oral societies. “It’s a great way of introducing the Scriptures into a society and giving them a chance to hear the gospel and then transition them into a literacy program,” says Bob Creson, president of Wycliffe Bible Translators. Many of these languages are spoken in challenging “creative access” countries. Ultimately, the partnership will help Wycliffe’s Vision 2025 program to have a translation in progress for every language by the year 2025.

CAMBODIA: The nation’s 81-year-old King Sihanouk said that after he saw television images of recent homosexual “weddings” in San Francisco, he decided homosexual marriage should be allowed in Cambodia because his country is a liberal democracy. He said he respects homosexuals, who are as they are because God loved a “wide range of tastes.” The revered king has no executive powers. His views are not widely held in Cambodia.

CHINA: GOD TV, China’s first 24-hour Christian cable television station, was launched January 16. It is part of basic cable in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, the chair of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference has urged all party groups nationwide to recommit to overseeing religious activities and guard against foreign church-affiliated groups. That’s because the people’s energy should be directed to building a prosperous society. The Religious Affairs Bureau has been given more than $50 million dollars to fund an expert cadre team to eliminate unregistered religious groups. Suspicious groups must be found and replaced by “patriotic” forces.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: The country’s 1.5 million Yombe people have their first-ever New Testament in their language, Kiyombe. The International Bible Society dedicated the Scripture January 25 in Boma. Although more than two-thirds of DRC’s Yombe are Christians, the only Scripture they had in their native language was the Gospels and Acts in an antiquated language.

ERITREA: Police hauled to prison 51 Protestant Christians secretly worshiping in the capital, Asmara, on February 16. Pastor Mengse Tweldemedhane of the Hallelujah Church was arrested along with his congregation in Asmara’s Edaga Hamuse district. The 34 men and 17 women were held under arrest at the Adi-Abyto military camp until February 18, when Pastor Tweldemedhane was separated from the group and locked in an underground cell. That day, all but four were transferred to the Sawa Military Training Camp, where they remain incarcerated. These arrests bring to 347 the number of Protestants known to be jailed in Eritrea for attending “illegal” worship services, possessing Bibles or witnessing about their faith. Some of them, including some soldiers, have been in prison for nearly two years.

FORESTS: Managing forests protects water supplies, and forests play a key role in relieving poverty and protecting the environment, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) reports. Days before a UN-backed meeting in Ghana on forests, an FAO official stressed the need to stop isolating forestry from mainstream development projects.

INDIA: The middle class is exploding in numbers. Of the more than 1 billion people who live in India, 300 million are considered middle class, with each member earning between $2,000 and $4,000 annually. The middle class is expected to number 445 million by late 2006. Economists, however, speak of two Indias — the developing southern and urban, and the declining northern and rural. In Goa, a southern state, people earn between $514 and $700 on average. In northern areas such as Bihar, salaries are less than a sixth of that and decreasing. Of India’s people, 79.8 percent (792 million) are Hindus, 12.5 percent (126.7 million) are Muslims, and 2.4 percent (25 million) are Christian.

MACEDONIA: President Boris Trajkovski died in a plane crash February 26 near Stolac, Bosnia. He studied theology in the United States and was a Methodist lay pastor in a Roma, or Gypsy, church before he returned to politics when Macedonia seceded from Yugoslavia in 1991. He was elected president in 1999. He sought peace and stability in Macedonia during the Serbia and Kosovo conflicts. His country remains divided between majority Orthodox and minority Muslims. In 2001 he told Christianity Today, “To serve God is to be with the people and to follow Jesus’ steps.”

NIGERIA: The World Health Organization launched the first round of the 2004 National Polio Eradication campaign and reported that Nigeria had a 62 percent rise in polio infections last year. In 2003 some states in central Nigeria that had been polio-free were reinfected with polio after 18 months. The virus has spread to neighboring countries.

SUICIDE: Each year an estimated 1 million people opt to kill themselves because of poverty, unemployment and domestic disputes, according to the UN’s World Health Organization. Ten percent of them are in South Asia.

UGANDA: The practice of “bride price,” what is paid to a family in exchange for a woman, is a leading cause of domestic violence. Some men believe that wife-beating proves they paid a bride price, said a former minister for Ethics and Integrity. She said that according to culture, a man who doesn’t beat his wife is seen as unloving.

UNITED KINGDOM: Although the UK has an official state church, its schoolchildren will be taught about atheism in religion education classes. These plans reflect the decline in churchgoers. Religious and non-religious beliefs will be taught, including humanism, agnosticism, atheism, Islam and Christianity. Religious education is mandatory, but no national guidelines mandate what is taught. The plans allow religious schools to choose their curriculums, but they will be regarded as best practice and will likely be followed across the country. In 1999 only 7 percent of Brits attended a weekly religious service, down from 19 percent in 1980.