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CHINA: In a country that bans “evil cults” and strictly monitors religion, belief in extra-terrestrial life is one of the few fringe convictions that have been allowed to flourish into an organized movement. The government-approved UFO Research Center boasted 50,000 members before splintering into factions three years ago. China’s focus on UFOs is limited to the scientific bent, making publishing close-encounter stories tolerable to the Chinese Communist Party that advocates “scientific socialism.” But it’s not okay to publish about whether such stories result from people searching for higher spiritual meaning.

COLOMBIA: Christian radio is bringing more than eternal peace to its listeners. Eleven guerrillas surrendered to Christian workers after listening to a local Christian station for years, according to Galcom International. The station sent radios to many of the guerrillas’ friends, and now another group of about 30 guerrillas are about to surrender.

DENMARK: The government is proposing a new package of strict immigration laws apparently designed to deter radical Muslim clerics from residency. Under the new rules, religious leaders must be self-supporting, speak Danish and respect “Western values” or risk being deported. Parliament is expected to approve the laws this month.

GERMANY: Palestinian and Israeli youth leaders gathered for training by Youth for Christ in Olfen, Germany, August 24-29. Musalaha, a reconciliation ministry based in Jerusalem, sponsored the training aimed at furthering understanding and strengthening youth work in both communities.

GREAT BRITAIN: London has a greater influx of foreigners than New York or Los Angeles, both in absolute numbers and in proportion to its population. Since the 1990s, net immigration to Britain has been rising. The end of the Cold War resulted in civil conflicts that drove many in search of a safe haven across borders. The country’s economy and the government’s encouragement of immigration by issuing more work permits have contributed to more legal migration—172,000 in 2001.

INDIA: More than four years after the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, a district court sentenced to death Hindu cult leader and prime suspect Dara Singh and 12 others to life in prison. The January 1999 burning alive of Staines and his sons while they slept in their jeep awakened the world to current Christian persecution in India. Gladys Staines, widow of the slain missionary, says she has forgiven the killers and has remained in Orissa state to work among the leprosy patients that her husband cared for. She plans to start a hospital nearby.

IRAQ: Failing water and electrical supplies may plague the country, but soon three new mobile-phone networks will be among the first companies to turn a commercial profit in Iraq. Evidence from other war-torn countries indicates the new networks will be profitable within months, even if Iraq’s unrest continues. In 1999, an African mobile phone company rapidly reaped benefits in the midst of Sierra Leone’s civil war.

JAPAN: Rapidly aging populations and dwindling fertility afflict many advanced countries, but Japan holds the lead. The size of its work force peaked in 1998, and the decline is expected to accelerate. By mid-century, Japan will have 30 percent fewer people and one million 100-year-olds, demographers say. By century’s end the UN estimates the present population of 120 million will be cut in half. Large-scale immigration sustained over years could stabilize the population, but the country would need 17 million new immigrants by 2050, according to a recent UN report. But in the world’s most tenaciously insular industrialized country, notions of ethnic purity and hostility toward long-term immigrants make that unlikely.

KAZAKHSTAN: More than 120 representatives of 18 religions met in Astana to condemn terrorism and advance the cause of religious tolerance. Kazakhstan’s Muslim president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, promised to build a palace for the new organization, the Congress of World and Traditional Religions. His country is roughly half Christian (Orthodox) and half Muslim, but also includes some 40 other religious groups and 100 ethnic minorities. The number of mosques has grown from 46 in 1988 to 1,623 last year, while the number of Russian Orthodox churches has grown from 62 to 225 in the same period.

RUSSIA: Trust in the court system is hard to earn where historically individual rights were subordinated to czars and Communists. Seventy percent of Russians polled this year said they did not trust courts to be independent and guided by the law. The right to a trial by jury of one’s peers was enshrined in the new constitution in 1993, but in most courts judges have continued to reign supreme, convicting defendants 99.5 percent of the time. Until this year, just nine of Russia’s 89 provinces had experimented with jury trials. Under the new Russian system, defendants in serious cases may choose a jury or judge, and some are deciding to gamble on ordinary citizens who can convict with a simple-majority vote.

SAUDI ARABIA: After last spring’s triple suicide bombings in Riyadh, authorities began to crack down on Islamic radicals. Three big terrorist cells have been uncovered. Quite unexpectedly, the government moved against the country’s 50,000 mosques. Most preachers try to stay out of politics, but some 1,000 imams have been removed from their pulpits and taken to Riyadh for “re-education.” The program aims to steer them from radicalism and to encourage tolerance of non-Muslims.

ZIMBABWE: The last remaining independent daily newspaper, the “Daily News,” is fighting for survival. The paper was ordered to close by the Supreme Court after initially refusing to comply with a stringent new media law requiring that it register with a state media commission. In an attempt to save the paper, its owners decided to register. But police have raided the paper’s offices and taken computers. Staff are pessimistic that the paper will be operating soon since it has been a critic of President Mugabe. The state controls the country’s two other daily papers and the single television and radio broadcast station.