Raid on World Vision camp leaves one dead, three captive Unidentified gunmen attacked a World Vision camp in the southeastern Sudanese town of Waat yesterday, killing 46-year-old Kenyan aid worker Charles Kibbe. Three other employees of the Christian aid and relief organization, two Germans and a Kenyan, were apparently taken hostage. "We don't know who did this, or why," World Vision spokeswoman Alison Preston told a United Nations news service today. "We are working with the United Nations to secure their release."
The raid reportedly began on a prison 100 meters or so from the aid workers' camp. "The kidnappers are believed to belong to a group of rebels who have frequently changed sides in the conflict between the Christian and Animist minorities in Southern Sudan and the Islamic central government," reports Idea, an evangelical news service in Germany.
After website sale to Salem, Crosswalk will focus on oil and real estate As Weblog earlier noted, Christian radio giant Salem Communications is in the process of buying Crosswalk.com for $4.1 million. But The Washington Post reports that the company will keep going—albeit offline. "Rather than shutter the company and return the remaining cash to existing shareholders, the company's board decided to use the proceeds from the sale to [Salem's] OnePlace.com and remaining assets to start the oil and real estate venture," the paper reported yesterday.
The company plans to change its name to Amen Properties (its stock ticker symbol is AMEN) and move from Chantilly, Virginia, to Midland, Texas—where one of the company's largest stockholders, Jon M. Morgan, lives.
"The company decided to proceed with a new business model and to acquire assets that, if successful, would keep the company going and would turn a cash-burning company into a cash-generating company," Gary Struzik, Crosswalk's chief financial officer, told the Post. "We have $4.1 million [in cash] and a $29 million net operating loss carry-forward that can be utilized to defray taxes. It would be throwing those $29 million of tax opportunities away."
The company will apparently keep its "Christian Statement of Faith." Hopefully it will fare better in the oil business than Pat Robertson has.
Other investors apparently aren't pleased that they won't see direct profits from the sale to Salem—the price fell 13 cents, and is now at 37 cents a share.
In related Crosswalk news, the company says it lost $489,893 in its second quarter—revenue dropped to $700,003 from $1.4 million in the same period in 2001. And Salem wants this site because … ?
While we pray for peace, we need moral clarity about this war.
A Christian reconciliation group in Israel and Palestine warned that war would come. Now the war threatens their relevance.العربيةFrançais
Leader explains why the movement is seeing its biggest membership bump in 30 years and its mission for the years ahead.
