—Australia’s Senate voted 38 to 33 on March 25 to overturn legislation passed in the Northern Territory allowing physician-assisted suicides. The House of Representatives earlier had voted overwhelmingly to overturn the law, and Gov. Gen. William Deane signed the bill on March 27. Doctors had administered lethal doses of drugs to four people since the law—the world’s first voluntary euthanasia law—took effect last July.
—Eugenio Nij, who for 17 years has been pastor of San Raymundo Church of Christ 13 miles northwest of Guatemala City, faces murder charges in connection with the mob-beating death of a suspected baby snatcher on March 5. Nij, 39, was not in the area when Carmen Gonzales was jailed but he later tried to convince police to transfer the suspect to another jail for her protection. Rioters stormed the jail and beat Gonzales to death. Christian leaders say Nij’s arrest stems from officials trying to halt his ministry. In addition to starting several evangelical churches, Nij has operated an orphanage and school in the town.
—Daniel Baumann, a 33-year-old Swiss/American dual national, was released March 16 from Evin prison in Tehran, where he had been held for nine weeks. Baumann and a South African, Stuart Timm, were arrested attempting to leave Iran in January. They had been in the country for two weeks trying to determine how missionaries could live and work in Iran, which expelled Western missionaries in 1979. Timm, 27, was freed on February 17.
—The National Assembly in Poland voted 461 to 31 on March 22 to approve a constitution heavily influenced by the Roman Catholic church. The new Polish constitution, which replaces a communistic-dominated document in place since 1952, prohibits homosexual marriage and authorizes religion classes in public schools. It also calls God the “source of truth, justice, good, and beauty.” The new constitution does not alter abortion restrictions, which lawmakers eased last November.
—Christians in the eastern village of Kafemenan—in Indonesia rioted March 17 after a Muslim made a disparaging remark about a picture of Jesus Christ hanging on a wall at a residence. A market was burned, and 14 Muslims were attacked by Christians wielding knives and stones. Indonesia has been the site of recent unrest against Christians (CT, Mar. 3, 1997, p. 50).
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