In Brief: May 24, 1999

1. The Lindale, Texas–based Mercy Ships will add a fourth vessel to its fleet thanks to a $6 million donation from Ann Gloag, executive director of Stagecoach Holdings of London, through her Balcraig Foundation. The Dronning Ingrid (photo in print copy) will be converted from a train and car ferry to a four-ward hospital and relief-and-development ship during the next two years. The ship will have a crew of 400 and provide free medical care and relief aid to developing countries in Africa.
2. More than 325 people have died in Indonesia this year in ethnic and religious clashes, including 140 killed during Holy Week. In the heaviest casualties in April, Christians and Muslims armed with spears and machetes fought in villages near Tual, the main town in the Kai islands in the eastern part of the country.
3. Interreligious tensions escalated in India in March with the burning of 157 Christian homes in the village of Ranalai in the southern part of the state of Orissa. Thirteen people were hurt in conflicts between Hindus and Christians.
4. Aleksandr Kulakov, 65, pastor of the 100-member Grozny Baptist Church in the Chechen capital, reportedly was beheaded in March. Kulakov, who had been missing for several weeks, had assumed leadership after the abduction of pastor Alexey Sitnikov, who disappeared in October. Amid widespread lawlessness in the rebel Russian republic Chechnya, vigilante executions or abductions are not unusual.

Copyright © 1999 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.