The WorldRussia has passed a one-year extension of its controversial December 31, 1999, deadline for religious organizations to reregister with the government or face court “liquidation.” Nearly half of the groups—including many Orthodox and Muslim groups—did not meet the earlier deadline (CT, March 6, p. 32). Shalom Baptist Community of Mexico City has become the first Baptist church in Mexico to ordain a woman. Ordained Baptist women from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Cuba, and the United States participated in the controversial ordination council of Rebeca Montemayor Lopez on March 24–25.In Colombia, the fate of three New Tribes Missions (NTM) workers missing since 1993 remains a mystery. Bone fragments found outside Acandi near the Panama border in March were announced on national television as being the remains of David Mankins, Mark Rich, and Richard Tenenoff. But Colombia’s attorney general has since said that the remains are not those of humans. An NTM official says the agency continues to receive leads that the men, who were kidnapped from their mission station in Panama, are still alive.Ethiopia is on the brink of another famine, according to Christian relief and development agencies. An estimated 16 million people are at risk of starvation in Ethiopia and neighboring countries in Central and East Africa. The Ethiopian famine of the mid-1980s, which was characterized by broad public appeals, claimed the lives of nearly 1 million people.
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