A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Extreme Muslim groups, with the assistance of Egyptian police, are carrying out a systematic strategy of kidnapping Coptic Christian young women, according to a report by World Watch Monitor.

The report says Muslim groups like the Salafi organization pay kidnappers large sums, some of which is given to police who help by supplying drugs to weaken the young women or by ignoring kidnap reports filed by their parents.

World Watch Monitor reports regularly on Christian persecution around the world. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Rep. Steve Scalise, seriously wounded in a shooting attack at a Washington, D.C., baseball field three months ago, returned to Congress today, summing up in four words his survival and recovery: “It starts with God.”

The 51-year-old Majority Whip was shot in the hip and the bullet tore through blood vessels and internal organs.

As he lay wounded on the field with gunfire erupting all around, Scalise said he began to pray and experienced “an unbelievable sense of calm, knowing that at that point it was God’s hands.” [ Source: CBN News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – This vast expanse of public land stretching from Capitol Hill to the Lincoln Memorial has seen many mass gatherings across the decades. But never one aimed simply at worshipping the Savior of mankind around-the-clock for days in a row. Yet that’s what’s coming October 6th-9th.

Tens of thousands of Christians praising and praying will fill some 57 tents, taking up much of that vast space running through the heart of the nation’s capital.

David Bradshaw, the visionary and organizer of “Awaken the Dawn,” told CBN News, “Starting right at Third Street by the Capitol going all the way down to 14th, which is right there in front of the Washington Monument, there’s going to be a tent city. Every state will have a tent. And every tent will be filled with worship and prayer 24 hours a day.” [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Spanish police reinforcements are pouring into the rebellious northeast region of Catalonia to control major protests expected to result from government efforts to abort an independence referendum that local authorities called for Sunday.

The battle of wills appeared to be escalating two days ahead of the planned vote, with Catalonian officials vowing to go ahead with a referendum that would effectively mean the secession of Spain’s richest region, while federal officials in Madrid sound just as determined to stop them.

“The [Catalan] government’s commitment is very clear: People will be able to vote,” Joaquin Forn, the regional interior minister, told reporters Thursday in Barcelona, the main city in the region. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Israel handed a replica of a frieze from the Arch of Titus to the head of UNESCO, using the monument commemorating Rome’s victory over Jerusalem for a not-so-subtle critique of the organization’s resolutions that ignore Jewish links to the holy city.

The idea originally came from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organization passed a resolution last year that used only Muslim names for the Jerusalem Old City holy sites.

The replica will be exhibited in UNESCO’s Paris headquarters as a “greeting from the historical truth about the existence of two Temples on the Temple Mount,” said Carmel Shama-Hacohen, Israel’s ambassador to the agency. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani said on Tuesday that Kurds had voted “yes” to independence in a referendum held in defiance of the government in Baghdad and which had angered their neighbors and their U.S. allies.

The Kurds, who have ruled over an autonomous region within Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, consider Monday’s referendum to be an historic step in a generations-old quest for a state of their own.

Iraq considers the vote unconstitutional, especially as it was held not only within the Kurdish region itself but also on disputed territory held by Kurds elsewhere in northern Iraq. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said Israel should “review” its support for Iraqi Kurdish independence, warning the Jewish state’s support for the bid could negatively affect diplomatic ties between Ankara and Jerusalem.

“If they do not review, we cannot take a lot of steps that we were about to take with Israel,” Erdogan was quoted by the official Anadolu news agency as saying.

“It is not possible for us to take steps with those who do not see Turkey as a playmaker in the region. Turkey is a playmaker in the region,” he said. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A month after seven church leaders were arrested, interrogated and released on bail, police in Sudan detained and questioned another church leader in Omdurman on Friday (Sept. 22), sources said.

Elder Mahjoub Abotrin of the Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC) was arrested from his home in Omdurman, across the Nile River from Khartoum, and was interrogated before he was released. It was not clear if he was charged with any offense, but sources said that he was arrested because of his refusal to hand over SCOC leadership to government-appointed leadership.

The current leadership expires on March 2018. The SCOC constitution calls for a general assembly every three years to appoint church leaders. [ Source: Morning Star News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – President Donald Trump warned North Korea on Tuesday that any U.S. military option would be “devastating” for Pyongyang, but said the use of force was not Washington’s first option to deal with the country’s ballistic and nuclear weapons program.

“We are totally prepared for the second option, not a preferred option,” Trump said at a White House news conference, referring to military force. “But if we take that option, it will be devastating, I can tell you that, devastating for North Korea. That’s called the military option. If we have to take it, we will.”

Bellicose statements by Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in recent weeks have created fears that a miscalculation could lead to action with untold ramifications, particularly since Pyongyang conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Emmanuel Macron has signaled Britain could be part of a reformed European Union after Brexit.

Setting out his vision for Europe in a major speech in Paris, the French President said: “In a few years, if they want, the United Kingdom could find its place…in this reformed and simplified EU that I’m proposing.

“I can’t imagine that the United Kingdom could not find its place.”

In an address lasting almost two hours, Mr Macron called for the EU to work more closely on areas including defence, security, immigration and corporation tax and for the eurozone to have its own budget. [ Source: Sky News (Read More…) ]