North Korea: US missionary Kenneth Bae and another American freed
North Korea has released American missionary Kenneth Bae, who his family said had been imprisoned for his Christian faith, along with fellow US citizen Matthew Todd Miller. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) confirmed that Bae and Miller are on their way back to the United States. Kenneth Bae, 45, had been held since 2012. He was sentenced to 15 years' hard labour on charges of trying ‘to overthrow’ the state. However family members linked the detention of the Korean-American to his Christian work in a nation where devoted Christians are forced to meet underground. Many thousands of Christians are believed to be among those held in prison camps, according to several advocacy groups and other sources. Fellow prisoner Todd, 24, was detained in April after he tore his tourist visa to pieces and shouted that he had come ‘to the DPRK after choosing it as a shelter,’ North Korea said at the time.
North Korea: After Kenneth Bae's release; missionaries continue
Christian groups in North Korea are vowing to carry on their missionary work despite mounting risks since Korean-American activist Kenneth Bae was imprisoned two years ago. (see news of his release) ‘We are getting more nervous,’ said Kim Seung-eun, a missionary for the Caleb Mission, which is based in South Korea's South Chungcheong Province but frequently travels to North Korea. ‘We have to come up with a strategy to avoid another case like Kenneth Bae's.’ Reticence is necessary, said one US-based activist, because of the dangers involved in propagating religion, especially in an overt, organised way, in a totalitarian state. If one person is caught, then everyone else can suffer the consequences. Open Doors says North Korea has 70,000 Christians held in labour camps.
Australia: Trafficking, slavery and forced marriage
Federal police are investigating a record number of human trafficking cases involving sex slavery, forced marriages and child brides. The number of active investigations into human trafficking has doubled in the past two years to 60. Police said trafficking crimes are grossly under-reported. The Victorian police force is urging its officers across the state to be on the alert in cafes, on farms and in the construction industry. Police are also examining whether some Melbourne karaoke bars are hosting trafficked women or operating as illegal brothels, which would add to the estimated 300 illegal brothels already operating across the city. Police are also uncovering more cases of trafficking related to forced marriages and have 20+ active investigations into alleged forced marriages.
Israel: Palestinian President talks of global religious war
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned that Palestinians will not allow Israeli extremists to ‘contaminate’ the Temple Mount, saying that allowing Jewish prayer at the site would risk a global religious war. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeated several times in recent days that he does not intend to change the status quo at the site. Jews are allowed to visit but forbidden from praying at the contested site, which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war, but where it allowed the Muslim Waqf authorities to remain in administrative charge. Abbas also said the Palestinian claims to all territory captured by Israel in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 were not up for debate and, ‘The Muslim and Christian worlds will never accept Israel’s claims that Jerusalem belongs to them. The Jerusalem that was occupied in 1967 belongs to us.’
