GALLE, Sri Lanka (ABP) — On the waterfront in Galle City, a road runs parallel to the beach, but there are no cabanas and beach chairs to be seen. Large, colorful shrimp boats lean together on the curb, ripped from…
Relief team in Sri Lanka helps restore water to tsunami-stricken villages
DODANDUWA, Sri Lanka (ABP) — On a map, the small, island nation of Sri Lanka looks like a giant teardrop. It's an appropriate image. When a 9.0 earthquake off the faraway coast of Sumatra sent a tsunami speeding across the…
First tsunami-relief volunteers from CBF head to South Asia
ATLANTA (ABP) — Two best friends and registered nurses from Wilmington, N.C., left Jan. 12 for India as some of the first tsunami-relief volunteers sent to South Asia by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Cokie Westfall and Linda Marie Jones will…
Evolution disclaimer in Ga. textbook found unconstitutional by federal judge
WASHINGTON (ABP) — A federal judge has struck down a suburban Atlanta school district's policy of placing disclaimers about evolution in science textbooks, saying the policy violates the Constitution's ban on government establishment of religion. United States District Judge Clarence…
First look at tsunami destruction stuns volunteers in Sri Lanka
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (ABP) — Even the most graphic television images and emotional verbal descriptions couldn't prepare the American volunteer team for the devastation that is coastal Sri Lanka, one of the countries hardest hit by the Dec. 26 tsunamis….
Georgia church, WMU donate $87,000 for water systems, promise more
(ABP) — Pure drinking water — a critical need to avoid an outbreak of deadly diseases in the wake of South Asia's tsunamis — got a boost from two sizeable donations from Baptists. First Baptist Church of Rome, Ga., donated…
Tsunami volunteers not needed yet but should prepare, leaders say
(ABP) — Volunteers are not needed to help yet with the relief effort in South Asia, but they need to be prepared for action. Relief leaders, including Baptists from around the world, continue assessing needs in the countries affected by…
Gonzales won’t repudiate torture memo despite appeals from religious leaders
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Although pledging not to tolerate torture of prisoners by American soldiers or law-enforcement agents, Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales also repeatedly refused Jan. 6 to renounce a controversial memo his office authored in 2002 supporting the legality…
Sudanese government, southern rebels sign long-awaited peace accord
WASHINGTON (ABP) — In what many hope will be the beginning of the end of a bloody conflict fueled by ethnic and religious differences, Sudan's Arab-dominated government signed a peace agreement Jan. 9. Meeting in neighboring Kenya, Vice President Ali…
Supreme Court sidesteps case on Florida adoption ban
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The Supreme Court has declined, without comment, to hear a challenge to Florida's ban on adoptions by homosexuals. Returning to the bench from their month-long winter break Jan. 10, the justices turned away an appeal in Lofton…
Wife of former Baptist executive, Bettye Cothen, dies in Miami at 83
MIAMI (ABP) — Bettye Cothen, 83, wife of former Southern Baptist executive Grady Cothen, died Jan. 10 in a Miami hospice. She had Parkinson's disease. For 63 years, she was married to Grady C. Cothen, retired president of the Southern…
Rick Warren to write column for Ladies’ Home Journal
LAKE FOREST, Calif. (ABP) — Southern Baptist pastor Rick Warren, whose books on spirituality have dominated secular best-seller lists for the past two years, will now write a monthly column for Ladies' Home Journal. The column, which debuts in the…