Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban acknowledged anti-Semitism was on the rise in the country because of the economic crisis but said his government had a ‘zero-tolerance’ towards it. On Saturday the far-right Jobbik party – who regularly issue anti-Semitic statements and are Hungary’s trhird largest political force - held a protest against the Hungarian capital of Budapest hosting a World Jewish Congress meet ing where the Hungarian Prime Minister spoke. The WJC usually hosts its assembly in Jerusalem but chose Hungary this year to highlight what it says is growing anti-Semitism in Europe. Addressing the opening session, Mr Orban said, ‘Anti-Semitism is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated.’ He said his government had a moral duty to declare zero tolerance on anti-Semitism. The president of the World Jewish Congress said Jews were wondering if they were safe in Hungary.
Pray: against the growth of Anti-semitisim in Europe, pray also for the Lord to protect all who are persecuted for their faith. (Ps.32:7-8)
More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22423812
The European Union's anti-fraud body recovered a record €691 million last year, it said on Tuesday, but expressed concern that public bodies were getting more reluctant to tip it off for fear of damaging national reputations. The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) - which monitors the use of EU funds and investigates wrongdoing within EU institutions - saw an increase in private tip-offs thanks to a new internet notification system, it said in its 2011 annual report. But information from EU institutions and member states was becoming more scarce, said OLAF's director-general. ‘This decrease in information from public authorities worries us,’ Giovanni Kessler told reporters. Many of the larger fraud cases concern EU Structural Funds, which pay for regional infrastructure projects and are overseen by member states. One such investigation, into the financing of road works in Italy, yielded €389 million in recovered EU funds last year.
Pray: against any actions leading to deceit and lies within our leaders. (Ps.32:2)
More: http://www.euractiv.com/justice/anti-fraud-chief-eu-countries-re-news-513716
Like many Eastern European nations, Albania prides itself on an atheistic worldview. When the Soviet Union was in its prime, inquiries into the existence of God or any higher being were quickly stamped out. Most young people in Albania grew up believing ‘there was no God.’ In 1967, the government closed all religious institutions, and Albania became the first atheistic state in Eastern Europe. Private religious practice wasn't allowed again until 1990, and with not even an underground church in sight, the Good News had to start from scratch in Albania. A mere two years ago, the government granted legal status to over 100 of the country's evangelical churches. A small but passionate group of believers in the nation's capital city want to change this societal outlook. Though the group may be small, their influence is mighty. On September 22, believers will gather in the city of Tirana for an evangelistic outreach called TiranaFest with Luis Palau.
Pray: that the church will be blessed and increase in numbers through this outreach. (Gen.1:22a)
A Norwegian man has received terrorist training from Al Qaeda's offshoot in Yemen and is awaiting orders to carry out an attack on the West, officials from three European security agencies told The Associated Press on Monday. Western intelligence officials have long feared such a scenario - a convert to Islam who is trained in terrorist methods and can blend in easily in Europe and the United States, travelling without visa restrictions. Officials from three European security agencies confirmed on Monday the man is ‘operational’, meaning he has completed his training and is about to receive a target. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly. They declined to name the man, who has not been accused of a crime. ‘We believe he is operational and he is probably about to get his target,’ one security official said. ‘And that target is probably in the West.’
Pray: that the security agencies will be given clear direction on where to find such people. (2Ti.4:18)
Pray4brussels seeks to mobilise prayer and to coordinate it in and for the city of Brussels. Brussels is becoming more and more a metropolis and an international crossroads: NATO, the EU and many international institutions have their headquarters here. It is a very strategic city, but also has a high degree of spiritual need. International teams come regularly to Brussels to pray, and we welcome them with open arms. However, we also want to create a platform among the many churches in Brussels to pray together and strengthen each other in this task. We want to make a conscious effort to join and work together with all other existing prayer initiatives.
Pray: that the significance of Brussels will be recognised and therefore the importance and strategic need for focused prayer will be taken up. (1Tim.2:1)
More: http://www.pray4belgium.be/index.php?page=pray4brussels-en
November 9 is the day in 1938 when Hitler’s gangs attacked Jewish property in a prelude to the Holocaust, and the very same day 51 years later when the wall dividing East and West was breached, signaling the end of the cold war. People lined up in Berlin for an exhibition of photographs celebrating the opening of the Bornholmer Strasse border crossing in 1989. Nov 9 has always presented the dilemma of how to celebrate the joy of the wall’s coming down while at the same time commemorating the night of terror known as Kristallnacht, or the night of broken glass. ‘I think it’s the beginning in the shift in narrative,’ said Deidre Berger, director of the American Jewish Committee’s Berlin office. ‘It’s a concern of what young people know about this day.’ The nightly news seemed to support her view, reporting Germany’s celebrating the wall coming down, followed by a report on the ‘Jewish community’ marking Kristallnacht. Pray: that the world may always remember the devastating lessons of fascism and genocide. (Ps.107:39) More: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/10/world/europe/10germany.html?_r=1&ref=global-home
Germany's attempts to build a post-war multicultural society have ‘utterly failed’, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has said. She broke a long standing taboo in Germany to address the immigration issue in a speech at Potsdam near Berlin. Mrs Merkel told a meeting of the youth wing of her party at the weekend: ‘Multikulti, the concept that we are now living side by side and are happy about it, this approach has failed, utterly.’ She spoke days after a poll showed that a third of all Germans viewed immigrants as welfare cheats. Mrs Merkel said: ‘We feel bound to the Christian image of humanity. That is what defines us. Those who do not accept this are in the wrong place here.’ Mindful of the legacy of the Second World War and racial policies that cost millions their lives, German politicians have tended only to speak in broad positive terms of the ‘multikulti’ society. Pray: that Germany continues to emphasise its Christian heritage to all. (Ro.15:16) More:http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Multikulti+failed+Germany+says+chancellor+Angela+Merkel/3684846/story.html#ixzz12tmKfCX7
Finland: Europe’s other sick man
01 Jul 2015Erkki Liikanen, Finland's central bank governor, says the country will need stamina if it is to dig its way out of its ‘grave’ situation. At 64, the governor of Finland's central bank has faced a few challenges in his lifetime: first as finance minister in the years before the collapse of the Soviet Union, one of Finland's key export markets, and in his current job, where he has seen the economy go from leader to laggard in a decade. Finland is in trouble, and in the words of the central bank this week,(20 June )the situation is grave. While France has often been branded Europe's sick man and Greece's problems are well known, Finland's economy is still 5% smaller than before the financial crisis. The country will barely crawl out of a three-year recession this year, while unemployment is forecast by the OECD to grow in 2015. Faced with a bloated state, below-par growth, and prices and costs that have risen at a much faster pace than the rest of the eurozone, the medicine is a familiar one.