Human Race

RESCUE: In a country once ranked as having the world's highest abortion rate, one Vietnamese man offers hope to unwed mothers. Tong Phuoc Phuc's "abortion orphanage" in the coastal town of Nha Trang provides shelter and food to pregnant women disowned by their families. After giving birth, the mothers can leave their babies in Phuc's care until they can afford to raise them. Phuc has taken in approximately 60 babies in four years and reunited nearly half of them with their mothers.

DETAINED: Iranian authorities arrested an Iranian-American student Oct. 15 on a visit to research women's rights for a master's degree project. Family members say police confiscated 28-year-old Esha Momeni's computer and research materials and are now interrogating her in the notorious Section 209 of Iran's Evin prison.

FREED: Gunmen released a Southern Baptist pastor Oct. 31 whom they had held hostage and tortured while demanding as much as $1 million for his safe return. Manuel Jesus Tec, 59, who lives in Tijuana, Mexico, but leads a church plant in San Diego, was crossing the Mexican border when the kidnappers seized him Oct. 21.

RETIRING: By year's end, Brit Hume, 65, will step down from his long-running Fox News show, Special Report. Citing family, faith, and even golf, the 43-year TV veteran says his decision to retire grew along with a rise in "bitter" politics: "This stuff exhausts me as much as it excites me." While Hume, who is likely to remain a Fox News senior political analyst, acknowledges he may miss the anchor chair, "I think the worst thing you can do is hang on when you've lost your fastball."

OUSTED: Crystal Cathedral founder Robert H. Schuller announced Oct. 25 that the church's weekly Hour of Power television broadcast will no longer include his son, Robert A. Schuller, who took over in 2006. The elder Schuller, 82, said a lack of shared vision made it necessary for them to part ways so that the 38-year-old television ministry could expand beyond the Schuller name. The younger Schuller, 54, will remain senior pastor of the Crystal Cathedral, but the Hour of Power will now feature guest pastors.

CONCLUDED: Oral Roberts University (ORU) reached a confidential settlement Oct. 22 with former professors Tim and Paulita Brooker, who sued last year alleging ORU wrongfully terminated them after they uncovered financial and ethical wrong-doing by ORU's former president and family.