JERUSALEM, Israel, 22 June 2000 (Newsroom) — Maronite Christians are openly challenging Syria’s presence in Lebanon in protests that are unprecedented since their Arab neighbor crushed the Lebanese Forces Christian militia at the end of Lebanon’s civil war in 1989.
JERUSALEM, Israel, 22 June 2000 (Newsroom) — Maronite Christians are openly challenging Syria’s presence in Lebanon in protests that are unprecedented since their Arab neighbor crushed the Lebanese Forces Christian militia at the end of Lebanon’s civil war in 1989.
Hindu militants in Orissa have announced that the man accused of masterminding the brutal killings last year of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons will be the chief minister candidate of their newly formed political party in the eastern state.
More than a year after Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, Timothy and Phillip, were brutally murdered in Orissa state, Christians in India continue to be harassed and persecuted. And according to church leaders, the Sangh Parivar (family of Hindu fundamentalist groups) sponsors much of it in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. These states have become the laboratory of "Hindutva" (cultural nationalism).
Christians in Laos continue to suffer persecution from a government crackdown on believers, and they cannot visit friends or travel freely because the secret police follow them every everywhere. Some have been forced to recant their faith.
5 June 2000 (Newsroom) — Two United States courts have upheld judicial orders to remove wall displays with the Ten Commandments from a public school district and two county courthouses in Kentucky. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and a U.S. District Court denied motions to stay the preliminary injunctions issued last month by federal judge Jennifer B. Coffman.
2 June 2000 (Newsroom) — A local official in Uzbekistan has denied registration to a Baptist church and barred its denomination from using a collective farm to hold a summer camp, the Keston News Service reported.
25 May 2000 (Newsroom) — Two Chinese Protestant pastors accused of organizing an unauthorized Christian meeting are being held in labor camps near Beijing, a London-based religious rights group reported Thursday. Wang Li Gong, 34, and Yang Jing Fu, 36, are in two separate camps in Tianjing serving administrative sentences of one year, and one and one-half years, respectively, Christian Solidarity Worldwide said.
Two Chinese Protestant pastors accused of organizing an unauthorized Christian meeting are being held in labor camps near Beijing, a London-based religious rights group reported Thursday. Wang Li Gong, 34, and Yang Jing Fu, 36, are in two separate camps in Tianjing serving administrative sentences of one year, and one and one-half years, respectively, Christian Solidarity Worldwide said.
24 May 2000 (Newsroom) — The United States House of Representatives approved a China trade bill on Wednesday that has divided human rights and religious freedom advocates. The House voted 237-197 to grant permanent normal trade relations to the communist nation, taking the place of Most Favored Nation (MFN) status, which required an annual review of China's adherence to international standards. The Senate is expected to approve a similar pact in early June.
