Tensions remained high in the Sri Lankan city of Jaffna Wednesday, January 17, after a pastor was shot dead by government security forces, triggering fears of more ethnic and religious clashes in the volatile region, local Christians and investigators said.
The government of India’s Hindu-ruled Rajasthan state has launched an investigation into the alleged involvement of a major evangelical mission group in the disappearance of children, news reports said Tuesday, January 16.
Details emerged Monday, January 15, of long prison sentences given to eight Chinese Christians on charges that included inciting “violent resistance” against the destruction of a church.
As soon as Christians in this capital city of Nasarawa state tried to rebuild a Reformed Church building that Muslims burned down two years ago, more than 200 Islamists attacked the workers.
At least nine Christians remained in police custody in China’s Henan province on Monday, January 15, more than a week after Chinese security forces raided a Christian gathering, fellow believers said.
Seven youths beat Pastor Robert Kennedy of Bangalore in Karnataka state on Sunday (January 7), after asking him to “pray for a sick friend.†The pastor required 16 stitches to his head and back after the assault.
Missionaries and church leaders warned Thursday, August 11, that Russia’s new law on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) could lead to persecution of devoted Christians “reminiscent of the Soviet era.”
A 200-strong mob prevented a church here from holding a Christmas Eve service in what was an otherwise peaceful holiday season in Indonesia. Some Muslim groups even provided protection for churches alongside police and army personnel.
Sudanese police have denied attacking 800 Christians at a New Year’s Eve service at Khartoum’s Anglican cathedral and injuring six members of the congregation, the church priest said.
Pastors and other believers were recovering from injuries or struggling to rebuild burnt down churches in several areas of India Wednesday, January 10, after militants reportedly attacked them.
A leading Vietnamese human rights lawyer and pro-democracy activist has been forcefully injected with unknown drugs in a mental hospital where she has been confined since last year, fellow dissidents said Tuesday, January 9.
After launching several anti-Christian attacks during the last week of 2006, Hindu extremists went on to beat more Christians, vandalize vehicles and organize a protest rally against a church, dampening New Year celebrations.
Vietnamese security forces raided several prayer meetings of Montagnard Christians in the Central Highlands injuring dozens of believers, and at least one Montagnard Christian was fighting for his life Friday, January 5, following torture in prison, representatives said.
One of eight Iranian house church leaders arrested last month for “evangelization” and threatening security remained detained Thursday, January 4, on new charges that he must pay “an outstanding debt,” Iranian Christians reportedly said.
Iraq was named Wednesday, January 3, as the world’s “second-worst persecutor of Christians” after North Korea in an influential report expected to underscore concern about sectarian violence in the war-torn county.
There was concern Wednesday, January 3, about reports that at least nearly a million impoverished men, women and children, most of them Christians, have been “illegally enslaved” on the outskirts of Pakistan’s major cities and towns.
Devoted Christians in India’s northern state of Himachal Pradesh, including missionary workers and church leaders, ushered in the New Year Monday, January 1, amid fears of persecution after law makers introduced legislation banning “forced” religious conversions.