There was international concern Monday, May 31, that the widow of a murdered Vietnamese Christian will be forced to give up her children to the Communist-run state, rights activists said.
Official results from the Czech Republic’s general election indicate a left-leaning Social Democrats party narrowly won the country’s general election. The Social Democrats received less votes than expected, prompting its leader to resign. Analysts say that despite the victory, the country appears headed to a center right government.
Voters in the Czech Republic are choosing a new government amid concerns about the country’s economic crisis and widespread corruption. Some surveys indicate none of the main parties will have a majority in the lower house of parliament. For the first time in two decades the Communist Party is expected to play a role in the general elections.
An evangelist and co-workers were recovering Friday, May 28, after Hindu militants attacked them in India’s southern state of Karnataka, Christians said.
A month after Ukraine’s parliament ratified an agreement with Russia to extend the lease of the Black Sea fleet there is concern about the country’s future. Residents in Western Ukraine fear the move is the beginning of more Russian control over their country, which became independent following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
Hungary’s new parliament has adopted a controversial law that will grant citizenship to ethnic Hungarians living in neighboring nations nearly nine decades after the country lost two-thirds of its territory. The law came Wednesday, May 26, despite a major diplomatic row with neighboring Slovakia immediately retaliated with legislation banning double citizenship.
Somalia’s minority Christians observed Pentecost amid gunfire Sunday, May 23, as witnesses reported that at least 14 people died in clashes between pro-government troops and Muslim militants who have killed Christians and pledged to turn Somalia into a strict Islamic state.
Iran has acquitted “on all charges” two young women who were detained fourteen months ago “for their Christian faith and activities” and abandoning Islam, Iranian church officials confirmed Sunday, May 23.
Morocco has expelled 100 foreign Christians since March because they allegedly tried to convert Muslims, the harshest crackdown in decades, Worthy News learned Saturday, May 22.
Muslim extremists destroyed several churches and a pastor’s house in the latest religious violence to hit Nigeria’s northern Kano state, church representatives and rights activists said Friday, May 21.
A U.S. based mission group said Thursday, May 20, that its employees in Thailand have taken “increased precautions” as anti-government violence in Bangkok has spread to areas where missionaries work.
An assistant pastor and two other members of one of Uzbekistan capital’s largest Protestant churches began serving 15-day jail terms Wednesday, May 19, on charges that included “violating” strict religious regulations of the former Soviet nation, trial observers said.
Saudi Arabia’s security forces freed two German Christian girls kidnapped nearly a year ago in neighboring Yemen but the fate of their abducted parents, their infant brother and a British engineer remained unknown, officials and Christians said Tuesday, May 18.
A heavy rainstorm overshadowing his concert in downtown Budapest didn’t bother the young Roma singer and special ambassador of the European Union. Ferenc “Caramel” Molnar, seemed more concerned about clouds hanging over the future of fellow Gypsies, also known as Roma. They are suffering of a new wave of fire bombings, following attacks that killed nine people, the rise of the far right and poverty.
Christian leaders were preparing to hold a memorial service later Sunday, May 16, in the Boynton Beach are of the U.S. state of Florida to honor two street evangelists who were murdered there earlier this year.
Officials in Serbia say they have uncovered a mass grave containing the bodies of hundreds of ethic Albanians who were killed during the war of the 1990s in nearby Kosovo. It is one of the largest mass graves discovered in Serbia since 2001.
Three Christian workers were detained and “tortured” by police and dismissed from their jobs in Pakistan’s Punjab province for wearing a crucifix and church visits on Sundays, according to statements from the men, their priest and family members Wednesday, May 12. Local police said the Christians were taken into custody because of suspected “alcohol” related offenses.
An impoverished Pakistani Christian has been forced to sell his kidney to pay off a loan he took from his Muslim boss to finance his daughter’s education, the father and Christians said Tuesday, May 11.
Indian Christians have held a prayer meeting in remembrance of a murdered pastor and other attacks against the Christian minority in India’s Madhya Pradesh state.
A young Christian woman has died in one of Eritrea’s military prison camps after she was reportedly denied medical treatment for malaria and severe anemia.