ZAMBOANGA CITY, PHILIPPINES (ANS) – The Philippines military has theorized that the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf, which is holding American missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham of Kansas City, has opened its communication lines with officials of the White House in the United States to negotiate for the safe release of the Burnhams.
ISTANBUL, September 27 (Compass) — The Taliban Supreme Court announced it will resume trial proceedings on Saturday against eight Western aid workers who have been jailed in the Afghan capital for the past two months on charges of preaching Christianity.
KABUL/ISLAMABAD (ANS) — The trial of eight Western aid workers accused of spreading Christianity in mainly Moslim Afghanistan resumed in the Afghan Capital Kabul Sunday, September 30, as family members pleaded to United States President George W. Bush to postpone retaliatory action against the country.
KABUL/BUDAPEST (ANS)– There were new fears Thursday that 16 Afghan and eight foreign workers of the German based Christian relief agency Shelter Now International (SNI) may be executed, as the country’s Islamic rulers prepared to arrest more Christians, including children.
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (ANS)– Parents of two American women have seen their daughters for the first time since they and 22 other aid workers were arrested August 5th on charges of spreading Christianity in Islamic Afghanistan. The Bakhtar News Agency (BNA) described the visit as an “emotional reunion” between the mother of Dana Curry, and the father of the other woman, Heather Mercy.
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (ANS) — More than 50 foreign staff members of the US based Christian aid organizations International Assistance Mission (IAM) and Serve began leaving Afghanistan Saturday, September 1, after the Islamic Taliban regime closed their offices Friday.
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (ANS) — Afghanistan’s Islamic Taliban regime threatened Wednesday, September 5, to execute eight foreign Christian relief workers, as Western diplomats and relatives desperately tried to meet them.
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (ANS) — The Foreign Minister of Afghanistan’s Islamic Taliban regime denied Thursday, September 6, that his hard-line movement was considering a prisoner swap with the United States to free eight detained Western Christian relief workers. Reports from the region said that relatives of blind Egyptian militant Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, currently serving a life term in the United States for terrorism, proposed the prison exchange.
ISTANBUL, September 10 (Compass) — Taliban authorities arrested 35 more Afghan aid workers over the weekend, bringing the total to more than 50 Afghans jailed by the strict Islamist regime since early August on suspicion of aiding covert Christian missionary work.
JANUARY
Taliban leader Mohammed Omar declares on Radio Shariat that any Afghan caught professing Christianity or Judaism would be executed, and that any non-Muslim found “trying to win converts” would also be killed.
In recent weeks, unknown assailants have targeted Christian churches in Indonesia with attempted bombings and bomb threats.
Authorities in Vietnam’s Kontum province have found a way to add cruel symbolism to their unwarranted persecution of Christians.
More than four years after the tragic murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, prime suspect Dara Singh and 12 others were convicted of the killings today by the district and sessions judge of Orissa state, India.
Nagaland, one of the world’s most mysterious lands tucked in the mountainous, jungle covered northeastern corner of India near the Burmese border, has 10,000 missionaries poised to take the Gospel to nearby lands.
Christians belonging to a small house church in northern Nepal were attacked by Buddhist and Hindu villagers on July 26, resulting in hospitalization for at least one church member. The mob attacked and destroyed houses and cornfields belonging to Christian villagers.
A group of 12 Christians in Laos are under extreme pressure to abandon their faith while being held in prison, according to a report from Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).
A Gospel for Asia church of 51 believers in Jharkhand, India, is under attack as anti-Christian leaders meet to decide its fate.
A High Court has upheld the decision of a lower court to sentence two Pakistani Christians to life imprisonment for allegedly burning a Qur’an.
Following last October’s bombing of a Bali nightclub, Christians and churches have made an effort to unite in their response to the tragedy.
HO CHI MINH CITY, March 19 (Compass) — In what may be a small breakthrough for religious liberty, Vietnam’s religion authorities invited five leaders of Protestant house church organizations and non-denominational missions to Hanoi for “informal talks†in early March.