China’s government has issued a secret directive to dismantle at least six major house churches in and outside the capital Beijing ahead of the upcoming 60th anniversary of Communist rule in the country, according to Christian right investigators.
A Pakistani Christian teenager was behind bars Wednesday, August 26, after being beaten on “false” charges of “blasphemy” and several Muslims have demanded a death sentence for him, his family and supporters, rights investigators said.
Indian Christians and churches prepared to fast and pray this weekend for peace, a year after anti-Christian violence killed over 100 people in India’s troubled state of Orissa and left tens of thousands displaced.
Some 2,000 Christians in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, many of whom were evicted from their homes, face the prospect of “dying from dehydration, infection or the cumulative effects of poverty” Christian aid workers told Worthy News Thursday, August 20.
Two members of the Laojie Christian Church in the village of Sangdong in China’s Henan province have been detained, just days after authorities officially banned their church for a second time, Worthy News learned Tuesday, August 18.
Christians in Vietnam anticipated more raids on house churches Saturday, August 8, after a police crackdown on several congregations in recent weeks.
Police in a slum area of northeastern Pakistan “tortured” a Christian man to death on trumped up charges of bootlegging, his family said Thursday, August 6.
An international Christian advocacy group welcomed Wednesday, August 5, North Korea’s decision to release American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling but warned that at least 200,000 religious and political prisoners remain behind bars in labor camps across the isolated Communist nation, where executions of inmates continue.
Christians across Pakistan closed their schools Monday, August 3, to mourn the killings of at least eight fellow believers in troubled Punjab province, as the Vatican condemned what was the second incident of violence against Christians in a week.
A prominent Mennonite pastor and religious rights advocate has escaped from his besieged home in central Vietnam after “several months of police encirclement” to seek “help, food and medication” for his children and frail wife, who has been abused by police, dissidents said in messages obtained by BosNewsLife Monday, July 20.
Dozens of Christian families in a village in Laos have been warned they will lose their homes and remaining live stock unless they abandon Christianity and start worshiping “local spirits” in accordance with Lao traditions, rights investigators said Thursday, July 16.
Muslims have protested the construction of a Protestant church in the capital of Indonesia’s South Sumatra Province, the latest in a series of obstacles against church projects in the mainly Muslim nation, news reports said Wednesday July 15.
Several impoverished Christian families in a rural area of Laos were without livestock Sunday, July 12, after authorities slaughtered the animals because they refused to renounce their faith, religious rights investigators said.
Staff of a missionary school in India’s eastern state of Andhra Pradesh faced another day of anxiety Thursday, July 8, after Hindu militants attacked and threatened to kill them for allegedly converting Hindus to Christianity, Christians said.
Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti said Sunday, July 5, he has “successfully reconciled’” Muslims and Christians in a tense village in Punjab province where over a dozen people were injured when angry mobs torched at least 100 Christian homes and churches this week.
Christian families in a volatile area of Pakistan’s Punjab province were in hiding Saturday, July 4, after angry Muslim mobs burned and attacked hundreds of Christian homes and churches, injuring over a dozen people, including women and children, witnesses said.
At least 13 people, including women and children, were injured Wednesday, July 1, when local Muslims set on fire some 100 Christian homes and churches east of the Pakistani city of Lahore, Christian rights investigators said.
Two Pakistani Christians remained detained Thursday, June 25, on false charges of “blasphemy” and “robbery”, advocacy groups said.
News that China released a Christian woman after serving over two and a half years in prison for protesting the destruction of a mega-church has been overshadowed by the ongoing detention of Christians in a similar case, Chinese Christians and rights investigators said Wednesday, June 24.
Several Protestant Christians in Vietnam, including Degar-Montagnards, were uncertain Monday, June 22, where to worship as government forces raided and destroyed churches in recent weeks, church sources and rights investigators said.