The leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI, has appealed to Iraqi authorities to defend minority Christians, after police confirmed that the Christian owner of a car repair shop was killed, execution-style, in Mosul.
Five Pakistani Christians who were detained and charged with “blasphemy” against Islam during April 2007 spend their first weekend in freedom Sunday, January 25, after they were freed from prison, but the news was overshadowed by reports of violence against believers, in which at two persons died.
There was renewed concern Friday, January 23, over the situation of Christians in India as several remained detained on charges of “forcible conversion” and others recovered from injuries after Hindu militants attacked homes and prayer services, Christian rights investigators said.
At least two detained Christians have died this month in Eritrea after a “long period of torture” in a notorious military prison camp, while the number of Christians jailed in the African nation because of their faith approaches 3,000, a well-informed Christian rights group said Wednesday, January 21.
Major fighting continued Tuesday, January 20, between Sri Lanka’s navy and independence seeking Tamil rebels, adding to concerns among minority Christians who fear renewed persecution by authorities, officials and rights investigators said.
A well-known Christian human rights activist is in life danger after spending over fours in a Chinese prison where he has been denied necessary medical treatment , his family and supporters said in statements monitored by Worthy News Monday, January 19.
Muslims in a village in western Bangladesh have reportedly forced two brothers to expel their parents from their home for converting to Christianity, Worthy News learned Monday, January 19.
An Egyptian convert to Christianity was looking forward Monday, January 19, to be recognized as a Christian by the state, after spending 31 years officially identified as a Muslim, but another convert was so far refused such an opportunity Christians said.
Two Christian teenage girls were free Saturday, January 17, as they were rescued after being kidnapped, sold to other men as sex slaves, and forced into Islam by two radical Muslims, Christian rights investigators said.
Chinese security forces expelled well-known evangelist and leader of China’s growing house church movement, Pastor ‘Bike’ Zhang Mingxuan, from the capital Beijing Friday, January 16, while he was praying for a dying Christian man, a well-informed advocacy group told Worthy News.
A Christian missionary remained detained in India Tuesday, January 13, more than a week after he was detained in the state of Madhya Pradesh for allegedly forcing people to convert to Christianity, his organization said.
A British missionary couple sentenced to one year jail terms with hard labor for “sedition” in The Gambia, has “apologized” to the government of President Yahya Jammeh and asked him for clemency through a letter read on national television.
Villagers of the mainly Christian Karen minority in Burma on Monday, January 5, were mourning the death of a seven-year old girl who was raped and murdered by at least one government soldier, the latest in a series of sexual abuses of minorities in the country, investigators said.
Minority Christians and other non-Muslims faced potential persecution Tuesday, December 30, as militants linked to Taliban and Al-Qaeda groups imposed Shariah, or Islamic law, in the Orakzai Agency tribal region of the restive Pakistani North West Frontier Province (NWFP), officials told BosNewsLife.
In a unprecedented move, a Chinese court has agreed to hear a case filed by a pastor against government officials who prohibited worship services in his house church, observers familiar with the trial said Wednesday, December 31.
Several Christian volunteers and survivors of China’s worst earthquake in a generation remained missing Sunday, December 28, after Christmas Eve police raids on homes under construction in the devastated Sichuan province amid anger among authorities over the involvement of churches in relief efforts, an advocacy group said.
A prominent evangelical church leader in Cuba will be put on trial next week and is facing a one-year prison sentence as part of what his supporters call “a government campaign to silence and discredit him,” because of his refusal to work with the state-backed church organization, a Christian advocacy group confirmed Saturday, December 27.
A Pakistani Christian boy’s quarrel with a Muslim policeman’s son has led to his father’s imprisonment, torture, paralysis, and five-year prison sentence.
In a good turn of events, two Chinese pastors Wang Weiliang and Zhu Baoguo will be spending this year’s Christmas at home after their miraculous release from jail by the authorities in China for medical reasons.
Christians in several parts of China were behind bars on Christmas Day after a police crackdown on worship services and Bible study, a Christian advocacy group said Thursday, December 25.