Two Degar Montagnard Christians have been detained and tortured in Vietnam’s Central Highlands after security forces discovered they had been collecting names of the most impoverished people apparently to better target aid, fellow believers told BosNewsLife Thursday, May 3.
Chinese authorities have released four American Christian workers and their interpreter from detention amid international pressure, but at least six other Chinese pastors arrested with them remained behind bars Thursday, May 3, BosNewsLife monitored.
Authorities in Uzbekistan have forced evangelical Pastor Dmitri (David) Shestakov to withdraw an appeal against his sentence to four years labor camp, Protestant and other sources following the case said Thursday, May 3.
An Egyptian and three Sudanese Christians were killed last week when their truck came under gunfire after holding an evangelistic meeting in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains region.
There was increased concern Wednesday, May 2, about the plight of Christian Dalits after India’s Supreme Court again postponed action in a landmark equal rights case, Christian rights workers said.
A court in Uzbekistan on Tuesday, May 1, began hearing evangelical Pastor Dmitri (David) Shestakov’s appeal against his sentence to four-years in one of Uzbekistan’s open labor camps on controversial “religious extremism charges,” Christians close to the case said.
Evangelical Christians in Cameroon faced an uncertain future Sunday, April 29, amid fresh reports that local authorities are seeking to control the “surging numbers” of Pentecostal churches in Western African nation.
Dozens of Hindu militants on Sunday, April 29, nearly killed an independent pastor in Jaipur, the capital of India’s western Rajasthan state, while his small ill daughter watched the attack, a senior human rights investigator told BosNewsLife.
One of India’s main advocacy organizations representing churches and mission groups expressed shock Saturday, April 28, that the Hindu-led government of Andhra Pradesh “banned Christianity” in several parts of the volatile state.
Turkish police reportedly released an American Christian from prison late Friday, April 27, after he and three other evangelists were detained in Istanbul this week for charges that included “missionary activity” and “insulting Islam.”
An evangelical pastor remained detained in Uzbekistan Friday, April 27, after he was reportedly arrested in Muynak a city in Uzbekistan’s troubled region of Karakalpakstan, while an activist was sentenced to six years in jail.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT, READERS’ DISCRETION ADVISED
There was increased concern Thursday, April 26, about the plight of active Christians in Turkey after investigators revealed that three evangelical believers were “satanically tortured” last week before being killed.
Hindu extremists in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh have raised the incidence of attacks on believers to an unprecedented high, including a slander campaign against the state’s chief minister, Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, a Christian.
Four Americans and nearly two dozen Chinese house church leaders were believed to be in detention Wednesday, April 25, after they were reportedly arrested last week following a Christian worship service in China’s Xinjiang province.
Local political bosses who had voted to expel 65 Christians from a small town near here grudgingly signed an agreement yesterday to let the evangelicals stay in their homes.
An influential Christian politician was in hiding in Vietnam Tuesday, April 24, after being harassed by Vietnamese security forces who also attacked other dissidents planning to meet US officials, a leading human rights activist confirmed to BosNewsLife.
Christians in Nigeria were on high alert Monday, April 23, as election officials confirmed that the outgoing Christian president of Nigeria will be succeeded by a controversial Muslim candidate following Saturday’s election.
On Monday (April 23), small town political bosses near this city in Chiapas state are set to meet with representatives of 65 Christians they have threatened to expel in a showdown that could influence religious rights throughout the region.
A 12 years old Christian girl, Shaheena Masih was kidnapped and gang raped by four Muslim men on Easter day at Lahore in the Province of Punjab.
In a gruesome assault against Turkey’s tiny Christian community, five young Muslim Turks entered a Christian publishing office in the southeastern province of Malatya yesterday (April 18) and slit the throats of the three Protestant Christians present.