14 March 2000 (Newsroom) -- Chinese house church leader Li Dexian was detained by police on Tuesday morning and released the same evening without harm. The Protestant evangelist was arrested by Public Security Bureau officers at his weekly 10 a.m. Bible study in Huadu near Guangzhou for the 11th time since October, a source in Hong Kong told Newsroom.
KADUNA, Nigeria, 13 March 2000 (Newsroom) -- About 300 Christians of the Kabe ethnic group in the city of Kaduna were abducted and forced to renounce their faith by their Muslim captors during religious clashes in the state last month, according to a human rights group.
Baptists in Turkmenistan fear that national security police are following through with a two-phase plan to deport missionaries and "strangle the remaining Christians in the country," the Keston News Service reported. Church members claim that officers of the KNB (formerly KGB) issued that threat following a raid on a church in the capital Ashgabad last year.
About 300 Christians of the Kabe ethnic group in the city of Kaduna were abducted and forced to renounce their faith by their Muslim captors during religious clashes in the state last month, according to a human rights group.
A Baptist leader who had been held in prison by Turkmenistan's secret police (KNB) since February 2 was deported from the Central Asian state yesterday.
Two Turkish Christians arrested March 1 while selling and distributing Christian literature near the southern port city of Izmir were refused bail today, pending a court hearing scheduled for March 30.
KADUNA, NIGERIA (March 8, 2000) (Assist Communications) -- An Open Doors co-worker has provided a harrowing eyewitness report from violence-torn Kaduna, Nigeria, following a recent clash between Christians and Muslims. The fierce fighting resulted in more than 300 deaths as Muslim youths attacked Christians protesting the adoption of Sharia (Islamic law) in the state.
A Christian Uzbek pastor jailed since February 1999 on contrived fraud charges is being subjected to physical beatings for witnessing to his cellmates, church sources in the Central Asian republic reported in early March.
29 February 2000 (Newsroom) -- Turkmen authorities raided a Protestant house-church meeting on February 23 in Bezmein near the capital Ashgabad, according to the Keston News Service.
KADUNA, Nigeria, 22 February 2000 (Newsroom) – The Nigerian government dispatched soldiers early Tuesday to help state police quell riots between Christians and Muslims over the proposed implementation of Islamic law. More than 20 people have been reported killed since Monday morning.
22 February 2000 (Newsroom) -- After a respite of one month, Chinese house church leader Li Dexian was detained by police on Tuesday for the 10th time since October. Public Security Bureau officers arrested the 45-year-old Protestant evangelist as he led his weekly 10 a.m. Bible study in Huadu, west of Guangzhou, a source in Hong Kong told Newsroom.
Dozens of people -- including a Baptist seminary student -- were killed when riots between Christians and Muslims broke out Feb. 21 in Kaduna, Nigeria.
After a respite of one month, Chinese house church leader Li Dexian was detained by police on Tuesday for the 10th time since October. Public Security Bureau officers arrested the 45-year-old Protestant evangelist as he led his weekly 10 a.m. Bible study in Huadu, west of Guangzhou, a source in Hong Kong told Newsroom.
21 February 2000 (Newsroom) -- Vietnamese Communist authorities are negotiating with Protestant church leaders to normalize relations, reports the World Evangelical Fellowship (WEF). If successful, the talks could pave the way for recognition of house churches that existed before the Communists took control in 1975, according to some Protestant leaders.
Pastor Li De Xian preached twice this week in his usual Tuesday meeting in Huadu near Guangzhou, China without interference from Chinese authorities. This marks four consecutive weeks without arrest or interference for Pastor Li's ministry.
The sentencing of six Protestant house church leaders to hard labor last December and the arrest of six more leaders of the Roman Catholic underground church are but "the tip of the iceberg" of religious oppression, according to five prominent house church leaders inside China, contacted by Compass in January.