World News

Hungary’s outgoing Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai has condemned his country’s political climate ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections Sunday, April 11, as opinion polls show a far right political party will receive many votes. There is also international concern about the favorite to win the ballot, the main center right opposition party Fidesz, after its leader criticized a European Union deal on foreign landownership.

Serbia’s parliament has apologized for the massacre of 8,000 Muslims by Bosnian-Serb forces in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in 1995. But, the declaration does not directly call the crime “genocide”, as survivors had demanded.

At least 37 people died when two female suicide bombers attacked two different locations at Moscow’s underground metro system, including near the Kremlin, Russian officials and witnesses said Monday, March 29.

Somalia’s feared Islamic militant group al-Shabab has warned Christians and other residents that it will crackdown on “non-Islamic culture” across the country, after its fighters reportedly killed another Christian leader and destroyed a tomb of a apparently moderate Muslim cleric.

Hundreds of people attended the funeral Wednesday, March 24, of a young Christian man who was allegedly burned by Muslim extremists and police officers for refusing to convert to Islam.

Christian rights activists on Wednesday, March 16, welcomed the early release by Vietnam of a prominent Catholic priest from prison after he served just three of an-eight year sentence, but they expressed concerns over his health.

The opposition in Georgia has condemned a fake television report about the invasion of the former Soviet Republic by forces from neighboring Russia. Georgia President Mikheil Saakhasvili has defended the report, following widespread panic caused by the broadcast.

The US-based Christian charity World Vision said Wednesday, March 10, it has suspended operations in Pakistan after militants stormed its offices, killing six staff members and injuring several others.

Hungary’s President László Sólyom signed a law Wednesday, March 10, making denial, or playing down, of the Holocaust a criminal offense punishable by up to three years imprisonment.

A funeral service was underway Wednesday, March 10, for a former Hungarian chief rabbi who was persecuted under Communism because of his involvement in spreading the Jewish faith,the Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary (MAZSIHISZ) confirmed.

A small Christian party which made world headlines with protests against local government support for a Hindu religious festival has been re-elected in the municipal council of Amstelveen, a strategic town near the Dutch capital Amsterdam, local election results showed Wednesday, March 3.

The Dutch coalition government has collapsed amid a political row over whether to extend the country’s military mission in Afghanistan. Christian Democratic Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende was due to submit his government’s resignation to Queen Beatrix later Saturday, leaving the future of its 1,600 soldiers stationed there uncertain.

Ukrainian election officials say they will not consider Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s complaints of presidential election fraud. Results show opposition leader Victor Yanukovich defeated Tymoshenko by 3.5 percentage points in the February 7 runoff election.

About 1,000 people, many of them elderly Holocaust survivors, braved winter temperatures Saturday, February 13, to express concern about the rising far right groups in Hungary.

Twin bombings apparently targeting Shiite Muslims in Pakistan’s financial capital Karachi also killed at least five members of a Christian family, including a pregnant woman, Worthy News established Wednesday, February 10.

Amid international pressure, North Korea released an American missionary Saturday, February 6, and sent him to China after holding him for more than a month, officials confirmed.

A Chinese Christian human rights lawyer was missing for 363 days Tuesday, February 2, but an advocacy group said it now believes he is still alive.

Glenn Penner, who became a key voice for persecuted Christians as leader of advocacy group The Voice of the Martyrs Canada (VOMC) has died after losing his battle with cancer, officials said. He was 48.

Influential Catholic bishops have urged Filipinos to vote in upcoming May elections with their conscience and not be “swayed” by opinion polls, after the worst act of political violence in the Asian nation’s history killed dozens of people.

Amid destroyed churches and the stench of human death, native Christians prayed for Haiti Sunday, January 24, and one believer said it was a miracle he had been found alive a full 11 days after the magnitude 7.0 earth quake shook his nation.