The latest annual report by the independent United States Commission on International Religious Freedom names 13 countries as serious violators of religious freedom, Worthy News monitored Saturday, May 2, with reporting by the Voice of America network (VOA).
Former leaders of Britain’s three main political parties have urged the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to make the release of Burma’s 2,100 political prisoners, including Christians, his personal priority, Worthy News monitored Friday, May 1.
Churches around the world were to participate in the International Day of Prayer for North Korea Monday, April 27, shortly after two American Christian bands received awards for their performance in the isolated nation, organizers said.
Christians have set up an underground church in Mecca, viewed by Muslims as the “holiest city in Islam”, while tens of thousands of other Saudi Christians are worshiping via the Internet, a mission group confirmed Friday, April 24.
A well known American scholar who converted from Islam to Christianity has interrupted his tour in the Netherlands because of death threats, an organizer said Wednesday, April 22.
Two Christian brothers accused of “blasphemy” against Islam in Pakistan were free Wednesday, April 22, after they were unexpectedly released from prison, but concerns remained over their future, Pakistani Christians and rights activists said.
By Worthy News Asia Service
NEW DELHI, INDIA (Worthy News)– A pastor in India’s Karimnagar district of Andhra Pradesh state remained detained Wednesday, April 15, for his alleged involvement in “conversion activities”, Christians said.
Romania is denying Moldovan accusations that it was involved in violent anti-government protests in Moldova, which left at least one woman dead and injured some 100 others. The denial came after Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin ordered the expulsion of Romania’s ambassador and the introduction of visa requirements for Moldova’s Western neighbor.
The leader of the 250,000 member Chinese House Church Alliance was free Tuesday, April 7, after he was apparently briefly detained in Beijing by over a dozen police officers and “threatened with death”, following a baptism service.
A gunman opened fire at an immigration center in Binghamton, in the northeastern state of New York, Friday, April 3, killing at least 13 people before killing himself, US officials said. The shootings apparently happened after he took at least 20 people as hostages.
An impoverished father was no longer expecting justice Thursday, April 2, over a month after his Christian son was killed in Pakistan’s troubled Pubjab province for “refusing to convert to Islam”, the latest in a series ofanti-Christian incidents in the region.
There was international concern Thursday, April 2, about the health of a detained Chinese Uyghur Christian leader and the disappearance of a key Christian human rights lawyer who local Christians and rights groups say has been kidnapped by Chinese security forces.
The lawyer of two Turkish Christians on trial for “insulting Turkishness” plans to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights after they were fined for taking “illegal” church offerings, trial observers said in comments monitored by Worthy News Saturday March 28.
Bulgaria’s government is planning to appeal a ruling of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which found Bulgaria guilty of violating religious rights of over 100 Bulgarian Orthodox priests, bishops and lay-workers, who were violently thrown out of their churches, Worthy News learned Monday, March 23.
Macedonia held presidential and local elections Sunday, March 22, seen as vital to the country’s plans to join the European Union and NATO.
Chaplains working at a hospice home in the U.S. state of Florida are no longer allowed to say “God”in inspirational messages to staff members, as part of a wider trend in the United States, Worthy News learned Saturday, March 21.
The daughter of a detained prominent Burmese dissident fears her father will die in prison.
A man protesting conversions to Christianity went on a shooting spree and exploded a crude bomb in an evangelical church in India’s eastern state of Bihar, seriously injuring the pastor and several worshipers, representatives confirmed Tuesday, March 10.
A former Muslim who converted to Christianity in Egypt was in hiding Sunday, March 8, after Islamic lawyers demanded that he be executed on charges of “apostasy,” Egyptian Christians and rights investigators monitoring the trial said.
Sixteen members of the United States Congress have urged U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to discuss human rights with her Chinese counterpart, amid fresh reports that Chinese house church Christians and pro-democracy activists were harassed during her recent visit to China.