Caught amid the infighting between Hamas and Fatah and Israel’s retaliation for rockets launched at its southern cities is an easily overlooked segment of the population: Christians number only 2,000 among 1.5 million in the Gaza Strip — less than 1 percent of the population.
Tensions remained high Wednesday, September 19, in an area of the Indonesian city of Tangerand on the island of Java, after several Christians were injured when a congregation of the Protestant Batak Church was attacked by an angry Muslim mob, investigators said.
An elderly jailed house church activist remained in “life danger” Saturday, August 18, as her health rapidly deteriorates because of abuses in prison, her family said.
It is Easter 2007, a day when the world is celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. They came from near and far throughout Central and Midwestern Nepal, the throng of masses converging and marching through the center of the crown city of Pokhara, at the foot of the Annapurna mountain range. No, this is not another Communist Maoist rally that we see so often these days, but it is a rally of men and women, boys and girls joyfully lifting up the banner of Jesus Christ, their Lord and King! Jesus said, “If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me!†Today Jesus is being lifted up in major cities in Nepal.
Amid international pressure Chinese security forces have returned confiscated items to two house churches in the city of Kunshan in China’s Jiangsu province, BosNewsLife established Saturday, May 12.
Christians in northwest Pakistan on Sunday, May 13, worshiped amid heightened tensions after they received threatening letters warning them to shut their churches and convert to Islam within the next few days as anti-Christian violence spreads across Pakistan, officials confirmed to BosNewsLife.
A Pentecostal Christian in Uzbekistan faced a difficult Sunday, May 13, after receiving a two-year suspended prison sentence in Nukus, the capital of the Karakalpakstan autonomous republic in north-western Uzbekistan, on charges of teaching religion illegally, human rights watchers and local Christians confirmed.
Chinese Christians are suing authorities to regain items confiscated during a recent police raid on their congregation in China’s Jiangsu Province amid reports of an ongoing police crackdown on unregistered house churches, religious rights investigators said Wednesday, May 9.
A Degar Montagnard who worshipped in a house church in Vietnam’s Central Highlands was free Monday, May 7, after weeks of imprisonment and torture in March and April, fellow believers said.
Several arrested missionaries and church leaders were recovering from injuries in Western India late Tuesday, May 8, after they were attacked by Hindu militants and dragged to local police, the latest in a series of violent incidents against Indian Christians.
There was international concern late Friday, May 4, about the plight of a key Christian leader and about 80 other evangelicals, including foreign nationals, who were reportedly detained in Eritrea’s capital Asmara where government security forces raided the Presbyterian Mehret Yesus Church.
A Christian woman accused of blasphemy against Islam has been released on bail but concerns remain over her safety amid death threats, a human rights official involved in the trial confirmed to BosNewsLife Friday, May 4.
The whereabouts of several predominantly Christian Karenni villagers in Burma were unknown Saturday, May 5, after government backed forces reportedly executed a humanitarian aid worker in Burma’s Karenni State.
A tense calm returned to a small town in the southern Indian state of Karnataka after at least six people were injured Sunday, May 6, when suspected Hindu militants demanding the closure of a new church attacked evangelical Christians following a worship service, investigators told BosNewsLife.
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.
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.
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.
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.