As Israel’s offensive against militants of the Hamas group in the Gaza Strip continued Tuesday, January 6, around the world Arabic leaders, Palestinians and their supporters continued to pressure the Jewish state to end the operation.
More than half of the United States’ Lutheran bishops were on their way to Israel Monday, January 5, amid international concerns that an Israeli offensive against the militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip would lead to more suffering of civilians, including the territory’s Christian minority.
A tense calm returned Sunday, January 4, to Kosovo’s second largest and most ethnically divided town of Mitrovica, following clashes between Serbs and ethnic Albanians in which at least six people were injured.
Alarm bells echo around the world as Israel continues a major ground offensive it says is aimed at ending rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip fired by the militant group Hamas into Israel. Envoys of the European Union, including Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenburg along with the EU’s external relations commissioner and Schwarzenburg’s French and Swedish counterparts were due to hold talks in the region Monday, January 5.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon tried to bring an immediate end to Israel’s ground war in the Gaza Strip by backing a resolution to the Security Council that was drafted by Libya and put forward by the Arab League, calling for an immediate ceasefire.
The European Union was to hold a special meeting Monday, January 5, to discuss a major energy crisis, after Russia accused Ukraine of stealing natural gas destined for Europe.
On Saturday, January 3, Israel launched a ground assault against Gaza on what was the eighth day of its aerial assaults against the seaside strip of desert. Israel’s stated objective for the ground confrontation is to end all rocket attacks. The immediate objective of the ground operations, according to Major Avital Leibovitch, a military spokeswoman, “is to destroy the Hamas terror infrastructure in the area of operations.”
A major Christian rights group warned Tuesday, December 23, that many churches in the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan in 2009, if a new draft law requiring them to re-register under restrictive conditions is adopted by parliament.
Several churches in Eritrea were without their leaders or other believers Sunday, December 21, as a government-backed campaign of mass arrests reached the capital Asmara amid fears several detainees died of mistreatment, Christians said.
Fearing violence, many Christians in India’s volatile state of Orissa will for the first time in their history not celebrate Christmas but instead mourn victims of recent anti-Christian attacks, which killed dozens, and those who died in shootings in Mumbai, a priest told BosNewsLife, Saturday, December 13.
Christians in Orissa state are anticipating Christmas with fear as Hindu extremists have called for a state-wide bandh, or forced shut-down on all sectors of society, on Dec. 25 – a move that could provide Hindu extremists the pretext for attacking anyone publicly celebrating the birth of Christ.
Eritrean authorities confiscated and burned 1,500 Bibles from new high school students who arrived at country’s main military training city, and detained eight students who protested the destruction of the books, Christians said Wednesday, October 15.
New clashes between Hindus and Christians in India’s eastern state of Orissa has left at least one woman dead and more than a dozen people injured, some critically, police said Tuesday, September 30.
Belarus has banned a Christian music festival, initiated by Catholics, minutes before it was due to begin, a religious rights group said Thursday, September 25.
Several Baptist Churches in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan continue have been raided by police because they refuse state registration on principal grounds, BosNewsLife learned Monday, September 15.
The Iranian Parliament voted on Tuesday in favour of a bill stipulating the death penalty for apostasy. The bill was approved by 196 votes for, seven against, and two abstentions.
A Pakistani court has granted custody of a 13-year-old Christian girl to the Muslim man accused of abducting her, observers of the controversial case confirmed Wednesday, September 10.
Two Iranian Christians from Muslim backgrounds may receive the death penalty on charges of apostasy, according to prosecution documents published Tuesday, September 9.
Anti-Christian extremists brutally attacked Rasul Sarvak, a Bible college student, and seven Gospel for Asia missionaries on India’s Independence Day, August 15. The mob became enraged after they saw Rasul passing out Gospel literature with a team of other students from the college.
Vietnamese security forces reportedly murdered two Degar Montagnard Christian men in the Central Highlands after they returned from a protest against the detention of fellow believers, BosNewsLife monitored Monday, August 4.