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.
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.
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.
Dozens of Hindu militants on Sunday, April 29, nearly killed an independent pastor in Jaipur, the capital of India’s western Rajasthan state, while his small ill daughter watched the attack, a senior human rights investigator told BosNewsLife.
An evangelical pastor remained detained in Uzbekistan Friday, April 27, after he was reportedly arrested in Muynak a city in Uzbekistan’s troubled region of Karakalpakstan, while an activist was sentenced to six years in jail.
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There was increased concern Thursday, April 26, about the plight of active Christians in Turkey after investigators revealed that three evangelical believers were “satanically tortured” last week before being killed.
An influential Christian politician was in hiding in Vietnam Tuesday, April 24, after being harassed by Vietnamese security forces who also attacked other dissidents planning to meet US officials, a leading human rights activist confirmed to BosNewsLife.
Local political bosses who had voted to expel 65 Christians from a small town near here grudgingly signed an agreement yesterday to let the evangelicals stay in their homes.
Christians in Nigeria were on high alert Monday, April 23, as election officials confirmed that the outgoing Christian president of Nigeria will be succeeded by a controversial Muslim candidate following Saturday’s election.
Following the March 29 sentencing of Father Nguyen Van Ly to eight years in prison for distributing “material harmful to the state,†two Protestant lawyers charged with the same “crime†are expected to face equally harsh sentences in what Human Rights Watch has called the harshest crackdown in 20 years.
Although elections in Madhya Pradesh are more than 18 months away, two Christian leaders there link the state’s ruling Hindu nationalist party to rising persecution ahead of the upcoming vote.
More than 160 Christian prisoners ended a two-day hunger strike last week after authorities in Pakistan’s Punjab province permitted them to resume religious services, a non-governmental organization worker said.
There was concern Wednesday, March 28, about the plight of evangelical Christians in the Indian state of Kerala after reports that the local government for the first time shut down a church amid violent attacks against believers.
An Ethiopian evangelist was beaten to death by militant Muslims as he and two young women were evangelizing in the Ethiopian city of of Jimma, and there were fears the incident could spark widespread violence against Christian believers, Christian rights investigators said Thursday, March 29.