An Islamic militant began serving a 20-year jail sentence Thursday, March 22, on charges of plotting the 2005 beheadings of three Christian girls on Indonesia’s volatile Sulawesi island. Two other militants involved in the crime were sentenced to 14 years.
The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), one of the largest Pentecostal churches in Nigeria, is also one of the fastest growing churches in Africa. It is a cradle of miraculous healing, signs and wonders, but there is one miracle the church in this northern city has been unable to muster: keeping a Shiite sect from taking over its property.
The mistreated wife of a senior Chinese house church leader was sentenced to ten days administrative detention in Henan province on Monday, March 19, on charges of “disturbing public order,” observers close to the trial said.
A senior house church leader was free Saturday, March 17, after being released following ten days administrative detention, but the 77-year old mother of a Christian activist remained behind bars, representatives said.
Christians in India’s southern state of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday, March 14, were preparing to rebuild their church, hours after it was burnt down by Hindu militants, while elsewhere in the country several Christian leaders were recovering from injuries following violent attacks against them.
Beginning in November of last year, 13-year-old Victor Udo Usen, a member of the Christ Apostolic Church in this northern Nigeria city, went missing.
An Uzbek criminal court has sentenced Christian pastor Dmitry Shestakov to four years in a prison colony for alleged “illegal†religious activities.
One person was killed, a number injured and over 35 arrested in Harare on Sunday, March 11, after hundreds of armed riot police used shotguns and teargas to shut down a prayer meeting about the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe.
There was mounting concern Tuesday, March 13, about the whereabouts of an evangelical Sri Lankan pastor, his two sons, and another Christian young man who disappeared this month amid intense fighting between Sri Lanka’s government forces and the independence seeking Tamil Tiger rebels, Christians said.
A Christian pro-democracy activist was released by Vietnamese authorities Tuesday, March 13, after spending over 12 hours in police custody, but the whereabouts of a human rights lawyer remained unknown, dissidents told BosNewsLife.
Police officers and members of a Hindu extremist group in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday (March 11) lured a pastor into a remote forest, where the extremists tied his hands and feet and beat him with wooden clubs as they accused him of offering money for Hindus to convert to Christianity.
A Salem Voice Ministries missionary in Jammu and Kashmir was attacked on March 6 in Kupwara in Jammua and Kashmir, India.
A prominent Mennonite pastor and his wife were recovering Sunday, March 11, from “brutal” beatings by Vietnamese security forces as part of a government crackdown on dissidents, a key activist told BosNewsLife.
Prominent Protestant pastor Dmitry Shestakov was sentenced Friday, March 9, to four years’ exile within Uzbekistan for his evangelistic activities, Christian rights watchers observing the trial said.
A major human rights watchdog accused the Vietnamese government on Friday, March 9 of “flouting” its commitments on human rights by launching “one of the worst crackdowns on peaceful dissidents,” including Christians, “in 20 years.”
After intensive international pressure, local police released 33 arrested house church leaders and three leaders from South Korea.
Dozens of Christian leaders, including three church officials from South Korea, were detained by Chinese security forces Tuesday, March 6, as part of an apparent government crackdown on independent Christian groups, representatives said.
There was mounting concern Monday, March 5, about the whereabouts of a key leader of an indigenous house church in Vietnam’s Central Highlands after Vietnamese security forces reportedly raided a village and detained several Christians.
Salavat Serikbayev, 32, and Makset Djabbarbergenov, 26, did not make their court date on Monday (February 26) in the regional capital of Nukus to face charges of leading an unregistered religious meeting. The pastors declined to make public the reason for their absence from court.
“Many Christians” were injured when hundreds of suspected Hindu militants on Wednesday, February 28, raided a Christian college in the Indian state of Orissa and beat staff members and students, investigators told BosNewsLife.