Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin asked state-run energy giant Gazprom to cease all deliveries of natural gas into Ukraine, destined for Europe, Russian state media reported Wednesday, January 7, despite reports that over a dozen people in Europe already froze to death as temperatures dropped.
(ADDS MORE DETAILS, HAMAS REACTION)
Israel is halting its military operations for three hours a day beginning Wednesday, January 7, for three hours each day, to allow humanitarian aid to enter into Gaza, Israeli officials said.
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.
Villagers of the mainly Christian Karen minority in Burma on Monday, January 5, were mourning the death of a seven-year old girl who was raped and murdered by at least one government soldier, the latest in a series of sexual abuses of minorities in the country, investigators said.
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.
A Pakistani Christian boy’s quarrel with a Muslim policeman’s son has led to his father’s imprisonment, torture, paralysis, and five-year prison sentence.
In a good turn of events, two Chinese pastors Wang Weiliang and Zhu Baoguo will be spending this year’s Christmas at home after their miraculous release from jail by the authorities in China for medical reasons.
In prison at the age of 14 for having fatally stabbed her uncle in northern Iraq, Asya Ahmad Muhammad’s early release on Nov. 10 thanks to a juvenile court decision was overshadowed by fear of retaliation from her extended Muslim family.
The Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) www.persecution.org has learned that Eritrean officials imprisoned about 20 Christians belonging to the underground Faith Missions Church on October 12, 2008 in Deki-Zeru, a town 30km away from Asmara, the capital.
Christians in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul were risking their lives Sunday, October 19, to worship in churches amid the worst attacks against them in five years.
Some 1,000 police began deploying in Christian areas of Iraq’s northern city of Mosul Monday, October 13, after thousands of Christians fled the worst violence against them in five years, BosNewsLife learned.
A Christian music store owner was shot and killed in Mosul, Iraqi police said Monday, October 13, the latest in a series of killings that has caused thousands of Christians to flee the northern city in recent days, BosNewsLife monitored.
After police in the eastern state of Orissa confirmed this week that Maoists killed Hindu nationalist leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, a Hindu extremist group circulated allegedly forged documents in an attempt to implicate a local church in the Aug. 23 murder.
Seven Degar Montagnard Christians are among those being held in a Vietnamese prison after they were detained as part of a major government backed crackdown on ‘illegal’ house churches in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, their friends said.
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.
An international Christian aid group said Thursday, September 25, it has begun helping to rebuild a mainly Christian village in a remote area of Indonesia, which was destroyed by Muslim militants earlier this year.
There was concern Wednesday, September 17, about the whereabouts of possibly dozens of Degar Montagnard Christians who have been detained in Vietnam’s Central Highlands as part of a major crackdown on unregistered worship, friends said.
Attacks on Christians continue to increase in Karnataka State.
A land dispute led to two attacks on the headquarters of the Indonesian Christian Students’ Movement (GMKI) and its parent ministry, the Alliance of Indonesian Churches (PGI), last week (August 26 and 28).
Native Christian missionaries were among victims in India’s Bihar State Tuesday, September 2, amid reports that hundreds of churches and homes were under water because of devastating floods, which have displaced some three million people and claimed at least 90 lives.