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.
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.
The United States faces a financial “time bomb” as its national debt is to jump by $2 trillion this year and United States President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats consider a massive spending package, economists have warned.
As Israel continued its ground assault into the Gaza Strip Monday, January 5, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) were on high alert along the country’s northern border amid concerns the militant Hezbollah group would fire rockets from Lebanon in revenge for the offensive.
Recovery work continued Monday, January 5, after at least four people were killed and dozens more injured as two powerful earthquakes hit Indonesia over the weekend, cutting power lines and destroying buildings, officials said.
United States President-elect Barack Obama was scheduled to meet with congressional leaders from both political parties Monday, January 5, to discuss a stimulus package aimed at ending America’s worst economic crisis in decades.
Five Democratic governors have presented a plan to Obama’s transition team and congressional leaders to pass a $1 trillion stimulus package to help states facing severe budget shortfalls. This year 41 states as well as the District of Columbia are facing deficits totaling $42 billion this year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in a report seen by Worthy News Monday, January 5.
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.”
Several Christian volunteers and survivors of China’s worst earthquake in a generation remained missing Sunday, December 28, after Christmas Eve police raids on homes under construction in the devastated Sichuan province amid anger among authorities over the involvement of churches in relief efforts, an advocacy group said.
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.
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.
Christians in several parts of China were behind bars on Christmas Day after a police crackdown on worship services and Bible study, a Christian advocacy group said Thursday, December 25.
A nation-wide alliance of Christian leaders, churches, mission agencies, and other Christian institutions in India has condemned widespread anti-Christian violence in the Indian state of Karnataka, which injured dozens, but “welcomed” the sentencing of those involved in church bombings.
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.
In recent months Chinese officials have attempted to build bridges with the Protestant house church movement even as police raided more unregistered congregations, arrested Christian leaders and forced at least 400 college students to swear they would stop attending such worship services.
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.