NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--A $300,000 ransom payment has failed to free American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham from a militant Muslim group in the Philippines linked to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.
...continue reading this storyIn late April, reports filtered out from China that about 100 leaders of the evangelical China Gospel Fellowship -- a major house church grouping that claims some four million members -- had been arrested by the police. Soon after, contradictory but more reliable reports said these key leaders had almost certainly been kidnapped by the sinister Lightning from the East (LFE) cult in a carefully orchestrated strategy.
...continue reading this storyLeaders of the South China Church have had their sentences reduced by the same court that tried them the first time after a retrial was ordered by the Hubei Province Supreme Court.
...continue reading this storyLeaders from a mainstream house church in China have been released after being abducted.
The 34 senior leaders from the China Gospel Fellowship were abducted on April 16 by a group called Eastern Lightning (EL), which uses violence against church members.
...continue reading this storyWUHAN, China (BP)--Attorneys for a Chinese Christian leader who barely escaped execution in January want his retrial to be conducted in public this time, according to sources close to the case.
...continue reading this storyBEIJING, CHINA - All of the 33 leaders from the China Gospel Fellowship who were kidnapped in April by the Eastern Lightning cult have been released, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) of the UK. News of how this occurred is not yet available.
...continue reading this storyISTANBUL, October 24 (Compass) — Forty-eight hours after Karachi police abducted Robin Peranditta from the grounds of the Sindh High Court, the traumatized survivor of last month’s deadly Christian massacre is now confirmed to be released from police custody.
...continue reading this storyMADA, Nigeria (Compass) -- Two Nigerian Muslims who converted to the Christian faith in Mada village of northern Nigeria's Zamfara state are missing, possibly at the hands of Muslim fundamentalists seeking to kill them for changing their faith.
...continue reading this storyA Baptist from the town of Turkestan in Chimkent region of southern Kazakhstan, Tursunbai Auelbekov, was in the town's Kuanysh market distributing free copies of Kazakh-language religious literature from the Evangelical-Christian Baptist Church on 23 January when he was arrested by police, Keston News Service has learned. According to the law enforcement agencies, since the Baptist church is not registered at the justice department of the Turkestan administration, its followers do not have the right to carry out any activity in the town, which is 165 kms (100 miles) north-west of Chimkent, or the surrounding district.
...continue reading this storyThe leader of a group of churches in Laos notified Christian Aid today that Lao authorities confiscated the Saybangnoun Church Saturday after Christians refused to surrender the facility to them Saturday noon. The church was located in Songkorn district, Savannakhet Province. The Christians gathered and worshiped in tears outside their confiscated church building Sunday.
...continue reading this story