In 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 storyIn a shocking turn of events, the radical Laskar Jihad has been banned from the Moluccas and its combative leader placed under arrest.
...continue reading this storyProtestant pastor Ahmet Guvener goes on trial in Turkey's southeastern city of Diyarbakir in late May, accused by the state prosecutor of making illegal changes in the architectural plan of his nearly completed church building.
...continue reading this storyA group of Hmong Christians living in the highlands of Vietnam have filed a complaint about violent incidents that they say took place amongst this tribal group last year.
...continue reading this storyA Yemeni court sentenced a man to death on Saturday for the murder of three U.S. missionaries last year because he wanted to get closer to God. Abed Abdel Razzak Kamel testified in court that he killed the Americans to defend Islam because he believed they were sterilizing Muslim women and trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.
...continue reading this storyChristians in the Maluku provincial capital of Ambon are appealing to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to send peacekeeping forces in the wake of recent terrorist attacks.
...continue reading this storyJuan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva, a blind human rights activist who was arrested and imprisoned on March 4th, is demanding proper medical attention.
...continue reading this storyAn uncertain number of leaders of a major house church movement in China have disappeared in what at first was thought to be a massive government raid. Now cult activity is suspected.
...continue reading this storyA $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 storyThe Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Organization, VHP) is secretly conducting large-scale conversion drives in India's Marxist-ruled state of West Bengal. More than 16 tribal Christians were forced to re-convert to Hinduism on April 22 at a purification ceremony in Chopra village in the Malda district about 300 kilometers from Calcutta, NGO sources said. Ten other animist tribals were also converted to Hinduism in the village.
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