MajidReza Souzanchi Kushani, a Christian who was charged and imprisoned in Iran for promoting house churches, was given early release from jail because he caught COVID-19, Christian Response reported Friday. Iran ranks no. 8 on the US World Watch List 2021 of countries that persecute Christians.
...continue reading this storyA mother of seven children in eastern Uganda has reportedly suffered severe wounds after her husband and other Muslim relatives attacked her on Easter Sunday for putting her faith in Christ.
...continue reading this storyAn evangelical church in China says it has received back a cross and other items that were confiscated by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
...continue reading this storyAuthorities in Laos have released a pastor who was jailed early last year for refusing to halt worship services at the church he founded in the southeast Asian country, International Christian Concern reports. Pastor Sithon Thippavong was freed on April 9 after just over a year in prison.
...continue reading this storyAround 1,000 people attended a demonstration outside GraceLife Church in Alberta, Canada on Sunday, to protest against the government’s physical closing of the church’s premises on the grounds it had violated COVID-19 restrictions, Christian Headlines reports. GraceLife is led by Pastor James Coates, who was arrested and detained for holding services in contravention of coronavirus regulations; Coates’ trial is set for May 3.
...continue reading this storyEight Christians who were abducted by gunmen in Nigeria’s Kaduna state last month have been freed and were taken to hospital for medical evaluation, International Christian Concern reports. Nigeria currently ranks 9th on the US Open Doors Watch List of countries where it is most difficult to be Christian: believers in the northern region and in the Middle Belt are vulnerable to abduction, violence, and murder at the hands of Islamic extremist groups such as militant Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram/ISIS West Africa.
...continue reading this storySeven Catholic clergy, including two French citizens, were abducted Sunday in Haiti, where kidnappers increasingly target churches, officials said.
...continue reading this storyA few days after being kidnapped by gunmen in Ondo state, Nigeria, fifty year-old Pastor Frederick Ojo Aramuwa was found dead in the bush near his hometown of Ifira, International Christian Concern reported Wednesday. Pastor Aramuwa was killed even though his family paid his captors $5,000 in ransom.
...continue reading this storyChristian rights activists and other advocates urged Vietnam Tuesday to release four prisoners of conscience in Vietnam, including pastors, amid concerns about their health.
...continue reading this storyReports emerged last week that China is working to brainwash its Christian citizens by imprisoning them in mobile "transformation facilities," Fox News reported. The reports came through Radio Free Asia, which has published accounts of abuse told by a man given the name Li Yuese to protect his identity.
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