News

Sudanese bishop pleads for end to suffering

  September 25, 2013 Sudan Barack Obama, Blue Nile, Darfur, Kadugli, Nuba Mountains, Omar al-Bashir, UN

Rev. Andudu Adam Elnail.United to End Genocide / Flickr / Creative Commons A Sudanese bishop has written to U.S. President Barack Obama, calling for prompt actions to save the lives of those still alive in the country’s Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile and Darfur regions. Rev. Andudu Adam Elnail, the Bishop . . . Read More

Pakistan’s Christian leaders demand security after bombings

  September 23, 2013 Pakistan All Saints Church, Faisalabad, Gojra, Gujrat, Islamabad, Karachi, Kasur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Multan, Narowal, Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan Muslim League, Pakistan Ulema Council, Peshawar, PTI, Quetta, Rawalpindi, Sahiwal, Sialkot, Taliban, Vehari

Protesters took to the streets in cities across Pakistan following the church bombings.World Watch Monitor   Anguish and anger has erupted across Pakistan since Sunday after two suicide bombers killed dozens of people as they were leaving church services. The bomb attacks took place at 12:15 p.m. on Sept. 22 . . . Read More

Jail term for Kazakh pastor extended

  September 22, 2013 Kazakhstan Almaty, Astana, Bakhytzhan Kashkumbayev, Kazakhstan

A Kazakh pastor has been told he is to be detained for another month, four months after his arrest for allegedly “harming the health” of a member of his congregation. Bakhytzhan Kashkumbayev, pastor of Grace Protestant Church in Astana, the capital, was arrested on May 17, charged with the psychological manipulation . . . Read More

Colombian Christian leader accused of FARC affiliation

  September 21, 2013 Colombia FARC, Juan Manuel Santos, Latin America

Ricardo Esquivia Ballestas, pictured in 2012 at a Lutheran World Federation event in Bogotá, Colombia.Milton Blanco / Flickr / Creative Commons   As peace talks continue between the Colombian government and Latin America’s oldest left-wing guerrilla insurgency, FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), a case involving a prominent Christian leader . . . Read More

After the storm

  September 20, 2013 Egypt Anba Macarius, Copts, Mohamed Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood

The charred remains of the Orthodox Church of the Virgin Mary in Delga.World Watch Monitor   A few days on from the Egyptian army’s re-establishment of state control over Delga in Minya province, the country’s Coptic Christians are beginning to reveal the extent of their sufferings at the hands of . . . Read More

Iran releases 2 Christians, but many more still imprisoned

  September 20, 2013 Iran Hassan Rouhani, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Maryam Jalili, Mitra Rahmati, Mostafa Bordbar, Saeed Abedini, Shiraz

Two Christian women were among a number of prisoners of conscience released in Iran, ahead of new President Hassan Rouhani’s first address to the UN General Assembly in New York next week. Since his election in June, Rouhani has projected a tone that is less strident than that of his . . . Read More

Interfaith conflict threatens to engulf Central African Republic

  September 18, 2013 Central African Republic Bossangoa, Michel Djotodia, Seleka

Red Cross workers bury a corpse near Bossangoa on Sept 16.World Watch Monitor Clashes between Christians and Muslims in the northwest of the Central African Republic (CAR) have increased fears of a prolonged interfaith divide in the country. The CAR, which borders Chad, Sudan and the Congos, was one of . . . Read More

Catholic priest victim of latest Zanzibar acid attack

  September 17, 2013 Tanzania Acid attacks, Amselmo Mwangamba, Catholics, Islamic extremism, Stone Town, Tanzania, Zanzibar

An elderly Catholic priest has been the victim of an acid attack in Zanzibar. Amselmo Mwangamba was attacked on Friday (September 13) and is now in hospital receiving treatment to burns on his face, chest and arms. This is the fifth acid attack on the island since November, according to . . . Read More

Egyptian army breaks Islamist grip on Delga

  September 15, 2013 Egypt Copts, Minya, Mohamed Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood

Since the Aug. 14 wave of anti-Christian violence that swept over Egypt, the Christians of Delga have complained they had been abandoned by government security forces. Many of their churches and businesses burned, and their houses marked with red “X”s, Delga Christians either fled or hunkered down in their homes, . . . Read More

Vietnamese police crush protests against Catholics’ imprisonment

  September 13, 2013 Vietnam Catholics, Vietnam

Around 40 people have been injured in Vietnam during a protest against the 3-month detention of two Catholics on minor charges. The protest on September 4 in Nghi Phuong, south of Hanoi, was a response to the police refusal to release Nguyen Van Hai, 43, and Ngo Van Khoi, 53, . . . Read More