Malaysia (Mission Network News) – Mystery and frustration surround the abduction of a Malaysian pastor. His disappearance reads like the script of an action movie. On Feb. 13, a group of masked men surrounded 62-year-old Raymond Koh and whisked him off the streets, all while another person stood recording the incident. It took 40 seconds […]
(Christian Institute) — More very premature babies are surviving, and with less neurological problems, a new US study has found. The study found an increase in survival rate for babies born between 22 and 24 weeks over a three-year period. It was conducted by Duke Health and published in the New England Journal of Medicine. […]
(Israel Antiquities Authority) — A wide and impressive 2,000 year old road dating to the Roman period, in an extraordinary state of preservation, was revealed last February in archaeological excavations of the Israel Antiquities Authority near Highway 375. The excavation was conducted prior to laying a water pipeline to Jerusalem, at the initiative of, the […]
(Evangelical Focus) — The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that employers are allowed to ban employees from wearing visible religious, political and philosophical symbols in the workplace. The ban must be based on internal company rules, requiring all employees to “dress neutrally” and “it cannot be based on the wishes of a customer,” […]
(China Aid/Morning Star News) – China Aid’s 2016 Annual Persecution Report details a seismic shift in the Chinese government’s approach to religious policy that is expected to lead to further persecution. The report’s core subject tracks a deviation in the Chinese government’s ideological approach to religious management. During the National Conference of Religious Work held […]
(Christian Concern) — Healthcare workers should do more to talk to dying patients about faith, experts have said. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has advised health workers and care workers to do more to discuss patients’ social, cultural and religious preferences. It comes as a 2016 report showed that spiritual wishes […]
(The Irish Times) — A bill to reduce the penalty for an illegal abortion from 14 years in prison to €1 has been overwhelmingly defeated in the Dáil. The private members bill, introduced this week by AAA-PBP TD Bríd Smith, was defeated by 81 votes to 26 in the Dáil on Thursday, with 22 TDs […]
BABILE, Ethiopia (Open Doors USA) — Four teenage believers, three of them minors, served a one-month jail sentence after being convicted on charges of distributing Christian literature and “inciting religious violence.” The girls were reported to be “in good health” following their release from prison on Dec. 22. Gifti, 14; Mihiret, 14; Eden, 15; and […]
Scotland (The Christian Institute) — Alcohol-related harm accounts for 22 deaths in Scotland a week, a shocking new report has found. Figures released by the country’s chief medical officer, Dr. Catherine Calderwood, also revealed that alcohol causes an average of 674 hospital admissions per week. The news comes shortly after a Scottish charity warned that […]
(Open Doors USA) — In parts of Mexico, going to church is risky and dangerous. Drug cartels are treading on the heels of churches in Mexico, extending their gripping power beyond the northern states where, for many years, they have been harassing entire communities ruthlessly. A very common practice drug traffickers have implemented to control whole […]