(Morning Star News) – Five members of an Iranian house church are missing after government agents arrested them on Friday (Aug. 26) without a warrant and took them to an undisclosed location, according to a leading advocacy group. No information is available on the whereabouts of Ramiel Bet Tamraz, Amin Nader Afshar, Hadi Askary, Mohamad […]
(Newsweek) — The Islamic State militant group ISIS has claimed a suicide bombing that killed at least 15 people and injured 16 at a wedding party near the Shi’ite city of Kerbala late Sunday. Five assailants including the suicide bomber attacked the celebration in Ain al-Tamr, west of Kerbala in southern Iraq, firing machine guns […]
SHANGQIU, Henan (China Aid) — Amid escalating pressure to join state-run churches, a house church in China’s central Henan province rejected a government order to stop its religious activities by July 20. On July 15, the Zhecheng County Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau issued a notice to Proclaiming Christ Church, citing provincial religious affairs regulations […]
(Christian Institute) — People wanting to be euthanized are traveling to Belgian accident and emergency departments and asking to be killed. Last year, more than 2,000 people were euthanized in Belgium—more than double the number five years earlier. Belgium legalized euthanasia for adults in 2002 and for children in 2014. Continue reading this story >>
(Christian Institute) — Abortion group Marie Stopes International has suspended some types of abortion across all its English facilities after a health watchdog’s investigation uncovered “patient safety” concerns. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) raised issues over Marie Stopes’ “corporate and clinical governance arrangements and patient safety protocols in specific areas” following inspections. As a result, […]
Turkey (MNN) — Last Thursday in Turkey, three separate explosions including car bombs killed 14 people and wounded over 220. The blasts seemed to target Turkish police, though both civilians and officers were killed. Turkish officials say it was the Kurdish militants, also known as the PKK, who carried out the blasts. Turkey considers the […]
UDAIPUR, India (Morning Star News) – At least 134 incidents of violence against Christians in India were carried out in the first half of 2016 alone, compared with 147 incidents in all of 2014 and 177 in 2015, according to an independent report. The Evangelical Fellowship of India’s Religious Liberty Commission (EFIRLC) notes that cases chronicled […]
(Christian Institute) — Drug-related deaths reached a record high in Scotland last year, according to new figures. There were 706 drug-related deaths in 2015, a 15 per cent increase on 2014, when 613 people died. The official statistics were released in a report by the National Records of Scotland investigating drug-related deaths. Continue reading this […]
Lebanon (Mission Network News) — About one in five people living in Lebanon is a refugee. That’s according to Dyann Romeijn of Vision Beyond Borders who says that despite the trials these people are facing, they are perhaps for the first time encountering eternal hope. That’s because many of the refugees come from countries where […]
Turkey (Mission Network News) — Turkey is set to release 38,000 prisoners jailed before a failed July 15 coup attempt to make room for new detainees. The government declared a three-month state of emergency on July 21 and began a sweeping crackdown, arresting more than 23,000 people. The purge has also led to more than […]