(World Watch Monitor) — Thailand’s government and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Bangkok have been accused of “negligence” after a Pakistani Christian asylum seeker died in a detention centre last month. Ijaz Masih, 35, was reportedly refused medical treatment on May 26 after complaining of chest pains, and died of a heart attack a […]
WENZHOU, Zhejiang (ChinaAid)— Disputes over government surveillance devices in house churches continue in China’s coastal Zhejiang as officials cut power and water supplies to several area churches and the homes of church leadership at the beginning of June. Members of Tuanqian Village Church in Rui’an, a county-level city in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, spoke with reporters on […]
LAHORE, Pakistan (Morning Star News) – A Christian sanitation worker in Pakistan died on Thursday (June 1) after Muslim doctors refused to treat him for poisonous gas he was exposed to in a sewer, sources said. Doctors at Civil Hospital Medical refused to treat 28-year-old Irfan Masih of Umerkot City, Sindh Province, saying they did not […]
HUAIBEI, Anhui (ChinaAid) — After deceiving a pastor into police custody, a recent report revealed that authorities in China’s eastern Anhui province formalized his arrest on May 18. Charging him with “intentionally sabotaging public and private property,” government personnel formalized the arrest of the pastor of Caili Church, Chen Shixin, after keeping him in criminal […]
(World Watch Monitor) — As Ramadan begins, the daughter of an Algerian Christian serving three years in jail for “insulting Islam and the prophet Muhammad” on Facebook says she’s worried about the abuse her father could suffer after he was transferred to a third different prison. Slimane Bouhafs, who is eight months into his sentence, […]
(World Watch Monitor) — A church leader was among those killed in the recent outbreak of violence in the Central African Republic, it has emerged. Baptist pastor Ange-Apoléon Ngakolada, 36, leaves behind a wife and eight children. The president of the Association of Evangelical Baptist Churches in CAR, Singa Gbadia, told World Watch Monitor that […]
(World Watch Monitor) — New cases have emerged of Azerbaijanis facing heavy fines and imprisonment for trying to sell or distribute religious literature. The South Caucasus state, which supposedly allows religious freedoms under its secular constitution, has made it difficult in the past for Christians to practice their faith. In December 2016 two church leaders […]
HAVANA, Cuba — A Cuban pastor has been sentenced to one year in prison for homeschooling his children, and his wife has been ordered to spend a year under house arrest. “This is a great injustice,” Ramón Rigal told the Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). “They are trying to force us to send our children […]
WASHINGTON — An annual government report outlining the state of affairs for religious freedom across the globe has found “worsening” conditions worldwide, and urges the U.S. Department of State to designate 16 nations as Countries of Particular Concern (CPC). “Overall, the Commission has concluded that the state of affairs for international religious freedom is worsening in both the […]
(Evangelical Focus) — Evangelical Christians in Northern Italy are determined to find a solution for the closure of their places of worship by local authorities. In the last three years, 27 places of worship were closed in the region of Lombardy, which affected around forty communities, considering that sometimes two or three churches meet in […]