(Morning Star News) – The blasphemy trial of Jakarta Gov. Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama began on Tuesday, with the ethnic Chinese Christian breaking into tears inside the courtroom while hundreds of people protested outside. Some 2,000 police officers kept anti-Ahok and pro-Ahok protestors apart outside the heavily guarded court. Those opposing Ahok chanted, “Jail Ahok, […]
(Morning Star News) – Relatives of a former Islamic teacher attacked his 60-year-old mother on Thursday (Dec. 8) for becoming a Christian, wounding her head and breaking her hand, sources said. Aimuna Namutongi sustained a deep cut on her forehead. She and her son, 30-year-old Malik Higenyi, were trying to gather cassava at 10 a.m. […]
DARTFORD, Kent — A nurse in the United Kingdom has filed a lawsuit after being fired for “gross misconduct” in speaking with pre-operative patients about her faith. Sarah Kuteh, a Roman Catholic who has worked as a nurse for 15 years, says that she was accused of having “unwanted discussions” with patients at Darent Valley Hospital […]
(World Watch Monitor) — A Turkish judge has sent Andrew Brunson to prison in Izmir, 64 days after the U.S. pastor and his wife, Norine, were detained on Oct. 7 under Interior Ministry deportation orders. Although his wife was released on 19 Oct. and given an extended permit to remain in the country, Andrew Brunson […]
LAGOS, Nigeria (Associated Press) — Metal girders and the roof of a crowded church collapsed onto worshipers in southern Nigeria, killing at least 160 people with the toll likely to rise, a hospital director said Sunday. Mortuaries in the city of Uyo are overflowing from Saturday’s tragedy, medical director Etete Peters of the University of Uyo […]
BRATISLAVA — Lawmakers in Slovakia have passed a law banning Islam from being officially recognized as a religion in the country. “Since Slovakia is a Christian country, we cannot tolerate an influx of 300,000-400,000 Muslim immigrants who would like to start building mosques all over our land and trying to change the nature, culture and […]
Syria (Mission Network News) — In all the tangled mess of the war in Syria, Kurdish forces are also part of the fray. The Kurds, a minority stateless group of people, have helped push back ISIS militants in northern Syria ever since the terrorists targeted major Kurdish populations. Kurdish soldiers have continued to engage ISIS […]
(Punch) — A South African cleric, Prophet Rufus Phala has made his church members drink disinfectant, Dettol, in order to get healed. Phala, a pastor with AK Spiritual Christian Church, Makgodu, Limpopo in the north eastern area of South Africa, instructed his followers to drink the disinfectant, while also acknowledging that it was dangerous to do so. “I know Dettol […]
ROME — In one of the feasts and celebrations marked on the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar leading up to Christmas, Catholics around the world observed the Feast of Immaculate Conception on Thursday, a day in which those who follow the religion commemorate their belief that Mary was conceived without sin. Jorge Bergoglio, also known as Pope Francis, […]
HONOLULU (Baptist Press) — As Americans commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, some Christians also are remembering a series of evangelistic harvests that emerged from the death and destruction. Among those to find a saving relationship with Jesus in the aftermath of Dec. 7, 1941, were the commander of the […]