LAHORE, Pakistan — Five Muslim men have been sentenced to death in their part in murdering a couple who they mistakenly thought had committed blasphemy against Islam. On Wednesday, Judge Chaudhry Azam sentenced Irfan Shakoor, Muhammad Hanif, Mehdi Khan, Riaz Kamboh and Hafiz Ishtiaq to die by hanging for allegedly throwing Shama Bibi, 28, and […]
(The Christian Institute) — Expectant mothers may soon be able to view their unborn baby in virtual reality (VR), after the announcement of ground-breaking new scanning technology. Scientists in Brazil have merged ultrasound images with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to build a 3D model of a baby in the womb, which can be brought to […]
JOHANNESBURG (CNN) — Images of a South African Pastor spraying insecticide into the faces of his congregants are circulating on social media. Lethebo Rabalago, of the Mount Zion General Assembly (MZGA), in Limpopo, has openly posted photographs on his Facebook page of him spraying congregants with Doom Super Multi Insect Killer to cure various ailments. A post […]
PARIS — A television council in France has rejected an advertisement that features smiling Down syndrome children out of concerns that the video might “disturb” mothers who have aborted a baby because of his or her diagnosis. The video “Dear Future Mom” has been in circulation for two years, created by the group CoorDown and released […]
Sudan (Mission Network News) — Czech Christian aid worker Petr Jasek has been in a Sudan prison for 352 days — nearly a full year. He’s one of the people featured on Voice of the Martyrs’ Prisoner Alert system, and an example of the abuse of religious freedom in Sudan today. According to Open Doors […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — More than 10,000 Indonesians took to the streets of their capital to call for tolerance and unity in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, after police opened a blasphemy investigation into the city’s Christian governor. Earlier this month, Jakarta was rocked by a massive protest by conservative Muslims against the popular […]
KENT, U.K. — A U.K. magistrate that was removed from office last year for telling the media that he believes it is best for adoptive children to be placed with a mother and father will now file suit after also being prohibited from returning to his position on the board of the National Health Service (NHS) Trust. […]
ROME — Roman Catholic leader Jorge Bergoglio, also known as Pope Francis, has granted priests the unending power to pardon mothers who have obtained abortions, outlining his endowment in a letter issued at the end of his proclaimed “Jubilee Year of Mercy.” The development has raised concern among some. “I henceforth grant to all priests, in virtue of […]
(Morning Star News) – A pastor in southwestern China, jailed for nearly a year on fabricated charges and suffering a liver disease, focuses on trusting God in a letter of encouragement to his wife, according to China Aid. Authorities took pastor Li Guozhi, better known as Yang Hua, into custody after a raid on his […]
WENZHOU, Zhejiang (China Aid) — China’s two Christian, state-run organizations forcibly removed a pastor from his position in the coastal province of Zhejiang on Oct. 29 and prohibited him from preaching or evangelizing. The pastor, Zhang Chongzhu, was placed under “residential surveillance in a designated location,” otherwise known as a “black jail,” last September. On Feb. […]