In a remarkable display of perseverance and human ingenuity, all 41 Indian labourers who were trapped for 17 days in the collapsed Silkyara-Barkot tunnel in the Himalayan mountains have been successfully rescued on November 28.
A court in Pakistan this month granted bail to a Christian falsely charged with blasphemy, but he and his family have separated and gone into hiding amid threats to their lives, sources said.
Senior Biju Janta Dal (BJD) leader Saluga Pradhan was elected unopposed as the deputy speaker on November 21. The Odisha Assembly now boasts a remarkable combination of leadership, with a Dalit speaker and a tribal deputy speaker. This diversity is further emphasized by Pradhan's Christian background, representing the Udayagiri constituency in Kandhamal district—a region marred by the worst-ever anti-Christian violence in 2008, claiming the lives of more than 100 Christians.
In a recent verdict, the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Jabalpur Bench, has upheld the State's decision to deny the renewal of recognition to a Child Care Institution following allegations of children being converted to Christianity and facing sexual abuse. The case revolved around a writ petition filed by Aadharshila Sansthan, a Charitable Society in the rural district of Damoh in Madhya Pradesh, challenging the order of the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Women & Child Development.
The father of a 20-year-old Christian who was gunned down in Pakistan this month said the confessed killer was driven by a strong hatred for Christians and Jews.
A Muslim gunned down a 20-year-old Christian in Pakistan on Nov. 9, the latest case of a religious minority victimized for unknown reasons with police slow to act, sources said.
The Supreme Court in Nepal denied the application of a Nepali pastor and upheld the High Court judgement of a one-year jail term and fine, even after there were no witnesses to establish the allegation of proselytization, said the pastor himself.
The predominantly Muslim nation of Azerbaijan has landed on a persecution advocacy group's list of the worst countries for Christian persecution over its policies toward neighboring Armenia.
Bowing to pressure from Islamic protestors, local officials in South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia have vowed to withdraw permission that had been granted to build a Christian school, sources said.
A month after a Christian family in Salavan Province, Laos lost their home and were expelled for their faith, officials in another province on Sunday (Oct. 1) disrupted the worship service of a house church and threatened to arrest them, according to a rights group.
Nearly all ethnic Armenians have fled Nagorno-Karabakh following Azerbaijan's military occupation. A humanitarian crisis appears to be building with rising numbers of refugees, injuries and arrests.
A pastor and his family have gone into hiding after a Muslim neighbor who raped his 14-year-old daughter tried to kidnap her and force her to convert to Islam and marry her, he said.
