Americas

By BosNewsLife Americas Service with reporting by BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos ORLANDO, FLORIDA (BosNewsLife)-- Prayer vigils are held in the U.S. state of Florida and nationwide for all victims of the country's worst-ever shooting incident that killed 50 people and injured 53 in a gay nightclub, Christian officials said.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife ORLANDO/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)-- U.S.-based group Wycliffe Associates (WA) is rushing to train and shelter indigenous Bible translators from areas controlled by Islamic militants, after at least four of its workers were killed in the Middle East, BosNewsLife established Sunday, April 17.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife WASHINGTON/HAVANA (BosNewsLife)-- Christian activists planned prayers near the White House Sunday to express concern that Barack Obama will be the first American president visiting Cuba in nearly 90 years, despite a reported crackdown on churches and other rights abuses on the Communist-run island.

By BosNewsLife Americas Service MEXICO CITY (BosNewsLife)-- Twenty Protestant families have been forcibly displaced from their homes in western Mexico because of their faith after the government refused to prevent the deportations, an advocacy official told BosNewsLife Friday, January 29.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife TEHRAN/BERLIN (BosNewsLife)-- Iranian-born American Pastor Saeed Abedini was expected to receive medical attention in Germany on Sunday, January 17, after he was released by Iran following more than three years of imprisonment in what his wife said were harsh circumstances. Naghmeh Abedini told reporters that after she learned Saeed Abedini was released early Saturday, January 16, she woke their two children saying: "Daddy is coming home."

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife TEHRAN/VIENNA (BosNewsLife)-- Iran on Saturday, January 16, released Iranian-born American pastor Saeed Abedini along with Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and two other Americans who had been held in Iranian prisons

By Martin Roth, BosNewsLife Senior Columnist WASHINGTON/ROME (BosNewsLife Columns)-- We are to learn much more about the current state of Christian persecution from an innovative three-year global research project, and – no surprise – the early findings are distressing. But amidst the gloom are some significant rays of hope.

By BosNewsLife Americas Service WASHINGTON, USA (BosNewsLife)-- Most Americans agree with the presidential candidates of both parties in calling Islamic State group atrocities against Christians in the Middle East "genocide," according to a poll by the Catholic Knights of Columbus (KofC) order and the Marist Institute for Public Opinion. Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee and Martin O'Malley have all called the situation genocide.

By Martin Roth, BosNewsLife Senior Special Correspondent WASHINGTON, USA (BosNewsLife)-- Christians will find little comfort in the U.S. State Department’s recently released International Religious Freedom Report. It confirms what many Christians already knew: The new phenomenon of non-state terrorism has supplanted oppression by government to become the main threat to religious freedom.

BosNewsLife Americas Service BOGOTA, COLOMBIA (BosNewsLife)-- A guerrilla leader who was responsible for the murder of a Colombian pastor has been released from prison, and is now seeking to find the pastor's grieving widow, Christian rights investigators say. The killer returned to the remote community where Luz and her children were residing, telling neighbours that he wanted to find her, said Christian support group Voice Of the Martyrs Canada (VOMC).