Archive

(ADDS INCIDENT AT POLLING STATION)SARGODHA, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)-- Pakistan began voting Monday, February 18, in delayed parliamentary elections that minorities, including Christians, hope will improve their religious rights and end blasphemy legislation and Islamic extremism.

BHUBANESWAR, INDIA (BosNewsLife)-- At least eleven Christians remained behind bars Sunday, February 17, in India’s troubled state of Orissa after deadly clashes with Hindu mobs attacking churches, Christian homes and other properties, a lawyer said.

PRISTINA/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)-- Serbian Orthodox Christians in Kosovo were urged not to panic Sunday, February 17, as the province's parliament declared independence from Serbia, ending a centuries old relationship.

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)-- Church leaders urged Pakistani Christians Saturday, February 16, not to stay away from upcoming parliamentary elections despite violence, after at least 37 people died and 90 others were injured in a major suicide attack.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (BosNewsLife)-- Some 14 masked gunmen forced their way into offices and exploded a library of the Young Mens Christian Association (YMCA) in Gaza, which runs Christian youth hostels and social programs, Israeli media reported Friday, February 15.

BEIJING, CHINA (BosNewsLife)-- A church in China's autonomous region of Xinjiang faced uncertainty Thursday, February 14, after Chinese security forces raided its Sunday School, detaining church leaders and interrogating "terrified" children, investigators said.

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (BosNewsLife)-- Central and Eastern Europe's first Christian online news agency BosNewsLife re-published several caricatures of the prophet Muhammad Thursday, February 14, saying it wants to "show its commitment to press freedom and human rights" after police uncovered a plot to kill Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, responsible for one of the drawings.

WARSAW/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)-- The US-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) urged the Polish Catholic Church on Thursday, February 14, to denounce "in the strongest terms" an apparently anti-Semitic church meeting held in the Polish city of Krakow, and to ensure that churches will be made "off-limits to hate."

ABUJA, NIGERIA (BosNewsLife)-- A tense calm returned Wednesday, February 13, to a town in Nigeria's predominantly Muslim North, where at least two people, including a Christian policeman, were killed and two Christian teenagers injured during a violent protest sparked by a leaflet insulting the Prophet Mohammed, Christians and police said.

TEHRAN, IRAN (BosNewsLife)-- Iran on Wednesday, February 13, said it would allow revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's grandson and some other reformists to participate in upcoming parliamentary elections, but it was unclear if they would support lobbyists fighting plans to introduce the death penalty for apostasy.