Asia/Pacific

By BosNewsLife Asia Service ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN ((BosNewsLife)-- Several Christians in Pakistan's Punjab province were recovering from their injuries Sunday, March 18,  after being attacked by an angry mob while building a church wall around an evangelical congregation, Christians said.

By Martin Roth, BosNewsLife Senior Columnist BANGKOK, THAILAND (BosNewsLife Columns)-- The impact of the massive wave of Christian refugees from the Middle East has been so overwhelming that, sadly, we too often forget that Christian refugee groups are suffering in other parts of the world.

By BosNewsLife Asia Service with reporting by BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos LAHORE, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)-- The cousin of a Christian teenager detained in Pakistan for “blasphemy against Islam" remains in critical condition after he was beaten and forced by police to perform a sex act on his relative, officials and Christians confirmed.

By BosNewsLife Asia Service with reporting by BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos LAHORE, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)-- Up to 1,000 Christian families have fled a Christian neighborhood in Lahore, Pakistan's second largest city after a Muslim mob threatened to hang a Christian young man for posting "blasphemous content" on his Facebook website, several sources told BosNewsLife.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)-- A Christian man who spent 20 months in a Pakistani prison on charges of "blasphemy against Islam" has been released after a local court acquitted him on all charges, two advocacy officials involved in his case told BosNewsLife.

By BosNewsLife Asia Service with reporting by BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos MANILA, PHILIPPINES (BosNewsLife)-- Christian missionaries in the Philippines say "trigger-happy" President Rodrigo Duterte is enabling them to "spread the Gospel" and help drugs addicts and victims of Islamic terrorism. "Hundreds of thousands of users and sellers of illicit drugs have surrendered to avoid being gunned down by police under President Duterte's lethal crack-down," noted the Christian Aid Mission (CAM) group.

By BosNewsLife Asia Service JAKARTA, INDONESIA (BosNewsLife)-- Indonesian police say a sword-wielding man who attacked a church congregation and injured four people during Sunday Mass wanted to join the Islamic State group.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife HANOI, VIETNAM (BosNewsLife)-- U.S. evangelist Franklin Graham says thousands of people accepted his invitations to follow Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior during a historic Christian festival in communist-run Vietnam where authorities have oppressed religious minorities. "As the Holy Spirit worked in hearts, at least 4,500 people over two nights came forward publicly during the invitations, both inside the sports complex and outside in the extended area, to make life-changing decisions for Christ," he said in a statement following the December evangelism event in Hanoi, the capital.

By Martin Roth, BosNewsLife Senior Columnist MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA (BosNewsLife Columns)-- One of the modern-day saints of the Middle East is Father Douglas Bazi, a Chaldean priest who endured nine days of captivity and torture after being kidnapped by the al-Qaida terror group. During my Skype interview with him last year, I was startled at how surprisingly cheerful and relaxed he appeared when recalling his harrowing experiences.