Asia/Pacific

By Jawad Mazhar, BosNewsLife Special Correspondent reporting from Pakistan MIANWALI, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)-- A talented Christian student has been denied admission to Science studies at a girls high school in Pakistan because the Muslim school principal regards her as "too ugly" to participate, her father said Wednesday, June 17.

By BosNewsLife Asia Service ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)-- Pakistani police detained and interrogated a mentally challenged Christian girl for allegedly burning pages of the Koran, seen as a holy book by Muslims, amid mounting international concern about Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws, an advocacy group said Friday, June 19.

By Jawad Mazhar, BosNewsLife Special Correspondent reporting from Pakistan LAHORE, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)-- A loose Pakistan-based umbrella group of factions linked to the militant Taliban organization has threatened to kill or rape all non-Muslims to enslave their children and take away their properties, unless they meet tough conditions.

By BosNewsLife Asia Service with BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos KATHMANDU, NEPAL (BosNewsLife)-- Christians in Nepal tried to worship Saturday, June 13, after police detained a Hindu militant for alleged involvement in a bomb blast that killed three people and injured over a dozen others at a Roman Catholic Church, and the prime minister pledged to end political strife in this impoverished mountainous nation.

By BosNewsLife Asia Service BEIJING, CHINA (BosNewsLife)-- Over a dozen Chinese house church leaders faced another day of detention Saturday, and some of them the prospect of years imprisonment, after security forces raided a house church in China's Sichuan province, Christians said. There was also concern over the whereabouts of a prominent human rights lawyer after a Chinese official spoke about his alleged kidnapping by security forces.

By BosNewsLife Asia Service LAHORE, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)-- A Christian man was beaten to death in Pakistan's Punjab province for drinking from a tea cup “designated for Muslims,” the latest in several attacks against the Christian minority in this region, local Christians and rights investigators said Friday, June 12.

By BosNewsLife Asia Service BEIJING, CHINA (BosNewsLife) A court in Beijing found Christian bookstore owner and house church leader ,Shi Weihan, guilty of “illegal business operation” and sentenced him to three years in prison and fined him 150,000 Yuan fine ($22,000) for printing and distributing Bibles for free, his defense team and Christian supporters said Thursday, June 11.

(ADDS MORE DETAILS, MORE CASES) By Jawad Mazhar, BosNewsLife Special Correspondent reporting from Pakistan OKARA, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)-- Amid rising Islamic extremism, Pakistani Christians have demanded a halt to the destruction of a Christian cemetery in Punjab province and the return of a seized church in the provincial capital Lahore, BosNewsLife monitored Thursday, June 11.

By BosNewsLife Asia Service ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)-- A young Christian man from Pakistan has been raped and murdered by angry Muslims, for making love with his Muslim girl friend and refusing to convert to Islam, a Christian rights group said.

By BosNewsLife Asia Service with BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos RANGOON, BURMA (BosNewsLife)-- A Christian-run orphanage in Burma near the border with Thailand has been attacked by the Burmese army, amid a fresh crackdown on the predominantly Christian Karen people in the area, officials and children told BosNewsLife Friday, June 5.