Middle East

By BosNewsLife Middle East Service CAIRO, EGYPT (BosNewsLife)-- Egyptian police have detained six men after an armed mob stripped an elderly Christian woman and paraded her naked on the streets in an attack in which seven Christian homes were also looted and torched, security and church officials say.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife TEHRAN, IRAN (BosNewsLife)-- Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani of the Church of Iran, the country's largest house church movement, and his wife Tina Pasandide Nadarkhani have been released from detention but three other church members remain in custody, a senior church official told BosNewsLife Saturday, May 14.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife TEHRAN, IRAN (BosNewsLife)-- An evangelical pastor of one of Iran's largest house church movements, who faced a death sentence for apostasy before being acquitted, was again detained Friday, May 13, along with his wife and another church member, Christian rights activists told BosNewsLife.

By BosNewsLife Middle East Service with reporting by BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos and local sources DAMASCUS, SYRIA (BosNewsLife)-- Christian aid workers have urged prayers after up to 200 Christians were reportedly killed in sustained bombardments of Syria's northern city of Aleppo, as the country's civil war enters its sixth year.

By BosNewsLife News Center VATICAN CITY/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)-- Pope Francis has called a Christian Syrian woman "a martyr" after hearing she was killed by Islamic militants for refusing to deny her faith in Jesus Christ. The leader of the world's one billion Catholics told the faithful in St. Peter's Square that he spoke with the young woman's widow during his visit Saturday, April 16, to the Greek island of Lesbos where he also visited refugees held in an overcrowded detention center.

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 BosNewsLife Middle East Service ADEN, YEMEN (BosNewsLife)-- Pope Francis has condemned the murder of four nuns and twelve other people at a home for the elderly in the wartorn Aden, Yemen.

By BosNewsLife Middle East Service DAMASCUS, SYRIA (BosNewsLife)-- Assyrian Christians in Syria are celebrating the release of the remaining 43 Christians taken hostage by the Islamic State group from villages along the Khabour River in Hassaka Governorate in February 2015, but warn that several other believers remain detained. Monday's release came one day short of the anniversary of their abduction, said Middle East Concern (MEC), an advocacy group closely monitoring the situation.

By Alexander MacDonald and Stefan J. Bos CAIRO/ROME (BosNewsLife)-- Egypt's embattled Coptic community on Monday, February 15, marked the one year since video surfaced of the murder of 21 Coptic Orthodox Christians on a beach in Libya. The men were marched in orange suits across the beach, forced to kneel and then were beheaded by Islamic State group militants.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife