Pastor released from prison in Vietnam

(Source: The Voice of the Martyrs) Pastor Y Wo Nie was released in December 2011! Y Wo Nie, a Vietnamese pastor who was arrested in August 2004, has been released from prison. Y Wo Nie was given a nine-year prison sentence for leading a demonstration demanding more religious freedom and the release of property confiscated by the Vietnamese government. He was released in December 2011. At last report, he...

Three Iranian pastors report to prison

Pray that these pastors will be returned to their families soon. Photo: Assist News Service Three pastors, who are also husbands and fathers of young children, have been ordered to report to prison in Shiraz, Iran, reports VOM-USA. Pastor Parviz Khalaj, a husband and father to a 10-year-old son, was convicted of committing crimes against the order and was sentenced to two years in prison. Pastor William...

Christians warned by Muslim militants to leave Nigeria’s north within days

(Sources: CNN, Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin) St. Theresa’s Catholic Church building after a Christmas Day bombing that claimed 45 lives. Photo: Abayomi Fayese via Compass Direct News On January 1, the militant Islamic group Boko Haram issued an ultimatum giving Christians living in northern Nigeria three days to leave the area amid a rising tide of violence. Boko Haram spokesman, Abul Qaqa,...

Bomb attack targets Christians in Nepal

(Source: Compass Direct News) Assumption Catholic Church after the bombing in 2009. Two years after an explosion shook one of the biggest Catholic churches in Nepal and killed three people, the underground group that orchestrated the attack claimed responsibility for another bomb blast in November (for more on the 2009 attack, click here). A crude bomb went off on November 22 in front of a leading...

Believers beaten and belongings destroyed in Vietnam

(Source: Compass Direct News) Nguyen Thi Lan’s pelvis was broken in two places in the attack on her house church, Agape Baptist Church. Photo: Compass Direct News More than a dozen Christian men, women and teenagers were brutally beaten and their property destroyed near Hanoi, Vietnam, in what sources say was a religiously-motivated attack. The Christian house church leaders, as well as other assembled...