Breaking Christian News on The Gospel Herald

The death toll from Sunday’s church hostage crisis in Iraq shot up to 52 on Monday while the number of people wounded rose to 67.

Authorities in Haiti say the deadly cholera epidemic there is slowing down, but many people are still at risk, report aid groups working in the area.

The world’s largest network of evangelicals has committed itself to taking measures to ensure that the critical referendum in Southern Sudan is a success.

Churches across Chile have been hosting around-the-clock vigils and special services as rescuers pulled out one-by-one the 33 miners who have been trapped underground for 69 days.

A U.N. resolution that seeks to criminalize words and actions perceived as attacks against religion – particularly Islam – will be up for vote again this year.

With North Korea paving the way for its next leader, Christian persecution watchdogs are hoping that the change of leadership will mark a turning point for the country’s Christian population, which is forced to hide their faith or face arrest, imprisonment, torture and even death.

Catholic Bishops from Muslim-majority countries and elsewhere in the world will convene at the Vatican for a landmark “Special Assembly for the Middle East.”

Authorities in Saudi Arabia have charged 12 expatriates from the Philippines and one from France with proselytizing, according to an official at the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh.

An Islamic organization that claims to represent “the collective voice of the Muslim world” is trying to get the U.N. Human Rights Council to pass a resolution condemning the highly-publicized and now-defunct plan of a U.S. preacher to burn Qurans.

Police in Indonesia have arrested ten suspects in connection to Sunday’s attack of two church leaders, authorities reported Wednesday.

The stoning sentence of a woman convicted of adultery and murder has been put “on hold,” according to a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

The Vatican is expected to intervene in the case of an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning, but “not in a public way.”

More than a month since floods started ravaging Pakistan’s northwest region, relief workers on the ground say the emergency will “get worse before it gets better.”

An aid worker for Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse was released Monday after being held hostage for 105 days in Sudan.

Aijalon Mahli Gomes, the American who was held for seven months in North Korea, arrived home Friday after former President Jimmy Carter flew to the reclusive nation to secure his release.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was expected to arrive in North Korea’s capital city as early as Tuesday to negotiate the release of a U.S. citizen who has been detained since January of this year.

The international community has so far committed close to $229.5 million in support and another $142 million in additional pledges for responses to Pakistan’s devastating flooding disaster.

A team sent by the U.S. State Department to visit North Korea last week tried to free an American jailed there but was not granted permission to do so, department spokesman P.J. Crowley reported Monday.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed “deep concern” on Thursday over the continued persecution of religious minority communities in Iran by the national government.

Organizations around the world have condemned the killing of ten medical workers who were serving the poor in the northeastern Afghan province of Badakhshan.

A Christian aid agency that has been working in Niger since 1995 says the current food shortage in the West African country is the worst they’ve seen since the 2005 food crisis.

The leader of the World Council of Churches is urging Pakistan’s president and prime minister to initiate measures toward the repeal of their controversial blasphemy laws, which critics say are often abused by extremists.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu announced Thursday his intention to retire from public life on Oct. 7 – the day he is to turn 79.

Six months after Haiti's devastating earthquake, one of the largest Christian humanitarian organizations in the world says much has been done to help the people of the Caribbean country.

An alliance of Christian humanitarian groups is pressing the government of Kyrgyzstan to launch an investigation into the recent civil conflict that left over a half-million people in immediate need of food, water, shelter, and medical care.