Breaking Christian News on The Gospel Herald

July 17, 2017: A member of an Islamic extremist group in Pakistan has accused a Christian minor of blasphemy after the boy had an argument with a Muslim, sources said.

July 5, 2017: After an attack in eastern India in which a Christian was seriously injured, police and Hindus this month created an "agreement" - without participation of church members - effectively halting worship services, sources said.

July 5, 2017: Four Iranian converts facing the possibility of up to six years in prison on charges of "acting against national security" are awaiting a verdict expected to be issued soon after numerous delays, according to human rights activists.

June 26, 2017: Villagers in Uttar Pradesh state, India beat Christians, forced them to participate in Hindu rituals and have refused to provide them water, sources said.

A Christian sanitation worker in Pakistan died on Thursday (June 1) after Muslim doctors refused to treat him for poisonous gas he was exposed to in a sewer, sources said.

A pastor and another Christian serving a 12-year sentence in Sudan were freed today after they were granted a presidential pardon, sources said.

A 14-year-old Catholic girl in Pakistan, taken from her family in December and forcibly converted to Islam, was rescued on Wednesday (April 26), her lawyer said.

A year after Muslim Fulani herdsmen slaughtered an estimated 300 predominantly Christian farmers in Agatu, Benue state, deadly attacks continued in the state the first 10 weeks of the year, sources said.

China Aid's 2016 Annual Persecution Report details a seismic shift in the Chinese government's approach to religious policy that is expected to lead to further persecution.

Police in Omdurman, Sudan arrested four Christians this week and accused them of destroying the sign board of a Muslim interest trying to take over their Christian school, source said.

A 16-year-old Christian in Pakistan is languishing in jail under a baseless blasphemy charge after a judge declined to grant him bail this month, his attorney said.

State officials in Sudan plan to demolish at least 25 church buildings in the Khartoum area, according to Christian leaders.

A 70-year-old Christian in Pakistan was jailed on blasphemy charges on the same day 106 Muslims accused in a 2013 attack on a Christian colony were acquitted.

Islamic extremists ambushed a church leader in eastern Uganda last week after a sheikh they had sent to assassinate him at a church service instead became a Christian, sources said.

Muslim relatives of a young woman in eastern Uganda who put her faith in Christ at a Christmas service coerced her into taking poison at a New Year's celebration, she said.

Muslims in Pakistan have filed a blasphemy charge against a Christian in retaliation for refusing their demand that he and others cede church land to them, sources said.

Two assistant priests in Burma (also called Myanmar) are missing after informing journalists about the bombing of a Catholic church building in Shan state, sources said.

Police in Australia today arrested seven suspected Islamic terrorists after thwarting a planned bomb attack on three sites in Melbourne, including St. Paul's Cathedral.

The blasphemy trial of Jakarta Gov. Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama began this morning, with the ethnic Chinese Christian breaking into tears inside the courtroom while hundreds of people protested outside.

Relatives of a former Islamic teacher attacked his 60-year-old mother on Thursday (Dec. 8) for becoming a Christian, wounding her head and breaking her hand, sources said

Having concluded their investigations, Indonesian police have now named Jakarta's ethnic Chinese Christian Gov. Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama a suspect in a blasphemy case. The case that has produced virulent protests will now to go trial.

A pastor in southwestern China, jailed for nearly a year on fabricated charges and suffering a liver disease, focuses on trusting God in a letter of encouragement to his wife, according to China Aid.

Attacks by Muslim Fulani herdsmen or allied gunmen in southern Kaduna State appear to be increasingly militant, marked by greater sophistication in training and arms, sources said.

In October 2012, the South China Morning Post ran a series of articles on China's looming leadership transition. One line might prove prophetic, although not in the way intended: "For clues about how China's leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping might manage the world's second-largest economy, Zhejiang Province is a good place to start looking."

As Islamist groups warned of reprisals for a possible acquittal in Pakistan's highest profile blasphemy case, the country's Supreme Court today delayed ruling on an appeal against the death sentence given to Christian mother of five Aasiya Noreen.