More than 600 churches have been demolished, 4,000 Christians forced to flee from their villages, and at least 25 killed as a result of violent persecution in the state of Orissa in eastern India.

An American pastor who disappeared after being detained by Chinese authorities for his involvement in human rights protests has arrived in the United States, but a key Chinese bishop leader has been detained, his friends and representatives said Tuesday, August 26.

Two persons, including a woman, were burned to death, a pastor critically injured and at least a dozen churches torched as anti Christian violence rocked the Indian state of Orissa, officials confirmed Tuesday, August 26.

As the Beijing Olympics drew to a close Sunday, August 24, with televised fireworks and a multi-million dollar show, there was concern over rights abuses of Christians in Communist-run China, amid reports that an American pastor disappeared.

At least some nine Christian converts remained detained in Yemen Friday, August 22, amid international concerns they may be tortured or even killed because of their decision to abandon Islam.

At least one Gospel for Asia missionary has been attacked, churches and homes have been destroyed and Christians are fleeing for their lives in India’s Orissa state in the wake of the murder of a leading anti-Christian activist leader.

Anti-Christian extremists brutally attacked Rasul Sarvak, a Bible college student, and seven Gospel for Asia missionaries on India’s Independence Day, August 15. The mob became enraged after they saw Rasul passing out Gospel literature with a team of other students from the college.

On Sunday (August 17) a Muslim mob stormed a church service in Cipayung, East Jakarta, forcing Christians to flee and then erecting banners in the street declaring a ban on "churches and religious services."

As the Olympics draw to a close, new evidence of religious freedom abuses offers a stark contrast to China’s efforts to provide religious services for athletes and visitors during the Games.

A civil court on Aug. 5 denied a woman's appeal to renounce Islam in favor of Christianity, highlighting the jurisdictional disputes in Malaysia's dual legal system.

Blaming the death of their leader on Christian prayers, an Islamist group that launched a hate campaign in response to an evangelistic event in 2004 is reportedly attacking Christians in this Kwara state capital with renewed virulence, area Christians said.

Sohan didn't know what to expect when the man asked him to wait for just a minute. Sohan, a third year student at a Gospel for Asia Bible college, was handing out Gospel tracts in a city in Maharashtra, India. One man who received a tract asked Sohan to stay put until he got back.

Hindu radicals attacked a Christian meeting recently.

The Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) www.persecution.org has learned that a Saudi Arabian man cut out the tongue of his daughter and burned her to death after finding out that she had converted to Christianity.

China Aid Association has learned that two of the four missionaries detained in Inner Mongolia in early July have been released after serving 30 days adminstrative detention.

Authorities on Tuesday (August 5) locked up eight high school students at a military training school in metal shipping containers for objecting to the burning of hundreds of Bibles, sources told Compass.

As President Bush today (Sunday) visited and attended a service at the Three Self Patriotic Movement's (TSPM)Kuanjie Church established by the government, a renowned Christian social activist in Beijing was arrested once again by the Chinese police, but has since eluded authorities.

One year after the first attempt by an Egyptian Muslim convert to Christianity to change his religious identity, another convert this week became the second to make such a controversial legal request.

Christians in two churches that were were extensively damaged last year during religious violence in northern Nigeria were without places of worship Sunday, August 3, after authorities reportedly ordered them to vacate their premises.

The judge in the criminal trial of Baptist pastor Hamid Shabanov in Azerbaijan has not yet convicted him.