ASMARA, ERITREA (BosNewsLife)-- The deposed prelate of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, Abune Antonios, spent Thursday, January 31, under strict house arrest, amid reports that authorities have increased pressure on him following this month's visit by a United States Congress team.

GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP (BosNewsLife)-- Palestinian Christians in the troubled Gaza Strip, who already struggle amid death threats and violence, faced another humanitarian crisis Wednesday, January 30, after Israel's Supreme Court backed the state's decision to cut supplies of fuel and electricity to the Hamas-run entity.

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)-- Christians in Pakistan's volatile North West Frontier Province (NWFP) faced new tensions Wednesday, January 30, amid reports that a Pakistani pastor has been shot and killed because of his involvement in evangelistic work.

BEIJING, CHINA (BosNewsLife)-- Members of a house church in China's Yunan Province were "severely beaten" by police officials, who earlier "burned" the church's Bibles, a Christian rights group said Wednesday, January 30.

CAIRO, EGYPT (BosNewsLife)-- In a major setback for former Muslims, a Cairo court on Tuesday, January 28, rejected a request by a Christian convert from Islam to have his new religion officially recognized by the state.

CAIRO, EGYPT (BosNewsLife)-- An Egyptian court was to make a ruling Tuesday, January 29, on a landmark case of the country's first former Muslim to seek official recognition for his conversion from Islam to Christianity.

NAIROBI, KENYA (BosNewsLife)-- Fresh riots broke out in Kenya Tuesday, January 29, after a key opposition lawmaker and a Catholic priest were murderd, as the overall death toll reached over 900 since violence began following the disputed December 27 election, news reports and police said.

ATHENS/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)-- The head of Greece's powerful Orthodox Church, Archbishop Christodoulos, who eased centuries of tension with the Vatican but angered ultra-Orthodox members, died Monday, January 28, after losing his battle against cancer. He was 69.

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)-- Pakistani police have freed a Christian woman who was abducted four months ago and forced to convert to Islam and marry a Muslim man in Pakistan's tense province of Punjab, a Christian rights group said Monday, January 28.

MARR BALOCHAAN, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)-- The father of a disappeared Christian teenager in a poverty-stricken village of Pakistan's Punjab Province continued searching for his son Monday, January 28, saying suspected Muslim criminals kidnapped and sold him for "illegal human organ extraction and transplantation," following similar cases in the region.