NEWS ALERT: China Security Forces Destroy Church
December 22, 2008BosNewsLife Asia Service
BEIJING, CHINA (BosNewsLife)-- Chinese police and some 1,000 government supporters destroyed a large church and beat believers in China's Jiangsu province, despite court orders to protect the building, Chinese Christians said Monday, December 22. 
ASMARA, ERITREA (BosNewsLife)-- Several churches in Eritrea were without their leaders and other believers Sunday, December 21, as a government-backed campaign of mass arrests reached the capital Asmara amid fears several detainees died of mistreatment, Christians said.
BANJUL, THE GAMBIA (BosNewsLife)-- A Christian missionary couple from Britain remained behind bars in The Gambia Saturday, December 20, and was due in court on Christmas Eve, for allegedly undermining the government of autocratic President Yahya Jammeh.
SARGODHA, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)-- Pakistani police ransacked run-down homes of Christians living in a slum of Pakistan's 10th largest city and "severely tortured Christian women" leaving several of them "critically injured", local residents told BosNewsLife.
BEIJING, CHINA (BosNewsLife)-- Over a dozen Christians will spend Christmas behind bars in China after police raided a Christian leaders gathering in Henan privince, while in the capital Beijing two officials of the banned Chinese House Church Alliance were detained, an advocacy group and Chinese Christians confirmed Thursday, December 18.
JAKARTA, INDONESIA (BosNewsLife)-- A tense calm returned to the troubled district of Masohi in Indonesia's Central Maluku province, where angry Muslims torched churches, dozens of homes and other properties after a Christian teacher allegedly made comments insulting Islam, rights investigators said Wednesday, December 17. 
UZHHOROD, UKRAINE (BosNewsLife)-- A Christian group fighting corruption in Ukraine's border region with the European Union has urged judges not to celebrate their annual 'Court Workers Day' Monday, December 15, amid evidence that several Ukrainian courts received bribes or other favors in exchange for favorable rulings. 
LAHORE, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)-- In an unprecedented move the government of Pakistan's Punjab province has ordered all government agencies to pay a Christmas bonus to impoverished Christian employees, following religious tensions in the region, officials told BosNewsLife Sunday, December 14.
BHUBANESWAR, INDIA BosNewsLife)-- Fearing violence, Christians in India's volatile state of Orissa will for the first time in their history not celebrate Christmas and instead mourn victims of recent anti-Christian attacks, which killed dozens, and those who died in shootings in Mumbai, a priest told BosNewsLife, Saturday, December 13. 
ISTANBUL, TURKEY (BosNewsLife)-- Protestant churches in Turkey condemned Friday, December 12, the introduction of a school book by the Ministry of Education, which they say encourages discrimination of minority Christians, despite Western concerns over increased violence against the country's non-Muslims. 