Jennifer LeClaire

 Three Bible college students and a missionary leader were severely beaten in Asia.

Kamik Sandbahor, who serves on the staff of the Gospel for Asia state office, was leading a team of students from a local Bible college as they visited villagers in a rural community. Kamik, Jatrinda, Ajmal and Sanjavin were handing out Christian literature when they were attacked by a gang of about 25 young men wielding iron rods and sticks.

A court in Bangladesh on Thursday exonerated two Christians along with four Muslim friends accused of “hurting religious sensibility.”

Nurul Islam, another Christian and their Muslim friends were cleared of the charge after police failed to provide documentation of any evidence against them, an attorney said.

In March, Christians under the direction of the Way of Peace movement had arranged a two-day health camp offering free treatment to poor villagers in Damurhuda area in Chuadanga district, some 210 kilometers (126 miles) northwest of Dhaka.

Around 100 villagers attended the camp for free treatment the first day, March 23, and a Japanese doctor treated them. But two of the Christian organizers and their Muslim friends were arrested on March 24 under Section 54 of the penal code, a special power granted to police to arrest anyone on any suspicion.

An American citizen has been kidnapped from his temporary home in Lahore, Pakistan, according to police officials and the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan.

The man, who has been identified as Warren Weinstein, was abducted from his home in an area called Model Town by six masked gunmen on Saturday. Weinstein, who is employed by the Virginia-based consulting firm J.E. Austin Associates, has resided in Pakistan for the past seven years while working on a development project financed by the U.S. government.

The gunmen overpowered the guards who were stationed at the front gate, then stormed into the house and snatched Weinstein from his bedroom.

International Christian Concern has learned that members of a radical Islamic group, Boko Haram, killed at least 10 Christians in Maiduguri, Nigeria over the past two months in what a Christian leader is calling a “silent killing” of Christians.

In an interview with ICC, an anonymous local church leader explained: “Boko Haram is seeking to eliminate Christianity because they want Islamic (Shariah) law. They don’t want to see anything Christian in the northern states [of Nigeria]. That is why churches are being persecuted and Muslims who don’t follow the [hardline teachings of] Boko Haram are also persecuted.”

Boko Haram is close to achieving its goal of eliminating Christianity from Maiduguri. Most of the Christians have fled the city in fear of further attacks by the Islamists. Of the churches that remain, some have felt compelled to suspend their services to protect their congregations.

Roiling balls of angry flames throb from gutted buildings and shops in north London. Rioting young people with faces masked by dark cloth wrappings clash with London riot police. Charred frames of metal that were once cars litter the streets.

Violent London riots have been raging since the police shooting of 29-year-old Mark Duggan on Aug. 4. Police were attempting to arrest him in Tottenham, a city with a familiar history of riots.

Following Duggan’s death, his friends and family gathered for a peaceful protest at the Tottenham police station. But things did not stay peaceful after 300 people joined the protest and violence quickly erupted.

A 14-year-old girl in western Uganda is still unable to walk 10 months after her father tortured her for leaving Islam and putting her faith in Christ, according to area Christians.

Susan Ithungu of Isango village, Kasese district, has been hospitalized at Kagando Hospital since October 2010 after neighbors with police help rescued her from her father, Beya Baluku. He was arrested shortly afterward but quickly released, sources said.

Susan and her younger brother, Mbusa Baluku, lived alone with their father after he divorced their mother. In March 2010 an evangelist from Bwera Full Gospel Church spoke at Susan’s school, and she decided to trust Christ for her salvation.

The United Nation Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says the number of Somalis arriving in northeastern Kenya continues to grow, with thousands more arriving each week.

The stream of refugees is the most obvious sign of drought conditions in Somalia. Numbers provided by UN show that almost half of Somalia’s population, 3.7 million people, is affected by the current crisis. The Horn of Africa famine could claim an entire generation by the time it’s over. Worse, al Shabaab—a militant rebel group—was standing in between the starving people and the food brought in by the international community.

Amid fears of an economic crisis, listeners of national Christian radio stations K-Love and Air1 donated nearly $2 million in a daylong campaign to provide Compassion’s Water of Life safe water systems to those living in extreme poverty in Rwanda.

K-Love and Air1 focused on the immense need for safe water in Rwanda where 60 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. More than one-third of the population is without improved drinking water sources and nearly half are without improved sanitation facilities.

“The money raised will provide over 35,000 Compassion children and their families with safe drinking water for the rest of their lives,” says Mark Hanlon, Compassion’s senior vice president for US operations.

A Coptic Christian was killed and several others were injured in Upper Egypt after Muslims on Sunday attacked a predominantly Christian village following an argument between a Muslim and Christian.

The attack at Nazlet Faragallah village in Minya, 218 kilometers south of Cairo, lasted until Monday morning, Christians said. The attackers raided an unknown number of homes owned by Christian villagers and set eight on fire, area residents said.

The assailants killed Maher Nassif, 46, a civil servant and livestock farmer, when he tried to defend his home. The men burst into Nassif’s house, shot him in the head and slit his throat while his teenage son watched from under a bed where he was hiding, Christian villagers said. The men looted the home and stole Nassif’s livestock as his son escaped into the night, according to villagers who spoke with the boy.

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