Category: News

Protests erupted in Tunisia’s streets Monday as the prime minister announced a national unity government.
Although the new unity government negotiated with the opposition parties and would appoint ministers of the interior, state, finance and defense from the old ruling party, people still protested the new coalition government.

It took one month for Tunisia–long considered stable–to disintegrate. It started on December 17 when an unemployed graduate set himself on fire. Soon, thousands were in the streets demanding more job opportunities and a higher standard of living.

A mother of four was killed for her Christian faith on Jan. 7 on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia by Islamic extremists from al Shabaab militia, a relative said.
 
The relative, who requested anonymity, said Asha Mberwa, 36, was killed at 5:15 p.m. in Warbhigly village; the Islamic extremists from the insurgent group had arrested her outside her house the previous day at 8:30 a.m. She died when the militants cut her throat in front of villagers who came out of their homes as witnesses.
 
She is survived by her children — ages 12, 8, 6 and 4 — and her husband, who was not home at the time she was apprehended. They had married in 1993.

A Muslim who allegedly confessed to sexually assaulting five Christian girls raped a 10-year-old Catholic girl in Punjab Province last month, according to her family.

Tarkhani police have charged 25-year-old Muhammad Aftab, also known as Chandu, with raping a minor (section 376 of the Pakistan Penal Code) in a sugar cane field in Village 226-GB, according to First Information Report (FIR) No. 429 at the Tarkhani Police Station. Aftab has been arrested and remanded to Central Jail Faisalabad.

The strange animal deaths continue. According to the AP, California wildlife officials are trying to figure out what caused the … Read More

What is secular media reporting about the Christian world this week? Here are some interesting stories worth reading as we … Read More

Massive tent camps. Rampant cholera outbreaks. Civil unrest.

Despite the many obstacles to rebuilding Haiti after last year’s massive earthquake, seeds of hope in the form of permanent housing are starting to sprout up.

Fifteen families have been able to move out of the tent camps, away from disease and destruction, into simple decent solid homes through the work of the Fuller Center, a non-profit ecumenical Christian housing ministry working to eliminate poverty housing worldwide.

“It’s been devastating to see the suffering and destruction,” says Heather Nozea who’s been on the ground in Haiti with her husband, Gerson, helping build homes with The Fuller Center. “But I feel great joy that we’ve been able to help these families and plans are underway to help many more families in the future.”

Nine of the 15 Fuller Center homes were built in Leogane, four in Saint Ard, and another two in Bellanton. The homes were built using earthquake- and hurricane-resistant techniques.

As news reports reveal that 23 people were killed and more than 90 injured in the New Year’s Day attack on Egyptian Christians, some leaders are looking to the U.S. government to step in.

Indeed, Michael Youssef, founder and president of “Leading The Way,” a weekly television broadcast that airs in more than 200 countries in 20 languages, is asking U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to pressure the Egyptian Government to bring back law and order, and to grant Christians the same liberties as Muslims.

If the bird and fish deaths in Arkansas weren’t spooky enough, millions more dead fish have turned up in Maryland. And the United Kingdom and Italy are also reporting unusual animal deaths. What’s going on?

It all started on New Year’s Eve when reports came in that 5,000 blackbirds dropped out of the sky in Beebe, Ark. The next day, about 100,000 dead drum fish floated to the shore of the Arkansas River.

If that’s where it ended, it might not have gained national attention. But a few days later, about 2 million juvenile spot fish were dead in the Chesapeake Bay.

Christian recording artists Moses and Erica Lugemye are commemorating the one-year anniversary of the Haiti earthquake with the release of their new song “Alive.”

All proceeds from sales of the song will benefit the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Haiti Homes of Hope program, which provides concrete houses for homeless people in Haiti.

Located 55 miles outside Port-au-Prince, the Love a Child Orphanage became a place of refuge for more than just children immediately after the earthquake. For several days, founders Bobby and Sherry Burnette transported the injured from the streets to a small hospital adjacent to their property, then opened their school classrooms for more additional patients when the hospital’s capacity overflowed.

Love a Child continues to grow as a refuge of hope. Plans now include creating a prototype sustainable community called Miracle Village with 500 new homes, a church, marketplace, chicken farm, clinic, some microbusinesses and more.

It’s a story that works to break down the walls between Muslims and Jews. It’s the story of Kevin, a 14-month-old Indonesian boy diagnosed with Congenital Heart Disease just eight days after his birth. His fate looked grim–the heart malformation is responsible for more deaths within the first year of life than any other birth defect.

Kevin’s misfortune was an opportunity for Save a Child’s Heart, an Israel-based international humanitarian project focused on improving the quality of pediatric care for children from developing nations, to treat its first Indonesian child.

Kevin’s surgery, which was made possible by donations from the American Jewish Committee (AJC), was a success and doctors are optimistic that Kevin will make a full recovery. Perhaps when he does, he’ll remember the kindness of the Israeli people.

Christian leaders in Punjab Province’s Nankana Sahib district said they were apprehensive after a police inspector’s warning on Friday (Jan. 7) that “they would be responsible for anything that went wrong in the villages” if they continued preaching over a public address system.

Eight pastors leading a delegation of more than 100 Christians from Martinpur and Youngsenabad villages had persuaded police to drop the charge of preaching over the church loudspeakers — a practice routinely allowed by Muslims in mosques. They complained of inspector Muhammad Rana Ishaq’s veiled threat to the police chief, but they fear Ishaq will file other false cases against them in retaliation for the withdrawal of the charge.