Charisma News

A single chair and pictures of Nobel Prize Laureate Liu Xiaboo with a Christian woman who was brutally beaten by the Chinese government.

Those are the elements of a peaceful protest that Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, plans to launch this morning in front of the White House.

The demonstration, which Mahoney is planning in a “no demonstration”  zone, comes a day before Chinese President Hu Jintao will visit the White House. Mahoney will kneel in prayer on the chair, knowing that his actions could land him in jail.

“We are calling upon President Obama to publicly, passionately and boldly speak out against the human and religious rights abuses by the Chinese government against their own people when President Hu Jintao visits the White House this week,” Mahoney says.

“Sadly, the Obama Administration has remained painfully silent when it comes to the China’s utter disregard for human rights and religious freedom. He has refused to speak out against their policy of forced abortion and gendercide against Chinese women.

Mahoney says the empty chair represents all those who could never attend a State Dinner because they are being persecuted and in prison for their religious and political beliefs. The demonstration also represents the empty chair from the Noble Peace prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway when Xiaobo could not accept the award because the Chinese government had imprisoned him for speaking out for freedom and democratic reforms in China.

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.

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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.