29 Chinese Christians arrested
Church leaders apprehended for holding 'illegal religious gathering'
Posted: December 13, 20051:00 a.m. Eastern

Just two weeks before Christmas, the Chinese government yesterday arrested 29 Christians for holding an "illegal religious gathering."

According to the China Aid Association, citing eyewitness reports, 40 law enforcement officers with eight police vehicles raided a house church leadership meeting at Xiapigang Village in China's Henan Province. Some 100 major church leaders from Henan and Anhui were gathered at a believer's house, discussing how the house churches could help a large group of peasants who had contracted AIDS. That area is widely known as "the AIDS Disaster Area" because many peasants became infected when they sold their blood to local blood centers contaminated with the AIDS virus. Story


Islamists call for elimination of Christians
Pakistani Muslims also want to see man charged with blasphemy hanged
Posted: December 13, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jeremy Reynalds

Militant Islamists in Pakistan have called for the elimination of Christians and the public hanging of a Christian accused of blasphemy.

According to a news release from human rights organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide, or CSW, about 3,000 Muslims gathered for Friday prayers at the Jamia Mosque in Sangla Hill on Dec. 2. It was at that location three weeks earlier that three churches, a school, a convent and Christian homes were attacked in Pakistan's worst outbreak of anti-Christian violence since 2002. The rest