Author: Alan Johnston

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7666158.stm

A Catholic nun, Sister Alphonsa, has become India's first female Christian saint, at an event presided over by Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican.

The canonisation was greeted with delight by Christians in the southern Indian state of Kerala, where Sister Alphonsa lived until her death in 1946.

It is being described as a boost to the spirits of...

Author: Alissa J. Rubin and Stephen Farrell

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/world/middleeast/13iraq.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

Two suicide bombers struck the northern city of Mosul on Sunday, killing at least five Iraqis and wounding dozens more, as Iraq’s leaders rallied behind the city’s Christian minority, expressing distress at recent murders and displacement that have plagued...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7665830.stm

Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki has vowed to protect Christians in Mosul after 1,000 police were deployed in the wake of sectarian attacks in the northern city.

Mosul's provincial governor said hundreds of Christian families had fled the city in the past week to seek refuge in outlying villages.

Sunni militants have been blamed for the murders of 12...

Author: Shaikh Azizur Rahman

Source: The National

[thenational.ae/article/20081011/FOREIGN/254874587/1015/SPORT]

Christian youths in the eastern state of Orissa have turned to militancy by teaming up with local Maoists. Police are concerned that if anti-Christian riots continue, the Christians may also join forces with Muslim militants to take on Hindus.

The shift follows seven weeks of violence triggered by the killing of a local Hindu leader, Swami Laxmananda Saraswati, a leader of the...

Author: Tom Kisken

Original Source: Scripps Howard News Service

https://religiousliberty.tv/disputes-over-religion-and-health-care-land-in-calif-...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Times of India

[timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/22_arrested_in_TN_for_damaging_religious_institutions/rssarticleshow/3581492.cms]

The Tamil Nadu police detained 22 people for desecrating Christian institutions, even as there were reports of further attacks against select targets.

While two Bibles embedded in the outer walls of Protestant churches in Chennai were damaged, another institution in Coimbatore reported a similar incident.

Tamil Nadu Director...

Author: Erica Goode and Suadad Al-Salhy

Source: The New York Times

Author: Andrew Buncombe

Source: The Independent

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/holy-war-strikes-india-955502.html

As she recalled her awful story, Puspanjali Panda made no attempt to halt the tears flooding down her face.

Holding her daughter close, she told how a baying Hindu mob dragged her husband – a Christian pastor – from his bed, beat him to death with stones and iron rods and...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7658355.stm

Egypt's occasionally fragile sectarian ties have been shaken by the murder of a Muslim whose wife converted to Islam against her Christian family's wishes.

Police said Mariam Khilla's brother, Rami, broke into their Cairo home and opened fire, killing her husband and injuring Mrs Khilla and their daughter.

Mr Khilla had been searching for...

Author: David L. Hudson Jr.

Source: The First Amendment Center

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=20654

For the third time, a federal judge has rejected a lawsuit over a kindergartner’s religious-themed poster, ruling New York school officials didn’t violate the First Amendment by censoring the boy’s work.

The nearly decade-long dispute began in 1999 at Catherine McNamara Elementary School in New York when...

Author: Laura Jean Karr

Source: The Examiner

http://www.examiner.com/x-774-Religion-and-Spirituality-Examiner~y2008m10d6-Freedom-From-Religion-group-to-sue-President-Bush

The Freedom from Religion Foundation filed a claim last week that President Bush in conjunction with the Evangelical based Focus on the Family group who runs the National Day of Prayer Task Force is breaking...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Americans United for Separation of Church and State

Author: Staff Writer

Source: The Economist

http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12342509

Zhao Xiao, a former Communist Party official and convert to Christianity, smiles over a cup of tea and says he thinks there are up to 130m Christians in China. This is far larger than previous estimates. The government says there are 21m (16m Protestants, 5m Catholics). Unofficial figures, such as one given by the Centre...

Author: Taryn Luntz

Source: The Examiner

Author: Staff Writer

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7641247.stm

Anti-Christian riots have rocked several parts of India over the past month. The BBC's Soutik Biswas travels to a remote region in the eastern Orissa state, where it all began, to explore the touchy issue of religious conversions.

Sixty-year-old Indian farmer Kanduri Digal says he converted to Christianity a decade ago because he found "it a very useful...