Asia
Brunei: the next stage of Sharia
Brunei is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coastline, the country is completely surrounded by Malaysia. In…
Armenia: update
Prime minister Serzh Sargsyan was forced to step down after weeks of mass demonstrations. Many hoped he would be replaced by a more honest and honourable man, Nikol Pashinyan. On 2 May 96%…
Nepal: sharing the Gospel
Nepal has eight of the ten highest peaks in the world. The Himalayas cross northern Nepal, and rugged terrain makes remote communities extremely difficult to access. Six years ago *A, a Nepali Christian…
Taiwan: praying for fire to fall
At 9am on the fourth day of the ‘Hot Fire Special’, a long queue outside a basketball stadium in Taipei waited to enter and fill over 6,000 seats. Christians from home and abroad…
Armenia: urgent international appeal
On 21 April, 37 human rights organisations and NGOs made an urgent appeal to the UN Council of Europe on behalf of Armenia. The opening sentence was, ‘We, the undersigned civil society organisations,…
Iraq and Afghanistan: elections
Iraqi religious figures and institutions are debating the 12 May elections in public. Some call for boycotting them, some recommend voting for new candidates. The Shi’ite religious establishment, believing the previous ‘corrupt people’…
North Korea: positives to pray for
CIA Director Mike Pompeo recently made a top-secret visit to North Korea as an envoy for President Trump and met that country’s leader, Kim Jong-un. The extraordinary meeting between one of Trump’s most…
Iraq: legislative elections due 12 May
With the defeat of IS and Kurdish independence ambitions thwarted, many see a positive mood in Iraq. Yet major obstacles of corruption, sectarianism, and nepotism limit Iraq’s capacity to recover from war and…
Kazakhstan: state demands personal data
In another invasion into Christian freedom of religion, a Kazakh regional religious affairs department has demanded the personal data of everyone under 18 who attends Christian meetings for worship. It was not sent…
China: Religious freedom
China presented a ‘religion white paper’ guaranteeing protection for religious freedom four days after banning online sale of Bibles. The paper was publicised at a press conference after Chinese believers found that online…
