World in Brief

A Christian minister from India has been kidnapped by a group of unidentified gunmen on June 2.

Alexis Prem Kumar (47), who has worked for an NGO in Afghanistan since 2011 helping returning refugees, was seized as he was leaving a school near Herat for Afghan children who have recently returned from Iran or Pakistan. No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, but three Taliban militants have been arrested in connection with it.

Suspected Boko Haram militants launched an assault on a village in northern Cameroon, burning churches and houses and looting property on June 6.

More than 300 heavily armed men descended on Gorsi Tourou, prompting residents to flee. Cameroonian soldiers arrived after two hours and drove back the militants.

Teachers should replace he or she, him or her and his or hers with new pronouns xe, xem and xyr to refer to children who believe they are transsexual, according to school rules passed in Vancouver in late June.

The new words were sanctioned to be used as alternatives to regular pronouns if required by pupils. Training is also being backed for teachers to develop a ‘gay-friendly’ curriculum, and states that children ‘have the right to dress in a manner consistent with their gender identity or gender expression’.

Pastor Zhang Shaojie of Nanle Country Christian Church, Henan Province, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for fraud and ‘gathering a crowd to disturb public order’, it was reported in early July.

He has also been fined 100,000 RMB (approximately £9,400). Chinese-language commentators on social media are calling the sentence ‘very heavy’.

Religious freedom activists Reverend Mario Felix Lleonart Barroso and his wife Yoaxis Marcheco Suarez were temporarily detained by Cuban police in the municipality of Camajuaní on June 22 and released two hours later without charge.

Their laptop computers and a memory flash drive were confiscated. There are concerns that state security officials could plant information on the couple’s computers in order to justify criminal charges.

An Egyptian man who captured on video clashes between Muslims and Christians has been sentenced to five years prison on June 18.

Hegazy was convicted for failing to obtain permission to film demonstrations. The crime, a misdemeanour, has already seen him spend more than six months in custody, the maximum sentence, since his arrest in December. An appeal hearing is scheduled for July 20.

A Christian man appeared in court on June 24 under Egypt’s blasphemy law for ‘liking’ a Facebook page that local Muslims deemed offensive to Islam; the case prompted attacks by Islamists on Christian property.

Kerolos Shouky Attallah (29) from a village near Luxor, was charged with showing disdain or contempt for a heavenly religion, which carries a penalty of between six months and five years in prison, or a fine. The Facebook page is run by a group of converts from Islam.

A group of 100 Christians were attacked by a Hindu extremist mob on June 16 after they objected to being discriminated against in the public distribution of food rations.

The assailants beat the Christians with sticks and stones as well as punching and kicking them. Ten required hospital treatment. The day after the attack, the village chief called a public meeting and said that all villagers should convert to Hinduism or else their lands would be seized.

A church came under attack during a service on June 29, the start of Ramadan, by masked intruders dressed in black and shouting Allahu Akhbar (Allah is great).

Three groups of assailants burst into the building in Pugeran, Yogyakarta, and vandalised property and posters on display. It follows an attack by Islamic extremists on a group of Christians praying together in a private home in Yogyakarta on May 29.

Vahid Hakkani, a Christian prisoner in Shiraz prison, started another hunger strike on June 23 to protest authorities’ rejection of his and two other Christian prisoners request for conditional release.

The first time, Mr Hakkani’s hunger strike lasted for more than seven weeks, despite having some physical problems. At that time, Mr Hakkani broke his hunger strike after another Christian prisoner Mohammad-Reza Partoei (Kourosh) was granted conditional release.

Booksellers and publishers are facing a problem if plans proposed by Nigerian authorities to impose a 20% import duty and 30% levy on books goes ahead, it was reported in June.

A circular has been seen, from the Ministry of Finance, delaying the introduction of this to September. Shipping costs to the country will double as a result.

Suspected Boko Haram gunmen carried out more deadly attacks on villages near Chibok on June 29, opening fire on worshippers in four churches, then burning the buildings and nearby homes.

They moved on to neighbouring Kautikari, where they also shot dead villagers and torched properties. The villages of Ngurojina and Karagau were also targeted. The death toll is not clear, but scores are believed dead.

North Korea is preparing to try two American tourists on charges of ‘perpetrating hostile acts’ against the country – one apparently because a Bible was left behind in his hotel room – it was reported in June.

North Korean state media said that one of the men entered the country in April with a tourist visa but tore it up at the airport, declaring that he wanted to seek asylum.

Christians in Pakistan are pursuing justice for the family of a Christian teenager who was raped and killed by a young Muslim man on May 29.

Sanwal Masih, 17, had been violated and poisoned at the estate where he worked at Dhalia Chatta Tehsil Wazirabad. On the way to hospital Sanwal told his uncle what had happened to him. The accused was arrested.

Doctors should carry out abortions even if it goes against their conscience, the Polish prime minister said in mid-June.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk made the intervention after a Roman Catholic doctor refused to perform an abortion, saying: ‘Regardless of what his conscience is telling him, [a doctor] must carry out the law’. In Poland, abortion is allowed up to the 25th week of pregnancy in cases where the mother’s life is at risk, the unborn baby is seriously disabled or was conceived by rape or incest.

Meriam Ibrahim was, on June 26, released from jail for a second time, and given refuge with her husband and children at the US embassy in Khartoum.

The 27-year-old, who was sentenced to death for apostasy in May, was cleared on appeal and freed from prison, only to be detained at the airport with her family as they tried to leave the country. She now must remain in Sudan. The family is in the US embassy as they have received death threats.

A Scandinavian rights group has filed a suit against the Swedish government on behalf of a Christian woman who was sacked for refusing to perform abortions, it was reported at the end of June.

Hospital officials had promised to extend the woman’s contract, until she refused to participate in abortions. She had hoped for an employer who would honour freedom of conscience when she took on the role of midwife at the hospital.

Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) confiscated houses and land belonging to Christians in Raqqa, on June 1.

The seizures took place in Ein al-Issa, which is inhabited mainly by Armenian Christians. The owners of the property were forced to leave the area. ISIS has turned the main Armenian church in Raqqa into an office for the management of Islamic affairs and the promotion of shari’a.

A church building was torched by Muslims in Ujiji Kogoma in the middle of the night of June 12.

A Barnabas Fund partner in Tanzania said that this was the second church to be burned in the area in the last six months. He said the Muslim majority there was hostile towards Christians.

Trans World Radio (TWR) in Ukraine has developed a programme on the importance of reconciliation, it was reported in June.

Tensions between Ukrainian speakers and Russian speakers have grown worse with the continuing confrontations between the two former Soviet republics. A director of TWR Europe said: ‘If securities are falling apart, you are looking for new securities. That is opening a way to evaluate the gospel once more’.

The world’s fourth richest person, Warren Buffett, ploughed $1.23 billion into abortion groups over 11 years, it was reported in July.

The Media Research Center (MRC), which analysed tax returns for Buffett’s foundation, labelled him the ‘king of abortion’. Neither Buffett, nor the foundation at the centre of the controversy, have commented on the revelations. The money given ‘is enough to pay for the abortions of more than 2.7 million babies’.

Bible school students in southern Vietnam were taken away for interrogation on June 9 in a night raid.

Many of the 76 Christians were beaten before being loaded onto three trucks. They were released the following morning. 20 were seriously injured. Attacks continued for the following three nights, largely directed by the chief of police, who was reported as ‘crude and abusive’.