Father Adriano Franchini, 65, was stabbed by a 19-year-old Muslim youth outside St Anthony’s Catholic church in Izmir in mid-December. The stabbing drew blood but it was not a deep wound and the priest was released from hospital the following day. The youth was arrested and told police he had been influenced by an episode of a TV series “Valley of the Wolves” which portrayed Christian missionaries as political infiltrators who pay poor families to convert to Christianity. Turkish Christians around the country are still nervous after the attacks last April.

Martha Bibi - who served a term of three months and 13 days in jail on charges of blasphemy - went to live with her cousin, Mushtaq, after she was released on bail in May last year. In doing so, Martha was concealing herself, as it was feared she would be attacked by militants who wanted to execute their own justice against her. However, the plan was discovered, and Mushtaq received a threatening letter accusing him of ‘sheltering blasphemers’ and telling him to convert to Islam or die. To the best of our knowledge, however, the threats have not been carried out.

Cuban security agents stormed the Santa Teresita de Nino Jesus Roman Catholic Church in Santiago, Cuba on December 4. Agents kicked down the door then released tear gas into the church, and then proceeded to beat up a group of human rights activists who had been protesting the imprisonment of some other activists earlier in the day. One of the activists was released as she had recently given birth, but 17 others were detained.

In a victory for the rule of law, four male and five female church leaders were released from labour camps after their convictions were overturned. The nine were originally detained in August 2007 when they were found having a worship service in the home of Ms Qin Daomin. The four men who are released are Mr Wang Caizhang (34), Mr Ma Zhao (35), Mr Yang Situan (39) and Mr. Du Dongliang (32). The five women are Ms Qin Daofang (40), Ms Hu Rong (42), Ms Li Mei (42), Ms Ren Xianxue (35) and Ms Qin Daomin  (33). Mr Yang Situan and Ms. Ren Xianxue are husband and wife with three school-age children. Qin Daofang and Qin Daomin are two biological sisters and their father Mr Qin Hongjun (65) was sentenced to 10 days administrative detention for hosting the Sunday worship service at his home. He was also severely beaten.

Mohammed Hegazy

Two Christian human rights activists were released from jail in November after three months in detention. Dr Adel Fazy Faltas, 61, and colleague Peter Ezzat, 25, had been held on unsubstantiated charges of insulting Islam and tarnishing Egypt’s reputation abroad. Faltas had conducted an online interview with a controversial convert from Islam to Christianity (Mohamed Hegazy) only days before his arrest on August 8.

At least 17 people were burned to death in a church in Western Kenya in late December, after seeking refuge there from violence during the elections.

In the town of Eldoret, 185 miles north-west of Nairobi,  the Kenya Assemblies of God Church was set on fire by youths while about 400 people were inside. Those inside the church were reportedly from the same ethnic Kikuyu group as the President, Mwai Kibaki, who declared victory in the elections under dubious circumstances.

Allegations of vote-rigging flew thick and fast and ignited rage between tribal groups associated with government and opposition parties. Violence broke out during anti-government protests and hooligans took advantage of the unrest.  Several thousand people were displaced and many fled across the border into camps in Uganda.

Four churches in total have been burned down and the Anglican Archbishop of Kenya has warned that some people are using the political unrest as a cover for other agendas.

“Those torching churches and the people inside are criminals, with no reverence to God,” said Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi. “It is our prayer that the churches will raise their voices to call for real peace.”

Mr Patrick Nyongesa, of Kenya’s Red Cross, told the BBC,  “In Kenya we have never seen this, especially in a church compound. It is the first time we have experienced something of this magnitude.” 

The United Nations estimated that  600 people were killed during the violence.

Kenya is a majority Christian nation. Church leaders are appealing for calm as the humanitarian crisis worsens and the country descends into anarchy.

A British Airways employee has lost an appeal to wear a small cross necklace to work. 

Nadia Eweida, and the discreet cross necklace
at the centre of the storm with British Airways.

In October 2006, British Airways (BA) sent home Nadia Eweida, 56,  for refusing to remove a small silver cross from around her neck while on the job. While other religious people, such as Muslims and Sikhs, are allowed to wear religious symbols along with their uniforms, Ms Eweida took her case of religious discrimination against BA before an employment tribunal. In the meantime, Ms Eweida returned to work and BA reviewed its uniform policy. 

On January 8, 2008, however,  the employment tribunal dismissed Ms Eweida’s complaint, and said she had indeed breached the firm's regulations without good cause.

“I'm very disappointed,” Ms Eweida - a Coptic Christian - told the BBC. “I'm speechless really because I went to the tribunal to seek justice. But the judge has given way for BA to have a victory on imposing their will on all their staff.

“It's not over until God says it's over,” she vowed to proceed further with her case if her solicitor agreed.

Last November,  the Anglican Archbishop of Cantebury, Dr Rowan Williams, said that he was considering selling the church’s £10.25million investment in BA. The church owns the shares through its church commissioners body, which owns £9m, and the pension fund which owns £1.25m.

"What I find deeply confusing about the present situation is the response of British Airways, which doesn't seem to make it clear whether they're simply talking about regulations concerning a piece of jewellery, or whether they are in some sense claiming that the cross is a source of offence,” he told The Guardian newspaper.

Dr Williams often wears a cross around his own neck. “If BA is really saying, or implying, that the wearing of a cross in public is a source of offence, I regard that as deeply offensive and, in a society where religious liberty and the expression of religious commitment is free, I regard it as something really quite serious.

“I would ask them to look very seriously at this considering the enormous amount of trouble and dismay this has caused in the Christian community.”

The pastor of The Harvest Church in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, has been beaten and robbed for the second time in three years. Misael Argenal was stopped by highway robbers who beat him and held him for an hour on December 8 last year. They stole clothes and electronic equipment he had in his possession.

“It was an act of intimidation to stop my work,” he said. “They told me that if I didn’t stop [my ministry] they would kill me.”

 Church leaders have been taking a stand against the violence of Honduran society, and this has attracted the ire of people who seek to gain from criminal activity.

Organized crime is a big problem in San Pedro Sula, and Argenal believes that criminal groups want to stop activities like ministries to alcohol and drug addicts and radio and television evangelism.

 A member of one of Harvest’s sister churches, the Ebenezer Church, was murdered while leaving a recent service. “We have to be careful,” Argenal said.

Violence erupted in the Indian state of Orissa at Christmas time last year after an argument over the placement of a church’s Christmas arch. Reports say some 440 homes were burned, around 64 churches were vandalized or destroyed, and several thousand people displaced during the rampage, which targeted Christians in Kandhamal district. The violence was triggered by the Sangh Parivar - the family of Hindu organizations promoting radical Hindu nationalism. 

The government instigated an inquiry into the violence and concluded that the attacks were premeditated. However,  the report stated that  incidents were more complex than merely being the result of  ongoing Hindu-Christian tensions.

Since that time, other incidents have also occurred around the country. On January 16, more than 80 people were injured in an on a large Christian meeting in Chhattisgarh state's Durg district. An attack on January 17 on a missionary camp in Dhamtari district hurt at least a dozen Christians. Christians said it was no coincidence that Hindu nationalist (Hindutva) extremists launched the attack as the political arm of the militants, the Bharatiya Janata Party, was holding a public meeting in the area.

Noviana  Malewa

In December 2007, three Islamic extremists were sentenced to 19, 14 and 10 years in prison respectively for beheading three Christian teenage girls and shooting two others non-fatally in 2005. A South Jakarta district court sentenced Rahman Kalahe to 19 years in prison, Agus Nur Muhammad to 14 years and Yudi Heryanto to 10 years after finding them guilty in the beheading of Theresia Morangke and Yarni Sambue, both 15, and 17-year-old Alfita Poliwo as the girls walked to school in Poso district in Sulawesi on October 29, 2005. (Another girl, Noviana Malewa, [pictured] survived the attack.) Kalahe was also found guilty of involvement in a Dec. 31, 2005 bomb attack on a market in Palu that killed at least eight people. Abdul Muis was also convicted for this crime and likewise received a sentence of 19 years. The two men were also convicted of murdering the Rev. Irianto Kongkoli and two high school students in 2006. The court also found Syaiful Anam and Amril Niode guilty of bombing a marketplace in the Christian-inhabited town of Tentena, in Poso district, in May 2005, with Anam receiving a prison sentence of 18 years and Niode one of 15 years.

Hopes for continuing improvement for Christians in Iraq were dashed in January, as Islamic militants launched coordinated attacks on church buildings around the country (see table). The attacks came after a period when some Iraqi Christians began saying they were experiencing some relief from their troubles. At the time of writing, there had been no fatalities as a result of the attacks, although some injuries had been documented and property damaged.

Beginning on January 6 - when Christians from Eastern traditions celebrate Christmas - the first car bombs went off in quick succession in Baghdad and Mosul. Within the next 10 days the other bombings occurred. In the aftermath of the attacks, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, said he was deeply concerned for the country’s Christians. Local Christian leaders say that kidnappings and violence against Christians continues to occur, although there was a decline in the number of violent incidents towards the end of last year.

Scandal has followed the trial of five men who confessed to murdering three Christians in Turkey last April.

Necati Aydin, Tilmann Geske, and Ugur Yuksel were murdered in April 2007.

The court hearing into the murders of Necati Aydin, Ugur Yuksel and Tilmann Geske began in late November, 2007. The three Christians were workers in a Zirve Publishing House - a Christian literature distribution company in Malatya. A band of Islamic extremists  overpowered them and slit their throats in their workplace. Those who confessed to the crimes later admitted the attacks were religiously motivated.

Lawyers for the families of the deceased have strongly criticized irregularities in the  prosecution’s case - including the fact that 16 of the 31 files cover the victims’ missionary work rather than the killers’ activities. In addition, numerous mobile phone records indicate the killers had regular contact with members of the police force, the military, a member of the Nationalist Movement Party, and even a chief public prosecutor.

 Problems were compounded by the fact that police who attended the crime scene put the victims’ blood-stained clothes into a single plastic bag, rendering them useless as forensic evidence.

Also astounding was the fact that at least 10 days’ worth of security videotape recorded in the hospital room of one of the killers (who was injured during the crime) was erased by security officials. It is likely that the tapes would have identified others involved with the crime.

Turkish media and the public were outraged by these and many other revelations, and subsequently the government announced a  judicial inquiry into the alleged involvement of public officials in the murders. Certainly the mounting evidence suggests at this stage that the young men may have been used by others to commit the execution-style killings.

The accused are Emre Gunaydin, Salih Gurler, Hamit Ceker, Abuzer Yildirim and Cuma Ozdemir. Another man, Kursat Kocadag, was accused of assisting in the crime.

The court hearing continues.