As protesters demanding more freedom and fair elections prepared to demonstrate in freezing temperatures in Moscow Saturday, February 4, a major Russian mission group warned of more difficulties for evangelical Christians and other, religious, minorities in Russia and other former Soviet Union nations.

Christian missionaries in Mexico, including foreigners, face more security challenges after a married couple who had served for nearly three decades as Baptist church missionaries were killed, Worthy News learned.

Chinese authorities have stepped up their "longstanding opposition to Christianity" in China last year, an influential human rights group said in comments monitored by Worthy News.

Approximately 35 Christians in Saudi Arabia face deportation on the charge of "illicit mingling," according to a report by the global rights body Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Christians in Guatemala were mourning Monday, January 30, a pastor who was shot and killed by suspected drug traffickers on his way to a regional meeting of church leaders in a violent border area near Mexico.

A Christian convert has been sentenced to two years in prison by a Revolutionary Court in Tehran.

Evangelical Christians in southeastern India were due to worship Sunday, January 29, amid heightened tensions after Hindu hardliners attacked a pastor and church members, representatives said.

A mob of Muslims disrupted the worship services of about 100 members of a GKI Yasmin congregation that were being held at a member's home in Bogor, West Java on Sunday.

The Barna Group recently surveyed Americans who attended church and reported on their worship experiences.

Christians are fleeing northern Nigeria where bomb blasts rocked the Bauchi and Kano states over the weekend, killing at least 185 people, including Christians, said rights activists and church officials.

Last week, sources told Compass News that Sudanese Police beat and arrested a church leader in Khartoum.

Syrian and Iranian Christians are being targeted for further persecution, according to Christian news reports.

Chanting "Allahu Akbar" a Muslim mob attacked the Coptic community of Kebly-Rahmaniya last week, burning down Christian houses, shops and businesses.

Christians in Sudan and newly created South Sudan face possible detention, beatings and even death amid a "deteriorating humanitarian situation" with thousands of people being killed this year alone, aid workers and Christians said in statements obtained by Worthy News Sunday, January 22.

A Somali woman, who converted from Islam to Christianity, was nursing her injuries Wednesday, January 11, after she was reportedly paraded before a cheering crowd and publicly flogged as a punishment for embracing a "foreign religion."