With the rise of Christian persecution at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party over the past year, Chinese Christians are starting to speak out after many have been arrested for defending church crosses from forceful government removal.

Maronite Archbishop Samir Nassar from the Syrian capital of Damascus has said that nine people have died and at least 50 have been wounded in mortar attacks on two churches in his neighborhood. Nassar described the ongoing civil war as a "cruel tragedy without end."

Dozens of Yazidi sex slave survivors, including 9-year-old girls, were rescued this week from Islamic State following months of brutal rape and torture by their "owners" and other Jihadi soldiers who purchased them at an IS slave market.

A Nigerian pastor and president of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria has said that Boko Haram has killed as many as 8,000 members of the congregations he oversees, destroyed 70 percent of his churches, and left most of the pastors under his care without a job.

The U.N. Security Council has been told in a meeting that the Islamic State terror group has claimed to have killed at least 30 people accused of sodomy, with victims hurled off buildings or stoned to death.

There are Christian churches throughout the Middle East that trace their roots back to the time of the apostles that could cease to exist if Islamic State and other radical Muslim groups continue to gain control of more territory in the region.

The Islamic State terrorist group has released pictures and video purporting to show militants bulldozing a nearly 1,600-year-old Christian monastery, while a claim has been made that the jihadis have also dug up and desecrated the bones of a martyred Christian saint.

A group of eight Christian converts were beaten and arrested by Iranian authorities while they were gathered for worship inside a house church in the city of Karaj, an Iranian resistance group has reported.

A Nigerian Catholic priest who served at two Louisiana parishes for 11 years before returning to his home country was shot and killed by unknown assailants in an apparent road ambush in Southern Nigeria last weekend.

The American Center for Law and Justice has started a new petition urging President Barack Obama to do more to support Christians who are facing increasing brutalities at the hands of the Islamic State terror group. The ACLJ urged Obama to appoint an ambassador to lead a Special Envoy to Promote Religious Freedom of Religious Minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia.

The death toll from Sunday's bombing of a popular market in the city of Doma, Syria, carried out by government warplanes, has reached close to 100 people. The U.S. has been highly critical of Assad's actions, and has called for a political transition in the war-torn country.

A 19-year-old Sudanese Christian woman has been sentenced to endure 20 painful lashes for the crime of "indecent dress" for wearing trousers on the way home from a church service.

Women living in Saudi Arabia will make history later this year when for the first time they'll be allowed to vote.

The Islamic State terror group has distributed online photos of three women believed to be kidnapped Assyrian Christians, warning that if a ransom is not paid for their freedom, the women will be turned into sex slaves.

Thousands of young female soldiers have taken up arms in recent months in the fight against Islamic State as the terror group attempts to expand across Syria and Iraq, killing and enslaving thousands of women and children in its path.

Various Jewish organizations have contributed funds to help rebuild a church located at the site where Christians believe Jesus fed 5,000 people by multiplying five loaves and two fish. The church was burned down in June by anti-Christian Israeli extremists.

Hundreds of kidnapped Arab Christians have been ransomed, tortured, beheaded and killed over the past year, including a priest who was chopped into pieces, in attempts to raise funds for radical Islamic terror groups and to strike fear into the hearts of Christians across the Middle East and throughout the world.

A major report on the systematic raping and sexual slavery practices of Islamic State terror group has shed light on the theological beliefs of the militants, many of whom believe that raping children and young girls is like a "prayer" that draws them closer to God.

An elderly Zimbabwean Christian man has died after he allegedly attempted to emulate Jesus Christ by going without food or water for 40 days and 40 nights, according to African news sites.

The Islamic State terror group has released 22 Assyrian Christians who were part of a group of over 200 believers kidnapped in February in raids on villages in the Khabur region in northeastern Syria.

A criminal gang in Pakistan located near the Indian border has forced nearly 300 children to engage in sexual acts in what authorities have discovered is the largest child pornography ring in the nation's history. Islamic scholars are now calling for the perpetrators to be put to death.

As many as 15,000 Assyrian Christian families might be in danger from the Islamic State terror group and the ongoing conflict in Syria, the Assyrian Church of the East in Lebanon bishop has said. Christians from over 100 families were kidnapped on Friday, with human rights groups fearing they will be beheaded or sold into sexual slavery.

Members of a radical militant group in South Africa known as the Economic Freedom Fighters reportedly burned a tent to the ground that was being used for worship by an unconventional Christian group that made headlines last month after its controversial pastor was photographed feeding them what appeared to be a live snake.

A fourth atheist blogger was killed in Bangladesh Friday when a gang of suspected Islamic extremists wielding machetes hacked him to death.

Tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians who have fled the Islamic State terror group to neighboring countries such as Jordan have said they are stuck in limbo, with nowhere to go and limited ways to provide a living. Pope Francis has condemned the world's silence on the issue, while an Iraqi archbishop has said that Christians in the region are hated because they want to keep hold of their faith.

The U.S.-based Christian ministry Focus on the Family is building new houses for the families of the 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians who were beheaded by Islamic State terrorists in Libya earlier this year.

The Islamic State terrorist group has abducted scores of Syrian Christian families in what has been deemed the terrorist organization's biggest military advance since it conquered the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra in May.