TEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY NIXES PLANS FOR GAY STUDENT HOUSING
Texas (USA): Texas Christian University will not provide on-campus housing for gay students this fall as previously planned, officials said. "TCU will not launch any new living learning communities at this time," TCU Chancellor Victor J. Boschini Jr. said in a statement. "Instead we will assess whether the concept of housing residential students based on themes supports the academic mission of the institution as well as our objective to provide a total university experience." READ MORE

ZHISHENG PETITION GIVEN TO US STATE DEPT.
WASHINGTON, April 29: On April 27 ChinaAid delivered more than 50,000 signatures to the U.S. Secretary of State Clinton representing concerned citizens in the U.S. and around the world who are asking for the immediate release of Gao Zhisheng, a Christian human rights attorney who was kidnapped by Chinese officials more than 80 days ago. Copies of the petition have also been given to the U.S. Congress and the Chinese Embassy. Gao Zhisheng was last seen on February 4 being hauled away by Chinese police officers. He has defended persecuted Christians and others who have been abused by the Chinese government for their beliefs. Sources inside China say he is undergoing severe torture. The petition is the first installment of signatures on behalf of Gao. READ MORE

BELIEVERS ARRESTED AND FINED IN UZBEKISTAN
Tashkent: Officials have been cracking down on Christians throughout Uzbekistan in recent weeks, according to delayed reports. Thirteen Uzbek Christians from an unregistered Baptist church in the city of Almalyk were arrested on March 15, 2009 when the Police Anti Terrorism Department raided a home where they had gathered for worship. READ MORE

PAK JOURNALIST FACING DEATH THREATS FROM ISLAMIC GROUP
Lahore: A Christian journalist in Pakistan fears for his life after receiving threatening letters for publishing prodemocracy columns in a national daily and refusing to convert to Islam. George Masih, 43, who lives with his wife, Suneeta Bibi, and his three young children at Gulistan Colony at the town of Lahore, wrote a number of columns and articles for the Aaj Kal, a Lahore-based daily. His first column allegedly aroused anger among Muslims in the area after its initial publication last August. READ MORE

SAUDI ARABIA – SAUDI BLOGGER RELEASED FROM PRISON
On March 28, Hamoud Bin Saleh, a Saudi Christian arrested in January for writing about his conversion from Islam and criticizing the Saudi kingdom's crackdown on individual rights, was released from prison, according to Compass Direct News. READ MORE

BUDDHIST FANATICS ATTACK CHURCH IN SRI LANKA
Colombo: Buddhist mobs attacked several churches in Sri Lanka during last month, threatening to kill a pastor in the southern province of Hambanthota and ransacking a 150-year-old Methodist church building in the capital. On April 8, 2009 four Buddhist extremists approached the home of pastor Pradeep Kumara in Weeraketiya, Hambanthota district, calling for him to come out and threatening to kill him. The pastor's wife, at home alone with their two children, phoned him immediately but by the time he returned, the men had left. READ MORE

IMPRISONED PASTOR FALSELY ACCUSED IN CUBA
Havana: Pastor Omar Gude Perez, who has been held in detention in Cuba since May 2008, is facing false charges of "illicit economic activity and falsification of documents," according to reports. READ MORE

CHRISTIAN MEN ACQUITTED OF "BLASPHEMY" IN PAKISTAN
Islamabad: James Masih (67) and Buta Masih (72), two Pakistani Christians who were sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of "blasphemy" in November 2006 for allegedly burning pages of the Quran were acquitted on April 16, 2009. READ MORE

METHODIST BUILDING RANSACKED
On Palm Sunday (April 5), a group of men broke into the 150-year-old Pepiliyana Methodist Church in Colombo after congregants concluded an Easter procession. READ MORE

EGYPTIAN CHRISTIAN OBTAINS CONVERSION CERTIFICATE
Cairo: Maher Ahmad El-Mo'otahssem Bellah El-Gohary (56), an Egyptian convert to Christianity from Islam who is fighting for legal recognition of his faith, has received a certificate of conversion from Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church, according to reports. READ MORE

DE-BAPTISM GAINS A FOLLOWING IN BRITAIN
London: More than 100,000 former Christians have downloaded "certificates of de-baptism" in a bid to publicly renounce the faith, according to the London-based National Secular Society (NSS). Terry Sanderson, the society's president, says the group started the online de-baptism initiative five years ago to mock the practice of baptizing infants too young to consent to religious rites.  READ MORE

EGYPTIAN MUSLIM RECEIVES FIRST CONVERSION CERTIFICATE
A Muslim man has received a conversion certificate from the Coptic Church for the first time in Egypt, according to a report in the Daily News Egypt. READ MORE

CHRISTIANS MAY FACE INCREASED RISK IN THE MIDDLE EAST
New York: Several national leaders continue to seethe after Iranian President Ahmadinejad inappropriately made anti-Semitic remarks at a United Nations conference on racism.The dispute over Iran's and Israel's issues caused such a distraction that more pressing matters which should have been addressed in a discussion about racism were dismissed. David Harder of the Christian satellite television network for the Middle East and North Africa, SAT-7, notes the discrepancy from the conference. READ MORE