On 26 December intelligence agents raided Pastor Matthias house church during Christmas celebrations. Matthias and two other converts were arrested and transferred to Lakan Prison in Rasht. On 3 January Matthias’ wife Anna…

Forgotten Missionaries International (FMI) recently visited Saudi Arabia to explore potential for future ministry. Saudi Arabia has recently issued tourist visas to be open to the West. FMI expected to see more opulent…

A group of Armenian organisations has appealed to the UN, warning about ethnic cleansing of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijani Muslims. Their letter stated, ‘Two years have passed since the war against…

Saudi news channel Al-Hadath reported that hundreds of Iranian missiles armed with the lethal chemical thionyl chloride have arrived at a warehouse in Syria, with a bird’s eye view of Lebanon’s border nine…

Mount Semeru on Java has erupted and sparked 2,500 evacuations, mostly on motorcycles. The volcano’s warning status escalated to the highest level on 4 December. The next day a giant cloud of grey…

Contrary to the common perception (‘Syria’s situation has settled, so Syrians no longer need urgent humanitarian aid’) conditions especially in the rebel-held northwest have been worsening. The Assad regime and Russia continue to…

On 27 November thousands protested in Shanghai against Covid restrictions, shouting slogans against the government. In Beijing, Tsinghua, and Nanjing, students were arrested. The unrest began when lockdown was blamed for ten deaths…

Narendra Modi, India's prime minister, has called for the Ukraine war to end. He warned that geopolitical struggles could ‘lead to humanitarian crises’. In a thinly veiled swipe at the Russian president, he…

A magnitude 5.6 earthquake hit Indonesia, killing 271 with hundreds still missing 3 days later. Around 22,000 houses were damaged. 169,000 people were affected, 1,000+ injured, and 58,000 scattered to evacuee points. One…

Governments in both Iraq and Lebanon struggle to function and pass legislation. Political parties tied to ethnic and religious groups vie for control. Iran-backed militias hold more power than the military. There are…