MANCHESTER, England - Pakistani authorities freed Asia Bibi, a Catholic woman acquitted of blasphemy, and she has flown to Canada to join her family at a secret address.

KARACHI, Pakistan - Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said Asia Bibi remains in the country, negating speculation that she had already joined her family in Canada.

More than a month after Pakistan’s Supreme Court announced that it had confirmed its decision to acquit Asia Bibi, the 51-year-old Catholic woman is still in Pakistan under protective custody despite an offer of asylum from Canada. 

LAHORE, Pakistan – Catholic groups joined a protest against a military escalation in Pakistan and India following the recent suicide bombing in Indian-administered Kashmir, reported ucanews.com.

After a decade of prayer, diplomacy and legal wrangling, a persecuted Christian farmhand and her family is about to start a new life in Canada.

This story has been modified to clarify the perspective of the Canadian bishop quoted below.

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan's Supreme Court upheld its acquittal of a Pakistani Catholic woman sentenced to hang for blasphemy.

OTTAWA – The West is turning a blind eye as rabid nationalism poses a growing threat to religious freedom in countries such as India, Russia and China, says a new report from Aid to the Church in Need.

In a secret location, under the watchful guard of Pakistan’s military, Asia Bibi and her family are hoping Canada or some other country will take them in before gangs searching from house to house discover her. 

VATICAN – Servant of God Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic politician from Pakistan who was killed in 2011, is a witness of how to act with love in the face of hatred, Pope Francis said Friday.

Canadians generally prefer that people wait their turn, but compassion sometimes demands that we unite and jog someone to the front of the line. That time has come in the case of Asia Bibi. We should take her hand and hurry her to save haven in Canada.

Just like Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and over 1,300 local churches and schools in the Philippines, Toronto’s St. Michael’s Cathedral was bathed in red light on Wednesday, Nov. 21 in solidarity with Christians around the world who have lost their homes, their families and even their lives to violence and persecution.

SYDNEY – Asia Bibi has been released from death row and prison in Pakistan and is now under heavy protective guard in a secret location with her family, reported a longtime Catholic missionary involved with negotiations in Pakistan about her case.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan's Supreme Court has set aside the death sentence of Asia Bibi, a Catholic convicted of blasphemy, and ordered her release from prison.

CHESTER, England – A court in Pakistan has reached a decision on whether a Catholic woman will become the first person to hang to death under the country's controversial blasphemy laws.