HONG KONG -- Communist authorities in territory covered by the Anhui Diocese removed crosses from the top of two church buildings, sources told ucanews.com April 27. The sources said they fear more such actions.

VANCOUVER -- A peaceful spiritual event in Vancouver became a traumatizing one when at least a dozen people hijacked an online prayer group with shouting and obscene images.

WASHINGTON -- A priest who serves as director of the Justice, Development and Peace Commission in his diocese in northern Nigeria cited an ongoing series of religious freedom violations in his region of the country, which is majority Muslim.

OXFORD, England -- Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced out of their homes in Burkina Faso as Christian communities are targeted in a spiral of Islamist killings.

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Nearly 160,000 security personnel will be deployed to try to make Christmas and New Year celebrations in Indonesia safe, reported ucanews.org.

VATICAN CITY -- After one of the deadliest attacks in Burkina Faso in recent years, Pope Francis urged leaders there to do more to protect vulnerable civilians and to promote dialogue and social harmony.

A fresh outbreak of violence across Iraq is preventing the Chaldean Archbishop of Iraq from visiting Canada. 

WASHINGTON -- The genocide conducted by the Islamic State against Christian communities in Iraq and Syria has turned into continued harassment by Iran-backed militias and shows no signs of abating soon.

UNITED NATIONS -- Christians are the most persecuted religious group worldwide, but hypocrisy, political correctness and ignorance prevent the international community from implementing a comprehensive response to pervasive violence against them, said speakers at a U.N. event Sept. 27.

NEGOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith has finally won a concession from Sri Lanka's government after widespread criticism of the investigation into the deadly Easter Sunday attacks.

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesian police have arrested six terrorist suspects, two of whom have been linked to last year's bombings at three churches in Surabaya, the country's second-largest city.

OTTAWA -- A ritual Satanic black mass planned in Ottawa Aug. 17 is hateful towards Catholics and risks desecrating what they hold most precious, says Ottawa’s archbishop.

WASHINGTON -- Iraqi Christians face "extinction" unless Islam recognizes the fundamental equality of all people and takes steps to overcome violent factions that seek to force religious minorities from the country, said Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda of Irbil.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- It’s not Joshua’s fault. He was born into statelessness more than three years ago in Bangkok and immediately suffered a stroke that left him seriously brain damaged. But Joshua scares the rest of his family daily.

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso -- A bishop leader in Burkina Faso called on the world to stop the massacre of Christians by foreign-backed Islamist groups that are "better armed and equipped" than government forces.