By Dan WoodingFounder of ASSIST Ministries

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, February 5 (Compass Direct News) – A customs officer on January 28 confiscated two boxes containing 32 Bibles at a low-cost carrier terminal from a citizen returning from a trip to the Philippines, further troubling Malaysian Christians beset by government curbs on press and religious freedoms. Online news agency Malaysiakini reported yesterday that Juliana Nichols produced a letter from her parish priest stating the English Bibles were meant for use in her church, but a customs officer told her the texts needed to be cleared with the Internal Security Ministry’s Control Division of Publications and Al-Quran Texts. The Rev. Dr. Hermen Shastri, general secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia, said in a press statement that “the Bible is Holy Scripture for Christians” and “no authority on earth should deny Christians the right to possess, read and travel with their Bibles.” He called for the immediate release of the Bibles and an official apology from the Royal Malaysian Customs Department.

By Michael Ireland Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

ERMELO, NETHERLANDS (BosNewsLife)-- Christians in North-Korea have faced more persecution in 2007 than ever before, according to a major human rights report released Friday, February 1.

Pastor Sajid William was shot and killed by unidentified, masked gunmen on January 17. William, age 29, was on his way home in the city of Peshawar, in Pakistan’s violent Northwest Frontier Province.

ISTANBUL, January 29 (Compass Direct News) – Jordan has increased pressure on foreign Christians living in the kingdom, expelling many long-time residents over the past 13 months in what local churches see as an attack on their legitimacy. Authorities deported or refused residence permits to at least 27 expatriate Christian families and individuals in 2007, a number of them working with local churches or studying at a Christian seminary, Compass has confirmed. In all but one case, officials refused to provide written explanations for the decisions. But many of those expelled told Compass that they had been questioned by intelligence officers regarding evangelism of Muslims. “They said that I am a threat to Jordanian security and I am making the society unstable,” said Hannu Lahtinen, a Finnish pastor deported last month. “They have a thousand ways to say you are preaching the gospel.”

On January 17, eight Bajrang extremists attacked a house church in Madhya Pradesh, kidnapping two believers.