ASSIST News Service

• Show Hope and Tim Tebow Foundation unite to support adoption

  On April 3, Show Hope announced a partnership with the Tim Tebow Foundation that will raise awareness and provide assistance for families, who have a desire to adopt children with special needs.

• Hundreds of Assryians seek refuge in Turkey

  Some 500 Assyrians from Syria have crossed the border into Turkey in the past three days, seeking refuge from the war in Syria.

• Baptist pastors fined in Azerbaijan

  A judge in Azerbaijan has handed out exorbitant fines to two Baptist pastors for their activities.

• Attack on Christian area in Pakistan

  Incited by calls from mosque loudspeakers after a dispute between Muslim and Christian youths, a Muslim mob attacked a Christian neighbourhood in Gujranwala today, injuring at least five Christians and damaging a church and dozens of shops and vehicles.

• Threats to religious freedom in Cuba

  Events in the first quarter of 2013 point to an ongoing trend of a broader political crackdown on religious freedom in Cuba, while reported violations tripled in 2012.

• Pakistan: Blasphemy charge and death sentence overturned

  Morning Star News is reporting that a court in Pakistan overturned the death sentence on Wednesday of a Christian convicted under Pakistan's "blasphemy" laws and ordered him released.

• Bombings in Sudan kill Christians, destroy church building

  Morning Star News reports that the Sudanese government's bombing of predominantly Christian, ethnic Nuba civilians in South Kordofan state has taken more lives the first three months of this year - possibly including Muslims, sources said.

• Vietnam: Church leader beaten to death

  A Hmong church leader in Vietnam has been beaten to death in police custody, area sources said.

• Pastor Abedini 'unable to recognise' himself after beatings

  Imprisoned American pastor Saeed Abedini has told of the beatings he has experienced in Iran's notorious Evin Prison in a letter home to his family

• Iran: Concerns over anti-Christian rhetoric

  Iranian Islamic clerics say that Christian booklets are being distributed throughout the country in a 'wave of evangelism'and that Islamists should fight back with 'thousands of websites and books'.

• UK Graphic designer 'refused job' because of Christian faith

  A graphic designer is suing a hotel in Colchester, England after claiming he was turned down for a job there because he is a Christian.

• Iran: Detained Christians face exorbitant bail demands

  Five members of the Church of Iran denomination appeared before a judge at the 14th Branch of the Revolutionary Court in Shiraz, Fars Province on March 10 and were handed exorbitant bail terms.