The attitudes of Chinese local authorities towards Christians have turned sharply negative recently as the Christian population has grown. Authorities have been removing hundreds of crosses from churches, saying they violate building codes. Bao Guohua, a Chinese pastor, who opposed the campaign, was sentenced to 14 years in prison, and his wife to 12 years. In January authorities demolished a church in Fujian. Last month authorities opened a corruption probe into Pastor Gu Yuese, who had spoken out against the clampdown on Christian activity. China Aid said, ‘The government's criminal prosecution against Christianity is religious persecution.’ The clash over Christians' religious rights is being complicated by overseas organisations giving Christians support. The Chinese government is sensitive to foreign meddling in domestic affairs. In the past year, China's government has relentlessly pursued and jailed human rights lawyers receiving training and funding from foreign sources. See

Christian refugees fleeing IS reported seeing a jihadi militant disguised as a migrant. German police tracked the man down but refused to charge him because he had not committed a crime in Germany. It is feared that militants are exploiting the refugee crisis to smuggle terrorists into countries. The Assyrian Christian refugees who made the concerning/serious claim were granted asylum after being held hostage by IS. Also this week Iraqi and US officials revealed that an IS leader they captured last month was the head of a chemical weapons unit. He is now being questioned about IS’s use of chemical weapons. He had been in Saddam Hussein's Military Industrialisation Authority where his speciality was developing biological and chemical weapons. In recent months, according to Associated Press, he was working on building a similar branch for IS. See:

Oil giant Shell is being sued over oil spills in the Niger delta by communities which want Shell to clean up their land. Some of the claimants are the Ogale, a community of 40,000 farmers or fishermen living in Rivers State. The Bille community of fishermen are the other party suing. Neither community has had clean drinking water since the spills began in 1989. Their case is being handled by law firm Leigh Day, who point to a November 2015 report by Amnesty International in which Shell said four spill sites would be cleaned up. They are still contaminated. In 2011 the United Nations Environment Programme found water contaminated with oil by-products and recommended a clean-up. Pipelines are targets for thieves who steal crude oil and refine it locally, leading to more spills and damage through explosions. Shell dismisses any suggestion that it has knowingly continued to use unsafe pipelines, and says it is at an ‘early stage’ in reviewing the claims.

The Taliban have been rebelling against the Afghan government since 2001, and will not participate in new peace talks until international forces leave the country. Peace talks have been on hold since last year. The Quadrilateral Coordination Group, made up of representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the US, wanted to have talks with the Taliban early this month, but the Taliban vetoed the idea. ‘We reject all such rumours and unequivocally state that the leader of the Islamic Emirate has not authorised anyone to participate in this meeting,’ they said in a statement. The Islamic Emirate wants the occupation of Afghanistan to end, blacklists to be eliminated, and ‘innocent’ prisoners freed. The Taliban have stepped up their opposition to the Afghan government with a winter offensive. The US has launched air strikes against Taliban positions, something the Taliban say must stop before talks are resumed.