Bishop Agathon (pictured) has been refused a licence to rebuild a church in Maghagha, a city of Upper Egypt located on the west bank of the Nile.

After spending 87 days in custody, Christian prisoner Ali Golchin (29) was released from Evin prison, Tehran, on Sunday 25 July 2010 after payment of €150,000 bail.

Ali had been arrested on 29 April 2010 at his home in the city of Varamin. Security agents searched the house and confiscated books (including Bibles), a computer, personal belongings and identification documents.

Manoj Pradhan, a member of the Legislative Assembly of Orissa, has been released on bail, less than a month after being sentenced to seven years in prison for his part in anti-Christian riots in 2008.

Local Christians were initially relieved that a sentence had been handed down (albeit, in their eyes, far too short) but they are dismayed that bail has been granted.

In mid-May, 23 North Korean Christians attending a house church meeting in Pyongan Province were discovered by police and arrested.

They were interrogated at length, tried, and the three leaders were sentenced to death and executed. The others were sent to the kwan-li-so (penal labour colony).

On 13 August 2010 a Malaysian court sentenced two Muslim brothers to five years in prison for torching a Protestant church building earlier this year.