In a highly biased legal system where Christians are normally denied fair trials, the family of a Christian youth killed by police may actually receive justice. Six officers were charged with murder after they dragged Arslan Masih out of his schoolroom, intent on revenge. He had successfully fought a Muslim boy who had been bullying him, and one officer, the boy’s uncle, found it unacceptable that Arslan had stood up to his nephew. Arslan was regularly bullied and in this instance fought in an attempt to stop the daily torment and attempts to convert him to Islam. He is not the first Christian to have died in Pakistan’s police custody, but it is the first time it has happened with many witnesses.

Iraqi Christians are divided over whether their areas in northern Iraq should be a part of Kurdistan, the Iraqi central government, or an entirely new autonomous area. The Chaldean Catholic patriarch, in an interview on 16 October, expressed his concern that the Kurdish crisis would put the Christians’ presence in Iraq at risk . He said the current conflict in the disputed areas between Baghdad and Erbil would impede the Christians’ return to their areas, and prompt them to rush to leave their country for good. He said they should unite and engage in dialogue to preserve the Christian component in Iraq. Nevertheless, this appeal may not gain much traction because of great differences of opinion, particularly after the Kurdish independence referendum on 25 September - see the Prayer Alert article at

Former Guatemalan football federation official Hector Trujillo, arrested in December 2015 in Florida, has become the first person to be sentenced in investigations into corruption in FIFA. He had accepted almost $200,000 in bribes from a sports marketing company. A further forty football and marketing executives have been accused. Many of the charges involve bribes paid around the organisation of regional tournaments and World Cup qualifying games. Prosecutors in Switzerland have also been investigating, and FIFA has conducted internal enquiries.

Cultivation of coca, the base ingredient for cocaine, is booming in Colombia. The government tries to slash production by employing hundreds of people and police officers to destroy crops, but armed gangs and drug traffickers oppose them. People have died in recent clashes over coca; others have been injured by landmines laid to scare people away from destroying coca plants. The minister of foreign affairs blamed coca growth on the scheming of drug-trafficking gangs and peasants planting more coca to take advantage of the new substitution initiatives under the peace accords. However, the government should be offering peasant farmers better incentives to grow alternative crops. After 200 years of reforms and many billions of pesos invested, the same inequality in agriculture persists. There is a lack of political will on the part of the state to make the peasant farmers’ economy viable. See

The BBC’s America First series reported on Angel, who was 13 when her mother forced her to marry and start a family. ‘I felt like a slave,’ she says of her childhood. Zimbabwe, Malawi and El Salvador have recently banned child marriage, but it remains legal in the USA - and half of states have no set minimum age below which you cannot get married. Recently the Independent reported that in the last fifteen years, more than 200,000 children were married in the USA. The minimum age for marriage is usually 18, but there are exemptions - such as parental consent or pregnancy - which allow younger children, sometimes as young as ten, to tie the knot. See

Awaken the Dawn was a weekend of worship in the National Mall, a vast area of parkland between Capitol Hill and the Lincoln Memorial. Christians from every state and region had a tent on the Mall for the event, each one offering praise and adoration 24/7 all weekend. They desired to bless God and call His presence down on America. ‘It’s all about King Jesus,’ said one participant. ‘We’re lifting His name up. The Bible says, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me”. We want to see a Great Awakening.’ Another worshipper said, ‘Just as you have congressmen and senators representing every state in politics, here every state in the union is represented by Holy Ghost Christian people of all races and colours. We are here to worship the King of Kings 24/7.’

US-backed militias have completely taken Syria's Raqqa from IS, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The fall of Raqqa city, where IS staged euphoric parades after its string of lightning victories in 2014, is a potent symbol of the jihadist movement's collapsing fortunes. From the city, the group planned attacks abroad. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias backed by a US-led international alliance, have been fighting IS inside Raqqa since June 2017. See also World article ‘Mission opportunities as country rebuilds’.

Isn’t it a wonderful truth that through Jesus we can be released from our past, make a new start and enter into relationship with the living God? Ex-offenders know how past actions have affected their freedom and future. We pray for their successful re-entry into society. With God’s help this can be a true and lasting change.

(Michael Pollard, Prison HOPE)

‘Posturing’ by Brussels in Brexit negotiations is posing high risks for businesses on both side of the talks. Welsh UKIP MEP Nathan Gill said that the EU's obsession with three key Brexit issues is causing unnecessary harm and asked, ‘In this divorce bill, who are the children? In a divorce you consider the children and the children in this instance are the businesses of Europe, the traders.’ He said that if he were a German manufacturer or a French wine producer selling to Britain, he’d be very annoyed at Michel Barnier’s stubbornness. Britain has contributed massively to the EU for many years (the second largest contributor), so many believe that the loss of such a benefactor should prompt the EU either to persuade Britain to stay or make negotiations easier. Pray for an end to veiled threats and a refusal to talk about the future until after sums of money are agreed upon.

On 13 October four Britons were snatched by gunmen in Nigeria’s southern Delta state. The region holds most of the country’s crude oil and is Nigeria’s economic mainstay. Kidnapping for ransom is common in parts of Nigeria, and several foreigners have been taken in the past few years. The abductors have not yet made contact. Those kidnapped are reported to be former GP David Donovan and his wife Shirley who run New Foundations, with their two sons. They have run Bible classes, a boat clinic and health care centre there for fourteen years. Four suspects have been arrested, and a joint task force will attempt to rescue the family . Travellers to Nigeria are currently warned to avoid going to areas of Delta state. See: