Amid the scare over the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which has been declared an international public health emergency by WHO, scientists in Hyderabad say they have developed not one but two vaccines, using a live Zika virus imported officially. This is claimed to be the world's first vaccine for the virus, which is spreading rapidly in Latin America. WHO officials have expressed concern that Zika could hit Africa and Asia as well. Dr Krishna Ella, chairman and MD of Bharat Biotech Ltd, said, ‘On Zika, we were probably the first vaccine company in the world to file a vaccine candidate patent (about nine months ago).’ Dr Soumya Swaminathan, director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research, said that they would investigate the feasibility of taking it forward and that the vaccine could be a good example of a 'Made in India' product.

Legally registered churches are under attack while illegal house churches are being invited into official dialogue. Is China heading for another Mao-era persecution or opening up to religious freedom? With conflicting signals across a range of social, economic and political issues, nothing is certain. There is, however, reason for optimism: the gospel is alive and something must happen. Gu Yuese has served as the senior pastor at China’s largest government-approved Protestant church, a megachurch with ten thousand members. He has also held a leadership role in China’s state-approved denomination, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM). In January the TSPM and China Christian Council forcibly removed Gu from his Church in a move to ‘move one step closer towards the proper self-construction and management of church locations’ and sort out the relationship between the province and the two municipal Christian organisations. Gu was arrested and sent to a ‘black’ jail (a facility falling outside the established penal system) where he is undergoing a criminal investigation.

Last weekend, Boko Haram burned children alive in Nigeria, and IS bombed schoolchildren in Syria. Homes were reduced to piles of ashes and left smouldering in the Nigerian village of Dalori following a Boko Haram rampage. For four hours heavily armed gunmen and at least three suicide bombers attacked, setting much of the village aflame. Children were burned alive in their huts. Two nearby refugee camps were also attacked. Nigerian army troops arrived, but were outmanned and outgunned by terrorists. 3,000 miles away, IS detonated two suicide car bombs in a neighbourhood south of Damascus protected by Hezbollah. As people gathered to help dead and injured children, an IS terrorist wearing a suicide vest set off another blast. 45 were killed and 110 wounded.

Three Christian students went on trial yesterday in Egypt for allegedly insulting Islam. A thirty-second video, filmed by their teacher, showed one student kneeling to pray while reciting verses from the Qu’ran and two others standing behind him laughing. One student ran his hand under the praying student’s chin, as if beheading him. At the time of writing this article, the outcome of the trial is not yet known; however, the teacher has already been sentenced to three years in prison. Coptic Christians have long complained of the injustices they have suffered in this predominantly Muslim country. Christians make up 10% of Egypt’s population. Egypt’s president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has vowed to crack down on extremism and to get rid of harsh blasphemy laws, but such blasphemy charges have increased in recent months.