There has been a rash of child kidnappings in recent months, increasing to alarming numbers (300 in one city in two weeks). The police are ineffective, resulting in vigilante forces being formed. Vigilantes recently stopped an ambulance carrying twelve children. The driver was tortured and accused of kidnapping when his trip was a legitimate one. Criminals are growing even more daring. Some children are forced into prostitution and begging, some are found with major body parts removed, including kidneys, eyes and hearts; obviously feeding a lucrative illegal black market for body transplants. Equally disturbing are those being trained to be suicide bombers. A Lahore Christian believer writes that over 900 children have been kidnapped. Local Christians are fasting and praying for divine intervention in this atrocity perpetrated against young and helpless children. Will you join them in prayer?

Since March, Syrian and Russian forces have been targeting hospitals as a strategy of war. Now Amnesty International has reported that nearly 18,000 civilians have died in Syrian state jails, with an estimated 300 people dying in custody every month. The report, based on interviews with 65 ‘torture survivors’, details systematic use of rape and beatings by prison guards. They described so-called welcome parties - ritual beatings using metal bars and electric cables. The Syrian government has repeatedly denied such allegations. The report estimates that 10 people die in custody every day, that’s more than 300 a month. According to the report, new detainees are subjected to ‘security checks’ that often involve sexual assaults on women by male guards. ‘They treated us like animals. They wanted people to be as inhuman as possible,’ said Samer, a lawyer from Hama who was among those interviewed.

Russian state TV has broadcast footage of men confessing to a plot to carry out terror attacks on the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. The ‘saboteurs’ said they were acting on orders from Kiev. Ukraine denies any involvement and calls it ‘provocation’. Local residents reported hearing shots fired on Saturday night, when the Russian security service (FSB) says it intercepted the first group of men. An FSB statement described a second attempted incursion of Crimea accompanied by ‘massive fire from the neighbouring state and armoured vehicles of the Ukrainian armed forces’. No video or independent confirmation of that incident has yet emerged, so what actually took place remains a mystery. However, it is what happens next that matters most, as tensions between Moscow and Kiev rise to dangerous levels. Some say that the Russian military offensive is building as the US focuses on elections, the EU is distracted by Brexit, and the Olympic Games is a diversion.

A pastor who is leading protests against embattled Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe says he does not want to be another martyr and he is committed to rebuilding the country. Mugabe, 92, is facing increasing demonstrations against his dictatorship but has been crushing protests by ordering police to use violence. Hundreds of people have been injured as officers use batons, tear gas and fists to stop protests. Pastor Evan Mawarire started the movement with his 'This Flag' campaign which calls on Mugabe to resign. In July he was arrested but, after mass protests outside court, he was released. Sources suggest he was told he must leave the country or he would be killed. He is in hiding in South Africa and believed to be trying to enter the US. He said he will not give up his campaign to oust Mugabe and his Zanu PF party. Despite calls for him to be the next president, he insists he has no political ambitions.