Offering table confirms oldest church find
In 1998, North Carolina State University archaeologist Thomas Parker announced that he'd discovered the oldest Christian church in the world in Aqaba, Jordan. Excavations have continued, and this summer Parker found important evidence showing the building, erected in the 200s, was truly built to be a church: an offering table. Before 300, Christians used other buildings as churches.

Anti-conversion mob attacks Christian meeting in Malad, India
As about 4,000 Christians met for a Holy Spirit conference at a school in Malad, India, yesterday, more than two dozen protesters literally gatecrashed the event. "The whole thing was over in about ten minutes," said one attendee. "They threw down chairs and a video camera. They also climbed onto the stage and broke the windows of a bus." No one was injured, but India has seen a rise in violence against Christians. Police looked into the matter, and say some attendees were "abused" by the mob, but the deputy commissioner also blamed the victims. "The sounds from the conference must have led residents to believe that people were being duped with false promises of miracles," he said.

Meanwhile, a group known as the Dalit Panthers of India, which represents a number of India's low-caste Hindus, says that 25,000 of its members will convert to Christianity next month to protest a law in the state of Tamil Nadu banning many religious conversions. "The upper class has been torturing the Dalits for centuries, and now, by passing the bill, the government has decided to shackle us in a society where we are denied even our basic democratic rights," a Dalit activist tells today's Washington Times.

"No person shall be condemned to death by stoning in Nigeria" ...