Two men accused of helping a young woman flee Saudi Arabia after her conversion to Christianity were sentenced to prison terms and lashes with a whip by a Saudi court last week.

The flight of Christians out of the Middle East is unprecedented and it's increasing year by year. In our lifetime alone, "Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Egypt and Afghanistan."

A Coptic Christian teacher in Egypt accused of committing blasphemy and evangelizing in school was released Tuesday after posting nearly $3,000 in bail.

Nigeria's president declared a state of emergency Tuesday across the country's troubled northeast, promising to send more troops to fight an increasingly violent Islamic insurgency.

Open Doors USA has issued an urgent appeal for prayer after receiving news that suspected Boko Haram terrorists attacked the predominantly Nigerian Christian village of Zangan in southern Kaduna state around midnight on Monday. Local sources report fatalities and Open Doors says it understands "the entire village has been destroyed."

Anti-Christian hostility drove an Islamic extremist killing spree in the northeastern Nigerian village of Midlu Shalmi, though the attack was portrayed mainly as politically motivated, an area Christian leader said.

More than 140 children have been rescued from Islamic training centers in Bangladesh in the last nine months, with a majority of the children targeted because of their Christian faith. The females, accounting for nearly half of those rescued, report that they were used for forced labor and sex slavery.

Ten out of the 15 countries with the worst religious freedom abuses are Muslim nations.

More than 900 Christians were slaughtered in Nigeria last year, giving it the distinction of being the nation with the highest Christian death toll. All were victims of the Boko Haram group and other Islamic militants.

A Moroccan fatwa calling for the execution of those who leave Islam has left many Christian converts in turmoil.