Asia Bibi is free

CANADA: Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Christian held for eight years on death row on charges of blasphemy against Islam, has arrived in Canada, seven months after the charges against her were overturned by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Bibi, who has been living in safe houses since the court’s decision, after Muslim mobs threatened to kill her, gained asylum—and under-the-radar passage—to Canada, where her children already reside.

PAKISTAN: A trafficking network is smuggling young Christian women to China to be married off to Chinese men.

MYANMAR: Two Reuters journalists jailed for nearly two years in the country also known as Burma have been freed.

TURKEY: Istanbul voters took to the streets in protest after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan overturned a March election, citing “illegalities,” that brought the opposition to power in Turkey’s largest city for the first time in 30 years. Ekrem Imamoglu had been seated as mayor already, and European leaders protested the move. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the decision was “not transparent, and incomprehensible to us.”

VENEZUELA: The United States lifted sanctions on Manuel Cristopher Figuera, former chief of Venezuela’s intelligence operations, after he turned against President Nicolás Maduro last week. Vice President Mike Pence said he hoped the action “will encourage others to follow” the military general’s example.

FRANCE: Jean Vanier, founder of L’Arche communities, has died at age 90. The Canadian-born Templeton Prize recipient launched in France the first home of what would become 154 communities in 38 countries giving dignity to the disabled. A documentary on him and the L’Arche communities, which inspired writer and theologian Henri Nouwen, is worth a watch.

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