Officials in Pakistan have ordered that a Christian woman, acquitted of charges of blasphemy last week after spending eight years on death row, must not leave Pakistan in order to end violent protests over the ruling. Campaigners blasted the deal as akin to signing her “death warrant”.

Asia Bibi, a wife and mother of five, was convicted in 2010 of insulting the Prophet Muhammad during a row with neighbours.

Her lawyer, Saif Mulook, told the BBC earlier this week she would need to move to a Western country for her own safety. A number of attempts have previously been made on her life and several countries have offered her asylum. Now Mr Mulook has had to leave the country so he could continue to represent her safely. Mr Mulook said: “I need to stay alive as I still have to fight the legal battle for Asia Bibi.”

Pakistani Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry defended the government against allegations that a deal reached with an Islamist party was capitulating to extremists. Mr Mulook, however, called the agreement “painful”.

“They cannot even implement an order of the country’s highest court,” he told AFP before he boarded the plane to Europe.

Islamic gunmen killed at least seven Christians who were returning from baptising a child at a Coptic monastery in Egypt on Friday, officials said – the most serious attack on the minority in more than a year. Six of the dead were from the same family, and another 18 people, including children, were wounded, the Coptic Church’s spokesman said in a statement. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the ambush in Minya province in central Egypt, the militant group’s Amaq news agency said.

The attackers opened fire mid-afternoon on two buses near the Monastery of St Samuel the Confessor in Minya, 260 km (160 miles) up the River Nile from Cairo, the church spokesman said. Footage posted on social media showed bodies inside a bus with gunshot wounds.

Islamic State and affiliated groups have claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on Christians, including one that killed 28 people in almost the same spot in May 2017.

Although Egypt’s army and police launched a crackdown on the militant groups in February, some of the Christian mourners said security should be tighter. On Saturday at the funeral of some of the victims, mourners spilled out of the pews screaming, sobbing and praying over six white coffins, while rejecting the condolences of members of the security services.

Minister for Children Katherine Zappone lobbied Tánaiste Simon Coveney that no State funding would be used to finance the World Meeting of Families (WMoF) in Dublin attended by Pope Francis in August due to her disgust at the removal of references to lesbian, gay and transgender Catholics from some publicity materials for the event.
“Very serious concerns have been brought to my attention by former president Mary McAleese and others regarding the forthcoming World Meeting of Families and the potential use of State funding. As a Government Minister I share these concerns and believe they must be urgently addressed,” she wrote.

“These actions have raised the prospect that the meeting will include statements on homosexuality, gay marriage and gay adoption which will cause great hurt and offence, not just in our communities but to people worldwide,” Ms Zappone said in her letter, which she copied to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

She wrote to Mr Coveney, whose Department of Foreign Affairs managed the Pope’s visit, seeking assurances that State funding “will not be used to support views and events which do not represent Government policy.”

“Our Government through the Department of Foreign Affairs has been to the forefront in promoting equality and human rights offering hope to those facing inequality, discrimination and abuse,” she wrote.

“Financial support for an event which encourages discrimination and inequality undermines and comprises this work, which has the support of the Irish people.”

An investigation is under way after more than 100 panes of glass were broken at a COI church in Tullamore, Co Offaly. It has been estimated that repairing the windows and installing security measures could cost up to €70,000.

Reverend Isaac Delamere from St Catherine’s Church says he felt “incredibly sad and numb” after the discovery of the broken windows.

Rev Delamere said he believes it was probably young people “messing or having a laugh”, but the scale of the damage and the number of stones that were flung into the church show that it took a long time to do the damage.

He said that there was no question that it was a sectarian attack and the entire community was shocked and saddened by it.

Alan Wallace, a parishioner, said the church had been there for 203 years without such an incident happening. “What does that say about society and where society is going?” he asked.

Mr Wallace said he knew Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan well but felt much safer decades ago when Oliver Flanagan, his father, was minister for defence. He said that back then he “slept easier in my bed than I am sleeping at the moment and that is mirrored across the country, but most people are afraid to talk about it”.

“I suppose parents not teaching children discipline, not to damage things, to respect older people. The old values seem to be forgotten a lot,” he said.

Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín has been suspended from Sinn Féin for six months for voting against the party whip on the Government’s abortion legislation. This is the second member of their Dail delegation to fall foul of the party’s extreme abortion stance as earlier this year they expelled Offaly Deputy, Carol Nolan, due to her principled opposition to abortion.

Mr Tóibín was previously suspended for six months by Sinn Féin for voting against the so-called Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill in 2013.

In a statement, Mr Tóibín said his suspension could be seen as a “de facto expulsion” because it would disallow him for running as a candidate for Sinn Fein if, as seems likely, a general election is held during the next six months.

“I have been a member of Sinn Féin for 21 years. From a young age I have been inspired by the selfless sacrifice of generations of republicans from Wolfe Tone to Bobby Sands. I joined Sinn Féin when it was not easy to join Sinn Féin. In the intervening years I have poured all my energy into building a movement to achieve a united Ireland and economic justice.”

He also said voters who don’t agree with the measures in the Bill should be represented in the Oireachtas. “It is also important to note that the 34 per cent of the population that voted to retain the 8th Amendment plus the 20 per cent of Yes voters who don’t agree with this Bill should have a voice in the Oireachtas. It is reasonable that TDs should give voice to the opposing views on Simon Harris’s abortion Bill in roughly the proportion that exists in society. There is no better way to push voters to the extreme than to deny them a legitimate democratic voice.”

Simon Harris has come under pressure from a prominent pro-choice TD and party colleague to amend his extreme abortion legislation to make it even more liberal.

Kate O’Connell TD has tabled amendments that would lift a requirement for women to be examined by a medical professional before they can have a termination. Ms O’Connell has also joined Sinn Féin and Solidarity-People Before Profit in calling for Mr Harris to scrap a rule that would mean the doctor who diagnoses a serious life-limiting condition and predicts a child is likely to die before or soon after birth has to be the same one who executes the abortion when requested by the parents on those grounds.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin is calling for doctors to be referred to the medical council if they refuse to offer abortion services and refuse to refer the woman to a doctor who will. It also wants the government to drop the threat of prison for those who help women to have illegal abortions.

Sinn Féin and Solidarity-People Before Profit have called for women in Northern Ireland to be given access to free abortions in the Republic, and they want the state to cover the cost for women who travel from the North to do so.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court this morning overturned the death sentence hanging over a Catholic mother, Asia Bibi, who in 2010 became the first woman in the country condemned to death for blasphemy.

Speaking within a few minutes of the announcement today, Asia Bibi’s daughter, Eisham Ashiq, 18, told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need: “I am so happy. I want to thank God”. And, speaking through an interpreter, she told the charity for persecuted Christians: “This is the most wonderful moment. I can’t wait to hug my mother and then celebrate with my family. I am grateful to God for listening to our prayers.”

Neville Kyrke-Smith, National Director of Aid to the Church in Need (UK), said:“Today is like the dawn of new hope for oppressed minorities.” Saluting the courage of the judges in acquitting Asia Bibi in the face of fierce opposition from Islamist protestors, he added: “It is important that justice is not just seen to be done but is done.”

The Supreme Court’s decision today overturns the 2010 sentence Asia Bibi received for insulting the Muslim Prophet Mohammed, a crime punishable by death according to Article 295C of Pakistan’s Penal code – part of the so-called Blasphemy Laws.

The charge was brought against her following an altercation with Muslim co-workers who said that, as a Christian, she had contaminated a common water cup by drinking from it. Throughout, Asia Bibi has protested her innocence and on 8th October the case had its final hearing at Pakistan’s Supreme Court in the capital, Islamabad.

A group of police officers broke into a Church in China’s Fujian province last week, intimidated the church goers, stopped the liturgy and shut down the building.

The police claimed that they were there to “enforce the laws,” but they entered the building without the consent of the church and without any official documentation stating they could. The Pastor asked if they would be willing to speak with him after the service since it was then ongoing, but they shouted that it should be stopped, people should leave, and no one should attend church there anymore.

In the midst of the chaos, one mother attempted to flee with her one-year-old child, but a female government agent intercepted and chastised her. One of the attendees attempted to stand between the mother and the officer, but she bullied him. The two eventually left safely, but the child’s eye was hurt in the process.

As the church members attempted to leave, the authorities closed the door and demanded to see their identification and other personal information.

A report on the incident was publicised by ChinaAid, a group that exposes abuses, such as those suffered by the members of Yongfu Church, in order to stand in solidarity with the persecuted and promote religious freedom, human rights, and rule of law.

Doctors concerned at the Government’s plans for a GP-led abortion regime seem set to secure an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) to change the organisation’s policy on abortion. It is understood that the ICGP has now received 600 signatures, amounting to about 20pc of members in good standing.

Doctors seeking the meeting want it to consider motions which, among others, would state that “routine general practice was not the appropriate setting in which to deliver an abortion service and consider a clinical setting, external to general practice, more appropriate for the provision of abortion services”.

They also want the ICGP to adopt a policy to favour “an opt-in system whereby GPs who wish to deliver abortion services receive adequate training, are sustained in their competence and can be subject to audit in keeping with international standards of governance”.

They also want a motion passed under which the ICGP would “agree unequivocally to support the right of all doctors to the effective exercise of freedom of conscience, within the professional context, with regards to abortion including no obligation to refer patients for termination of pregnancy”.