Rev Mario Felix Lleonart Barroso, a prominent pastor and religious freedom activist, was arrested on Sunday just hours before President Barack Obama’s official state visit to Cuba. Rev Mario’s wife and their two young daughters were put under house arrest, and their phone connection was cut. Before this his wife was able to speak to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). His family and church have not been allowed to speak to Barroso directly, but she was told that her husband had been taken to Santa Clara, and was being refused food or drink. She added that the pastor had already been ill over the weekend, after a stranger pricked him with a pin while he was on public transport last week. As well as Pastor Barroso, dozens of human rights activists linked to the Ladies in White were also arrested and detained on their way to attend morning Mass in Havana. ABC reported that 304 activists were arrested. See

Amnesty International has urged Washington and London to halt arms deliveries to Saudi Arabia, which is leading a military coalition against rebels in Yemen, for the sake of saving civilian lives. In a statement released one year into the Saudi-led intervention and entitled ‘Reckless arms flows decimate civilian lives,’ the rights watchdog said that the US and UK, the largest arms suppliers to Saudi Arabia, have continued to allow transfers of the type of weapons that have been used to commit serious abuses, generating a humanitarian crisis on an unprecedented scale. The group has documented 32 airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition since the beginning of the conflict. These strikes have violated international humanitarian law and killed 361 civilians, including at least 127 children. The World Health Organisation says that since March 2015 fighting in Yemen has killed 6,300 people, half of them civilians; the UN has warned of an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe.

A new campaign titled ‘Ban the niqab’ was launched in Egypt earlier this month, calling for a ban on the full face veil in all state institutions, including universities, public hospitals, schools and government departments. The campaign was strongly criticised by some Islamic clerics, who believe that wearing the niqab is a virtuous act by women and banning it is not permissible. Meanwhile, others argued that the campaign was not directed at Islam, saying that the niqab is merely a tradition unrelated to religion that should be removed. In an interview with Al-Monitor, Mohamed Attiya, the campaign’s founder, said that he launched the campaign because of the volatile political climate in Egypt and the attempts made by the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters to cause chaos and panic among Egyptians by carrying out terrorist attacks against state institutions. He believes that the campaign will prevent terrorists from exploiting the niqab to conceal their identities to carry out attacks.

In this week's video Pete Greig from 24-7 Prayer talks about the preacher DL Moody who prayed for 100 of his friends to know Jesus. Ninety-six of them came to faith before he died, the last four became Christians at his funeral. It's an encouragement for us all to pray for those we love who don't yet know Jesus. Using the leather prayer strap Pete ties 5 knots, and encourages all to do the same as a reminder for us to pray for those 5 people God has put on our heart over the week of Thy Kingdom Come, 8-15 May 2015.

Watch the video on YouTube.  https://youtu.be/MNIZooHYgl4