A Christian wife and mother in Pakistan has been sentenced to death by hanging for blasphemy.

Asia Bibi, 45, was also fined some $1,135—about two and a half year’s earnings for a farm worker—for saying defamatory statements about the Prophet Mohammed, according to Christian Today.

Bibi denies the charges and said that she is being persecuted for her faith. According to the Telegraph, Christians in Pakistan are routinely discriminated against and harassed.

The Telegraph said that human rights groups and Christian organizations have condemned the verdict and are seeking a repeal of the blasphemy laws. Supporters of Bibi said that she will appeal the sentence of the local court in Sheikhupura, a town near Lahore in Pakistan.

Andy Dipper, chief executive of Release International, said he was shocked to learn of the local court’s ruling. Christian Today reported that Bibi had been hoping to be acquitted so that she could be back with her husband and children.

Dipper told Christian Today, “Although Asia has great courage, her dreams of release have vanished now. Please pray for her encouragement, strength and protection.”

Ashiq Masih, the husband of Bibi, said he could not yet tell their two younger daughters of the ruling. He told Telegraph, “They asked me many times about their mother but I can’t get the courage to tell them that the judge has sentenced their mother to capital punishment for a crime she never committed.”

Bibi has been kept in isolation in prison since June last year, according to Telegraph.

The trouble began when Bibi, a field hand who worked with other women, was told to fetch drinking water. However, some of the Muslim women refused to drink the water because it was brought by a Christian, making it “unclean,” the Telegraph reported.

Christian Today reported that some of the women workers tried to make Bibi renounce her faith. Bibi told them that Jesus died for the sins of all men, and asked the women what Muhammad did for them.

The women, offended, struck Bibi repeatedly, and a group of men locked her in a room. Release International told Christian Today that a mob abused and beat her and her children.

According to the Telegraph, the police were pressured by the Muslim mob, some of whom were clerics, to register a blasphemy case against Bibi. Human rights often say the law is used to discriminate against religious minorities, including some three million Christians in Pakistan.

Ali Hasan Dayan, of Human Rights Watch, told Telegraph that Pakistan’s constitution guarantees many rights which are inconsistent with the blasphemy law. He said that oftentimes the law is used to settle scores that are not even related with religion.

Release International has launched a petition to end Pakistan’s blasphemy law and said the death sentence against Bibi would set a dangerous precedent for other blasphemy cases, Christian Today reported.

To sign Release’s online petition, go to www.releaseinternational.org/current.

A group of Christians have managed to wed their two passions–Jesus Christ and surfing–to spread the good news to people on the beach.

Christian Surfers, a worldwide organization with 23 chapters and some 3,000 members in the U.S. uses surfing as a tool for spirituality, The Florida Times-Union reported.

The organization, which began in the U.S. in 1984, also operates in 27 countries. Their strategy is not confrontational. They don’t pass out tracts on the beach or preach along the shore. Instead, they use surfing as a means to bond, then to draw others into a more wholesome lifestyle, The Florida Times-Union said.

Dean Plumlee, 41, is the national director of Christian Surfers USA. He told The Florida Times-Union, “These [surfers] are people who spend a good portion of their life in nature, in creation, and because of that they know that there is a divine creator who has awesome power. Surfers don’t fit into organized religion and are looking for something. … We connect surfers to Jesus. We’re really kind of a missions agency.”

The culture of surfers has long been linked to rebellion, drugs and alcohol. But Plumlee told The Florida Times-Union, “Normally, surfers are spiritual people. But the (drugs and alcohol) …leads to brokenness and pain, and in the surfing world there are a lot of broken people.”

The Christian Surfers can be easily mistaken to fit the stereotype, since many have tattoos and long hair. “[But] we don’t worry what everyone else thinks,” Plumlee told The Florida Times-Union.

According to their website, Christian Surfers want to see every surfer touched by Jesus. Primarily evangelistic in intent, they submit their surfing to Christ rather than just indulging in their passion for the sport.

They are interdenominational, and they minister primarily through building relationships with people first. They are also volunteer based, according to their website.

How does one relate surfing to Jesus? Plumlee told The Florida Times-Union, “For us, where Jesus and surfing intersects is like making Kool-Aid. You put all that powder in the cup, and you pour water in, and whatever’s in the cup mixes with the water … and in our life Jesus isn’t the accessory. He’s the water,” The Florida Times-Union reported.

Plumlee concluded, “So whatever we get into, Jesus gets into with us … he’s a part of everything we do, and this surf community is a highly spiritual community,” The Florida Times-Union said.

Israel denies it, Jordan ignores it, and a green group claims that the water of the Jordan River where Jesus is believed to have been baptized is unsafe.

The ecology group Friends of the Earth Middle East claims that the Jordan River is polluted on the sides of both Israel and Jordan. Both countries claim their side of the river is where Jesus was baptized.

Gidon Bromberg, Israeli director of Friends of the Earth Middle East said water baptisms should be banned from the popular tourism sites, “For reasons of public health as well as religious integrity,” RNS said.

The river is polluted because of large amounts of sewage and fecal bacteria that is pumped into it from the West Bank, Jordan and Israel, the AP said.

Mira Edelstein of Friends of the Earth Middle East said, “The state of the river at the moment is really dire,” Voice of America said.

However the Israeli government disagrees. They said that tests conducted on Tuesday in the Qasr al-Yahud (Israel side of the Jordan River) showed the pollution levels are less than a tenth of their Health Ministry’s accepted standard, the AP said.

A Civil Administration and Nature and Parks Authority spokesman said the waters are safe for bathing and claimed they hold routine tests every three months of what is viewed as Christianity’s third most sacred site, Ynet said.

Some 100,000 Christians visit Qasr al-Yahud annually and oftentimes they hold water baptisms there, the AP said. However many tourists have begun to go to the Jordanian side instead, because of the pollution reports, Ynet said.

Bromberg has asked that all ceremonies on both sides of the river stop until pollutants are removed. Qasr al-Yahud falls within an Israeli-controlled military zone. Israel closed the baptismal site for one day, but reopened it immediately after. Jordan never closed its side of the river, nor did the Jordanian government respond to the environmental group’s report, RNS said.

Bromberg said, “Our call is to halt baptisms on both sides of the river. It is exactly the same polluted water,” RNS said. Israel is constructing sewage treatment plants that should terminate waste flow into their side of the river by 2011, the AP said.

However environmentalists feel that will not suffice. Noting the growing population, climate and constant water shortage, they feel only increasing water flow into the river will help. Edelstein says 98 percent of the water that should enter the river is diverted for agriculture, drinking and domestic use, and only two percent is left, VOANews said.

Edelstein said this was discovered when the green group recently did a study that was conducted in a regional fashion, with the help of Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian experts, VOANews said. This is why the waters of the Jordan River have shrunk dramatically, the AP said.

The fresh water flow is diverted to Syria, Jordan and Israel, Bromberg says adding, “If the same thing were happening to a Jewish or Muslim holy site there would be a public outcry,” RNS said.

After five months of living in the jungle 48 Lao Christians who were expelled at gunpoint from their homes are contracting critical illnesses, and one has already died, according to Compass Direct News (CDN).

The Christians were expelled from Katin village for refusing to renounce their faith.  In the jungle they contracted diarrhea, dehydration, eye and skin infections, fainting and general weakness due to prolonged lack of adequate food and water, CDN reported.

One Christian, Ampheng, died suddenly in April while praying for one of two other Christians who were hospitalized for illnesses caused by their living conditions.  However the exact cause and date of Ampheng’s death is not known, and local officials did not permit the deceased’s remains to be laid to rest at the local burial ground, according to CDN.

After the Christians were driven away they built temporary shelters at the edge of the jungle some four miles from the village.  They survived on food found in the jungle and water from a hand-dug well that is unfit for cooking or drinking, CDN reported.

The registration papers of the homes of the Christians were confiscated along with their water buffaloes, which are essential for their work in the fields.  Katin’s village chief recently warned other residents not to make contact with any of the Christians, otherwise their personal possessions would be confiscated and their homes torn down, CDN reported.

Meanwhile in Washington DC a demonstration was held at the Lao Embassy recently to call for the release of hundreds of political and religious dissidents and thousands of Lao-Hmong refugees currently held in detention in Laos, according to the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO).

The demonstration followed a one-week series of policy events held with American policymakers, members of congress and non-governmental organizations, the UNPO said.

“Many Laotians and Hmong have been persecuted, tortured, have disappeared, or been killed … in Laos for merely expressing their political or religious views, peacefully protesting or practicing their faith,”  said Bounthanh Rathigna, President of the United League for Democracy in Laos, Inc. (ULDL), according to the UNPO report.

Laos is a communist country where the populace is 1.5 percent Christian, 67 percent Buddhist, and the remainder unspecified.  Article 6 and Article 30 of the Lao Constitution guarantees the right of Christians and other religious minorities to practice the religion of their choice without discrimination or penalty, CDN reported.