The sun has been acting strangely of late, prompting some solar physicists to suggest that once current sunspot activity peaked, which appeared to happen last fall, it could tank and remain that way for several decades.
Group of Seven leaders expressed their concern about tensions between China and a number of other Asian countries over resources in the East and South China Seas and warned against any use of force.
Open Doors has just released the “Top Ten” countries where Christians are most persecuted for their faith.
The Obama administration vowed Thursday to end bulk collection of data if Congress passes a Patriot Act reform bill winding its way through the Senate, which is designed to end the NSA phone snooping program revealed by Edward Snowden.
The West faces an Al Qaida blow-back based on Sunni foreign fighters in Syria, a report said.
Meriam Ibrahim, the woman sentenced to death in Sudan for refusing to recant her Christian faith, has appealed the verdict against her.
The European Union said Thursday it was “deeply disappointed” over the Israeli announcement to commence construction of thousands of new homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and called on the government to “reverse this decision.”
Asked whether the Taliban would be inspired by the exchange to kidnap others, a commander laughed. “Definitely.”
South Sudan faces a historical famine greater than the 1984 Ethiopian famine, with 3.5 million people already suffering from acute or emergency-level food shortages. People have been displaced in the country by more than five months of fighting, and if a shaky ceasefire does not hold, the South Sudanese will not be able to return home to plant crops before the rains begin.
Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei asserted that the Obama Administration had taken the option of a military intervention against the Islamic republic off the table.
Heavily armed Boko Haram militants dressed as soldiers shepherded Christians into a church apparently hiding for their safety before being slaughtered in the latest of fresh attacks in the northeastern Borno state of Nigeria.
Twenty-eight percent of Americans believe the Bible is the actual word of God and that it should be taken literally. This is somewhat below the 38% to 40% seen in the late 1970s, and near the all-time low of 27% reached in 2001 and 2009. But about half of Americans continue to say the Bible is the inspired word of God, not to be taken literally — meaning a combined 75% believe the Bible is in some way connected to God. About one in five Americans view the Bible in purely secular terms — as ancient fables, legends, history, and precepts written by man — which is up from 13% in 1976.
Under pressure from Islamic extremist movements authorities in West Java, have ordered the closure of seven Protestant churches for ‘alleged irregularities in building permits’ according to AsiaNews.
A Turkish legislator is demanding an investigation into why the website of a Turkish church was classified as pornography and blocked online from Turkey’s Grand National Assembly, according to Morning Star News.
More than 2 million people who got health insurance under President Obama’s law have data discrepancies that could jeopardize coverage for some, a government document shows.
Palestinians will pursue Israel in the international legal arena — for war crimes and for apartheid acts — if it takes punitive measures against the newly unified Hamas-Fatah government, warned chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat.
An new report by RAND Corp. released Wednesday finds that the number of Islamic radical groups operating in the world has skyrocketed since 2010.
Washington’s support for a new Palestinian government which includes Hamas, a terrorist organization, has left Israel feeling betrayed, triggering a new diplomatic crisis with its closest ally.
Executions in Iran continue to soar to record-breaking levels in 2014, as more than two people are being killed every day and some 320 executions have taken place in the first five months of 2014 alone, according to human rights observers.
The US ambassador to Israel condemned Thursday a plan to build 1,500 housing units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, announced as a retaliatory measure to the formation of a Palestinian unity government earlier this week.