The pastor’s murder is only the latest attacks in the West African nation. On Jan. 19, Boko Haram insurgents ambushed two separate Nigerian army patrols, killing 17, and slaughtered a bridal party on Dec. 27.

This year, the Christian watchdog organization is highlighting the “rise of the surveillance state” and its impact on Christians and Muslims in China along with its 2019 World Watch List, released Wednesday (Jan. 15).

The U.S. executive branch has long been expanding its powers to wage war, writes Maryann Cusimano Love, but President Trump seems eager to go even further in acting without congressional authorization.

Pope Francis prayed for peace from St. Peter’s Square. “War only brings death and destruction,” he said. “I call on all parties to keep alive the flame of dialogue and self-control and avoid the shadow of enmity.”

Christians have just begun to trickle back to communities that had been devastated first by ISIS then by the Iraqi and U.S. coalition forces that drove out ISIS. Those forces include the Shiite militia that have been targeted by the Trump administration over the last week.

Even though manuscripts—handwritten books— are at least several technological stages behind the ways we access information today, we still rely on them for access to the past.

More painful, though not treated in the exhibition, is the current situation of Sudan, which only became independent from British colonial rule in 1956.

Armed groups affiliated with ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, celebrating erroneously in a statement the killing of “two priests.”

This is only the latest wave of Syrian refugees and internally displaced people from Iraq to seek safety in Iraqi-Kurdistan, which already hosts 38 camps. So far 12,000 Syrian civilians have taken refuge across the border.

Turkey's long-threatened incursion into northeast Syria after the sudden pullout of U.S. military forces from the country in early October raises serious moral questions on the responsibility to protect civilians caught in the middle of a new conflict.