In troubled times, many people turn to their faith, which may explain why faith-based travel has been gaining momentum in recent years.

Its leaders call themselves devout Christians and say life is sacred. But its supporters march with spears, machetes and clubs and anoint themselves with magic potions to ward off police bullets.

Americans cheered when Aly Raisman of Needham, Mass., won a gold medal on Tuesday (July 31) in the women's all-around gymnastics competition, but at least some American Jews likely cheered a little louder.

Christians and Muslims have clashed for years in central Nigeria, a conflict that took an unexpected turn when Islamist insurgents based in the northeast claimed responsibility for deadly weekend raids on Christian villages.

In Kenya, attacks on Christian churches in the Muslim-majority town of Garissa killed 17 people July 1. Now, local Muslim leaders are patrolling to help protect the churches.

Islamists who have taken control of one of Africa's most historic cities, Timbuktu, smashed the wooden door of an old mosque on Monday, continuing a campaign of destruction of religious monuments that has drawn condemnation from the United Nations and the International Criminal Court.

IT was dusk when the gunmen came to Rouki's village in northern Mali and killed her eight-year-old son, Bashir.

Suspected Islamic militants bombed worshipers at three Christian churches on Sunday in northern Nigeria, killing some 23 people.

Suicide bombers killed 21 people in attacks on three churches in Nigeria during Sunday services, exacerbating religious tensions in a West African nation that is almost evenly divided between Muslims and Christians.

The head of the Jesuit order in East Africa explained to other theologians gathered here last week that a simple gesture had different meanings in different cultures.

Nigerian Roman Catholic Archbishop John Onaiyekan, on a visit to Kenya, said the Islamist Boko Haram insurgency is as rooted in bad governance as much as in its push for Islamic sharia law.

Sometimes there is an opportunity to document that the power of God is real.