At first, the amateur video shows a normal evening in the seething valley town of Apatzingn, in Mexico's western Michoacn state. But as residents and stall owners mix jovially on the sidewalk, the calm is broken by the sudden, sinister appearance of masked men gripping machine guns mounted on more than 50 pickup trucks, Hummers and Jeeps. The gangsters cruise openly down Apatzingn's main drag, a frightening show of force even by the brutal standards of Mexico's ...

The Year of Our Lord 1962 was a year of American resolve, Russian orbiting, European union and Chinese war. In a tense yet hope-filled time, these were the events that dominated conversation and invited history's scrutiny. But history has a long eye, and it is quite possible that in her vision 1962's most fateful rendezvous took place in the world's most famous church—having lived for years in men's hearts and minds. That event was the beginning of a ...

Sister Hong's brainwashing session began when her Bible class ended. Five peasant women had led the Catholic nun to a house in a distant village in Henan province two years ago so that she could teach the life of Jesus. Suddenly, the women vanished and a man entered. For the next five days he refused to let her leave and forced her to debate the Bible. He said the day of judgment is nigh. Jesus has returned. Chinathe Great Red ...

A fortnight hence in the Vatican, 2,600 bishops of the Roman Catholic Church will meet in a gathering so rare that only 20 others like it have been convened in the 20 centuries of Christian history. The purpose of the Second Vatican Council is what His Holiness Pope John XXIII, who has the Catholic prelate's traditional wariness of words that suggest drastic change, calls an aggiornamento—a modernization. This self-reform will affect the life, the worship and the discipline ...

19-year-old Rojeh Reda says he hasn't slept much the past five days. Cairo University literature student and Shakespeare buff says he and his two friends have made it their mission to patrol and monitor the streets of his neighborhood, Imbaba, a poor working-class district in Cairo. Over the weekend, fighting in Imbaba between hundreds of Muslims and Christians left at least 12 people dead, more than 200 wounded and two churches in flames, in the latest ...

The rules for Skinbook are clear: No pornographic images or headless torso shots. Don't leave sleazy comments under people's photos. Boot out any "creeps and voyeurs," as site executives call them, who manage to make it past the vetting process for new members. Skinbook.ning.com is a U.K.-based website that proudly touts itself as the Net's only genuine nudist social network. Skinbook capitalizes on users' familiarity with Facebook-style member profiles, messages, forums and groups. Except that, unlike on ...

How close did Gary Faulkner, the shaggy Colorado construction worker arrested in Pakistan on Sunday, come to tracking down his prey, Osama bin Laden in the mountains along the Afghan border? Very close, according to his brother, Scott, a physician in Fort Morgan, Col. Scott says that during his last two visits to Pakistan, wanna-be bounty hunter Faulkner had located a cave on an 18,000 ft mountain where he saw "a bearded man in a white robe ...

Is nothing sacred? After church leaders set about updating the United Methodist Hymnal in 1984, their most controversial acts were to excise one of the most popular hymns in the Protestant repertoire, Onward Christian Soldiers, and to strip verses from The Battle Hymn of the Republic. The literal-minded rationale: a pro-peace church should not use "militaristic imagery." Outraged parishioners would have none of it. The two hymns were restored -- banners, watch fires and all -- after the revisionists were ...

There are more reasons than mere theology why Evangelical Christian leaders are raising Cain over the message now being wholesaled by the Rev. Rob Bell of Mars Hill Bible Church, featured in TIME's current cover story, "What If There's No Hell?" Bell's I'm-O.K.-you're-O.K., we're-not-going-to-hell-today spin is not merely a refutation of a basic belief. If this piece of theological reordering takes hold, it's the Evangelicals' business plan that's going to hell. Fire and brimstone has been ...

Violent protests rocked the southern Afghanistan city of Kandahar on Saturday as more than 2,000 people marched against the burning of a Koran by a radical Christian preacher in Gainesville, Fla., two weeks ago. The demonstration left eight dead and 61 injured, Afghan media reported, as protesters set local businesses and cars ablaze. Saturday's events marked the second aggressive protest in Afghanistan in as many days. The first demonstration, on Friday, turned violent when hundreds of men ...