Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American who has been in a North Korean prison for more than six months, was sentenced to 15 years hard labor for "hostile acts" that were seen as an attempt to overthrow the government, North Korean media said Thursday.

The Roman Catholic Church has excommunicated the popular Brazilian priest Father Roberto Francisco Daniel for teaching that same-sex marriage is OK.

While promoting his new documentary "The Unbelievers" alongside theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss, atheist professor and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins addressed the recent Boston bombings, as well as some reports which claim that perhaps an extremist belief in Islam could have motivated bombing suspects Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in their recent terrorist attack.

U.S. Pastor Saeed Abedini has been sent to solitary confinement in Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran, raising concerns for his deteriorating health, family members have confirmed.

A Nigerian human rights lawyer, Emmanuel Ogebe, has accused the U.S. Department of State of enabling Islamist militant group Boko Haram by mischaracterizing their actions in that country which have resulted in the death of more than 1,000 Christians and other civilians since 2012.

Hopes are beginning to fade in Bangladesh to find more survivors in the rubble of the eight-story building that collapsed last week, as the death toll rose to 380 victims.

An American man, identified as a tour guide and a Christian, will be put on trial in North Korea for alleged crimes against the state, revealed the Korean Central News Agency in a report that comes six months after Kenneth Bae's initial detention.

A hockey player has died of a snake bite in Australia's tropical Northern Territory.

During his first interview since the attack against St. Mark's Cathedral, Coptic Patriarch H.H. Pope Tawadros II said that Christians in Egypt are being ignored by the country's government.

Local reports indicate that an unidentified gunmen kidnapped a Coptic man and his son in the North Sinai border city of Rafah, late Thursday night, as they were returning to their home.