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BRAZIL: Evangelicals in this vast Latin American country are growing in number, adding two cabinet ministers in this traditionally Roman Catholic country to their ranks. Robson Rodovalho, bishop of the Heal Our Land Church, founded FENASP, or the National Evangelical Forum on Political and Social Action, to “defend and bring to light a prophetic position in defense of values of the kingdom of God in society, the government and state.” Operation World reports that 12.6 percent of Brazilians are evangelical, 23.2 percent are charismatic and 7.9 percent are Pentecostal.

CHILE: Buddhist monks carried a gold dome containing Buddha’s ashes through Santiago, drawing hundreds of onlookers June 28. Burma, Sri Lanka and Thailand donated the ashes to the United Nations, which officially recognized Buddhism as a world religion in 1999. The tour of Buddha’s remains began last year. They have been displayed in 15 countries. Next May the ashes will return to the UN headquarters in New York City, where they will remain permanently. One Tibetan healer told Reuters that the ashes are for everyone, not just Buddhists, “because Buddha himself was open to all of us. The relics help the creation of a non-violent culture,” he said.

COLOMBIA: Men in two Caribbean coastal towns are receiving acres of land in exchange for having vasectomies. The program is funded by an anonymous 54-year-old movie producer who believes sterilization and land grants stop a vicious cycle of “entanglement.” Colombia’s government reports that 250,000 babies are abandoned annually, and many are left to die. The funder doesn’t want the land filled with children who “start the cycle again,” he said. He’s had 40 takers so far, even though macho attitudes about the procedure give many men pause. Their need for land, however, has gotten the men over their fears and into the operating room.

EUROPE: Seeking to reverse their poverty, suffering and marginalization, Gypsy leaders from 12 Central European and Balkan countries gathered in support of a plan to turn the tide of misery within a decade. Among problems the group faces: an infant mortality rate twice the average for non-Roma, poverty as much as 10 times the average, and in Bulgaria, 90 percent of Roma have only primary schooling, if schooled at all. Governments aren’t following through with promised programs to improve the Roma’s worsening plight. The people are routinely viewed as “poor, stupid, cheats and liars.”

INDIA: While part of the world’s second most populous country is suffering a severe four-year-long drought, another region is suffering flooding. Rajasthan state is the most affected by India’s drought, which has devastated several other states as well. Some villages are surviving by eating wild grass. Andhra Pradesh is emerging from a heat wave that killed more than 1,300 through dehydration and heatstroke. Low ground water levels have seriously impacted farmers, many of whom have left the Gulf region in search of jobs. Monsoons have displaced 400,000 in Assam state. Flooded water sources created an acute lack of potable water. More rains have been forecast for the region.

INDONESIA: When Islamic shariah law was brought to northern Indonesia’s Aceh province on March 4, Muslim leaders said the restrictive system would only apply to Muslims. In practice, Christians are suffering restrictions. Pastors and priests are banned from entering Aceh. In many areas, worship is forbidden. Thousands of Christians have fled.

IRAQ: Christians in post-Saddam Iraq are wary about their prospects to practice their faith freely. According to a report by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, many Christians saw Saddam as one who did not offer Christians special protection from abuse, but did shield them from majority Muslims. “[Hussein] protected Christian people in some ways, but when [a person] turned against him he did not care if he was a Christian, a Shi’a or a Sunni,” one Christian says. “He killed [that person] or did something bad to him or put him in jail. He was bad to all of the people.” Iraqi Christians felt unsafe and dependent on the goodwill of the heinous dictator, who issued laws aimed at converting Christians. Muslims were favored in Christian-majority towns. Christian students often were denied religious education, or were forced to study the Quran, while a single Muslim student in a school received Islamic religious teaching. Christians form a tenth of Baghdad’s population but more than a third of Iraq’s educated people.

MEXICO: Some 30,000 indigenous evangelicals in Mexico’s poor southernmost state of Chiapas have flooded into the city San Cristobal de las Casas since the 1970s, victims of Catholic persecution in their villages. Now many of them are converting to Islam. In 1995 Muslim missionaries arrived in Chiapas from Spain and have since converted some 300 families to Islam. One convert, Juan Gómez, 26, converted to Islam in 1996. Gómez’ father’s family was among the first evangelicals expelled from nearby San Juan Chamula in the 1970s. Some 40 percent of Chiapas is evangelical, making this the region with the largest evangelical presence in Latin America.

NIGERIA: Sectarian violence flared in June in the Northwest Nigerian Christian town of Numan after a Muslim trader stabbed Christian evangelist Esther Ethan while she was doing street witnessing, killing her. In response Christian youths burned the town’s main mosque and other smaller mosques and buildings belonging to prominent Muslims. The melee spread to neighboring towns when local ethnic Bachama youths began hunting down Muslims for reprisals. Police are keeping peace in the area. Tensions are high in Nigeria since 12 states in the country’s Muslim majority north adopted Islamic shariah law.

PERU: Quechua evangelist Joshua Sauñe survived a partly exploded bomb in Ayacucho on May 17. Nearby they found a red communist flag. Authorities say the attack could mean that the Maoist terrorist group Shining Path may be gaining strength. Sauñe’s brother Rómulo, who translated the Bible into Ayacucho Quechua, was martyred 11 years ago by this rebel group.