Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall will visit Ireland and Northern Ireland next week, and security is being stepped up. Concerns have been raised that Irish Islamic extremists may try to target the visit. In addition to the risk from dissident republicans, Gardai (Irish police) are monitoring a number of radicalised individuals who they fear may attempt to disrupt the trip. Among suspects under surveillance is Irishman Khalid Kelly, who converted to Islam in 2000 while imprisoned in Saudi Arabia and is thought to have recently worked as a nurse in Syria before returning to Ireland. Mr Kelly knew Michael Adebolajo, the man who brutally killed British soldier Lee Rigby. Speaking at a mosque in Cavan, Mr Kelly said that Gardai were monitoring him ahead of Prince Charles’s visit.

Eight policemen and 14 gunmen were killed following a day-long gun battle in the Republic of Macedonia. Native Albanians from Kosovo are believed to be behind the violence, but on Wednesday the opposition claimed that the government orchestrated Saturday’s shootout. Many believe that ethnic tensions could destabilise the country. Macedonia now appears to be grappling with its deepest political crisis since gaining independence from former Yugoslavia in 1991. The tensions have been exacerbated by a number of factors. In 2001 the Albanian National Liberation Army demanded greater rights and autonomy for the Albanian minority. Since then, the country has been governed in a delicate power-sharing arrangement between Macedonians and ethnic Albanians, followed by a rising ethnic Macedonian nationalism. Last month EU envoys accused the government of leading the country towards disaster and urged those in power and the opposition to agree to a roadmap which would steer it away from ‘exploding.’ See also:

For about a year, Pope Francis has been meeting with scientists and policy experts to get their advice on addressing the environmental degradation caused by climate change. This process will culminate in June or July, when he will deliver a highly anticipated papal encyclical on the environment. An encyclical is the highest teaching issued by a pope. It is essentially a church policy paper, meant to offer guidance on specific issues for the bishops, priests and faithful who make up the family of about 1.2 billion Roman Catholics worldwide. The pope finished writing his ‘eco-encyclical’ in late April. It will be the first time a Catholic leader has dedicated an entire encyclical to environmental issues. The Vatican’s speaker on climate change said Pope Francis will frame the issue of climate change in moral terms regarding the accelerating burning of fossil fuels that power our economic engine and disrupt the earth’s delicate ecological balance on an almost unfathomable scale.  See also article 4 in Prayer-Alert British Isles section.

Seventy years ago the Nazi regime was falling to the invading allied armies, and Nazi SS officers attempted to prevent foreign soldiers from seeing the horrifying conditions in concentration camps. They gave orders for the emaciated Jews, Russians, Poles, Gypsies and other slave workers to leave the camps on ‘Death Marches’ towards the areas where the German army still had control. Many died from the cold and exhaustion or were simply shot for not being able to walk or refusing to obey orders. In 2015, in many German cities, a ‘March of Life’ has been or is being organised by Christian groups, in cooperation with Jewish communities and survivors of the Holocaust, to ask for forgiveness, promote reconciliation and bring new life to their cities and communities that had experienced the curse of death. 

A fire broke out on a ferry off Spain’s Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean on Tuesday, forcing the evacuation of 156 passengers and crew in lifeboats and injuring three crew members, officials said. The ferry operated by Trasmediterranea was travelling from Palma de Mallorca, the capital of the Balearic Islands, to the eastern Spanish port of Valencia when the blaze broke out in its garage for still unknown reasons, the company said in a statement. ‘Everyone has been evacuated,’ a company spokeswoman told AFP. Passengers and crew abandoned the Sorrento ferry in lifeboats after it became clear that the fire could not be brought under control with the means on board, Spain’s coastguard said in a statement. Three crew members who were rescued by helicopter suffered smoke inhalation, the Mallorca port authority said. It had initially said there were about 170 passengers on board the ferry.

The U.S. Department of State published a statement on 22 April saying that the Russian military has continued moving heavy weapons and additional troops to the Ukrainian border, and has deployed additional air defense systems into eastern Ukraine, creating the highest concentration of air defenses in the area since the height of the conflict last August. Russian and Russia-backed separatist forces have been conducting increasingly complex training in eastern Ukraine. Also NATO Secretary General said Russia is building up forces along the Ukrainian border and actively delivering weapons and supplies to eastern Ukraine militants, which allows them to start rapid attacks. Meanwhile the United States and Russian officials are waging a war of words, with each accusing the other of threatening to undo the ceasefire.

Amid ongoing fighting, evangelical Christians say they face persecution in Crimea and fear similar problems in other areas. One year after the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by Russia, Ukrainian Christians say they are still facing persecution there by pro-Russian separatists who already have killed several believers. Evangelical congregations in particular have come under severe restrictions in Crimea, according to activists and church officials. In comments distributed by the Voice Of the Martyrs Canada (VOMC) advocacy group, a key church leader said that separatists accuse evangelical Christians in Ukraine of spying for the West. ‘Separatists have confiscated their church buildings,’ added the official, only identified as ‘Paul’ amid security concerns. Paul, who reportedly planted many churches in the former Soviet Union, said some believers in occupied areas were even killed. ‘After annexation, Ukrainian churches [were told] they had no right to exist there. Every church has had to be re-registered,’ he explained in comments obtained by BosNewsLife.

In Norway, an Iraqi Islamist is keeping the entire country on tenterhooks. The man, who calls himself Mullah Krekar, was granted asylum in Norway in 1991, but in the meantime has been held responsible for terrorist attacks by an Islamist group in northern Iraq. Now he's about to be confined to a small village in northern Norway. Krekar has been facing deportation for ten years because he is seen as a danger to Norwegian national security, but according to international law he cannot be sent to Iraq because he would be subject to torture and possibly the death penalty there. The Norwegian government is sending him to the isolated village of Kyrksaeteroera, on a fjord southwest of Trondheim, where he will remain until a deportation order can be enforced.The village residents - neither the Norwegians, nor the 200 well-integrated asylum seekers already there - are enthusiastic.

Heads of eleven Evangelical churches have asked people not to give or take bribes and oppose corruption the main inner enemy of Ukraine, reports The Christian Telegraph in reference to the Institute for Religious Freedom. ‘Losses from corruption are huge. The sin of theft cruelly destroys our nation. The experience of other countries has shown that all good changes in a person’s life or the life of the whole nation begin with changes in the worldview,’ said the appeal made by the Alliance of Evangelical Protestant Churches of Ukraine. The heads of the of Evangelical churches noted the importance of healthy spiritual guide-lines, which the Bible contains. All officials should remember ‘the oath of civil servants, and, what is more important, the responsibility before the Almighty Creator and Lord.’ the ministers called on the government to make transparent reformation of ‘courts,  local governments and other important components of the state.’

A new report by the Pew Research Centre said, ‘The religious profile of the world is rapidly changing, driven by differences in fertility rates and the size of youth populations among the world’s major religions, as well as by people switching faiths. Over the next four decades Christians will remain the largest religious group, but Islam will grow faster than any other major religion if current trends continue. By 2050, Christianity is set to decline further in the UK and Europe. 25% of all Christians lived in Europe in 2010. By 2050 this is set to drop to 15.6 % and Africa will have the most Christians. In 2010, 24% of the world's Christians lived in sub-Saharan Africa by 2050 it will exceed 38% according to Pew. Europe’s ‘absolute number’ of Christians will fall from 553 million in 2010 to 454 million in 2050.