Globe Trot: The rise of the ‘Bible bloc’ in Brazil

BRAZIL: Conservative Sen. Marcelo Crivella, an evangelical and Pentecostal, handily beat a socialist lawmaker to become Rio de Janeiro’s new mayor, in the country’s first major poll since lawmakers impeached leftist President Dilma Rousseff in August.

Crivella, 59, is the nephew of Edir Macedo, founder and “billionaire bishop” of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, Brazil’s main Pentecostal denomination. It built a $300 million replica of Solomon’s Temple. Crivella is part of a “Bible bloc” that highlights the growing numbers and influence of Protestants in the traditionally Catholic country.

LEBANON: A simple majority in Parliament elected Michael Aoun, 81, the country’s next president, ending a 2½-year vacuum in the top office. Aoun, a Christian, won election with support of Hezbollah and other Muslim factions.

ITALY: More than 15,000 people are in temporary shelters after a 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck near Norcia Sunday, reverberating across the region. In Rome, the quake left cracks in St. Paul’s Basilica and shut down the city’s metro system. In Norcia, the Basilica of St. Benedict, considered the founder of monasticism, was flattened.

TURKEY: The U.S. State Department on Saturday ordered family members of U.S. Consulate employees to leave Istanbul, and issued a strong warning against Americans traveling to southeast Turkey. U.S. officials cited extremist groups targeting Americans, but Turkey itself continues to detain an American pastor, Andrew Brunson, and has deported other Americans.

IRAQ: A handful of Christians returned Sunday to Qaraqosh, the largest city in Nineveh Plain, to celebrate the first mass in two years after liberation from ISIS.

KAZAKHSTAN: American astronaut Kate Rubins and two Russian crewmates landed safely Sunday morning after their mission aboard the International Space Station.

SWEDEN: Pope Francis arrived in Sweden today to mark the 499th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation with Lutheran and other Protestant leaders. Speaking at an ecumenical service marking the anniversary will be Bishop Antoine Audo from Aleppo, Syria, WORLD’s 2013 Daniel of the Year.