Globe Trot: Europe mulls border controls amid terror threat

EUROPE: EU ministers in an emergency meeting today in Brussels are moving toward reinstating border controls and passport checks among the 26 EU nations that have had open borders. Diplomats in Brussels also attended a presentation on protecting religious freedom with the European Evangelical Alliance, according to a Belgian-Congolese representative of the group I spoke to today.

MALI: An African group linked to al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for an attack on a Radisson hotel in Bamako, the capital. About 170 people held hostage are now free, according to reports, thanks to French special forces and U.S. and Malian commandoes. Reports say six Americans were among those released from the hotel. A Belgian official was killed in the siege. Here’s helpful background on this new rising terror group.

YEMEN: Islamic State is claiming responsibility for two attacks in Yemen, while three Americans held captive by Houthi Shiite rebels in the capital have been freed. The U.S. Embassy is declining to identify those freed, but reports say they do not include Sharif Mobley, a U.S. citizen held in Yemen since 2010. He faces a death sentence on suspicion by the Houthis of being part of al-Qaeda.

SYRIA: With 47 Democrats crossing the aisle, the House yesterday approved legislation, 289-137, effectively suspending admission to the United States for Syrian and Iraqi refugees.

IRAQ: Sources in Iraq confirm a boatload of Iraqi Christians from Qaraqosh, a city now in the hands of ISIS, sunk trying to reach transit points in Greece. Six bodies were recovered and the body of a small child is missing, according to church worker Gemayel Cefajamil. Aid organization Samaritan’s Purse is stepping in to help UNHCR manage transit camps, vice president Ken Isaacs told me this week. Here’s what a day in the life of its workers looks like.

U.S.-ISRAEL: Early this morning, Jonathan Pollard, the Navy analyst who passed classified documents to Israel, walked out of jail in North Carolina, a free man 30 years after receiving a life sentence for spying.

UPCOMING: Next week, French President François Hollande travels to Washington to meet with President Barack Obama before he visits Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin. On Wednesday, European political and religious leaders will be welcomed by the King of Belgium as they gather for the annual European Prayer Breakfast amid heightened security. The location of the event is now undisclosed but the event remains, according to one ministry head I spoke to, “a catalyst for some great and growing relationships with political leaders who are following Jesus.”