News

Trump Middle East envoy meets Netanyahu in Jerusalem
March 14, 2017 By Faith Matters

Trump Middle East envoy meets Netanyahu in Jerusalem

U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Monday, Netanyahu’s office said, as the new administration tries to restart peace talks with the Palestinians. A statement from the Israeli leader’s office said Jason Greenblatt “reaffirmed President Trump’s commitment to Israel’s security and to the effort to help Israelis […]

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Turkey promises harsh retaliation after Netherlands bars ministers
March 12, 2017 By Faith Matters

Turkey promises harsh retaliation after Netherlands bars ministers

Turkey told the Netherlands on Sunday that it would retaliate in the “harshest ways” after Turkish ministers were barred from speaking in Rotterdam, as a row over Ankara’s political campaigning among Turkish immigrants escalated. President Tayyip Erdogan said “Nazism is still widespread in the West” after the Netherlands joined other European countries worried about political […]

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Jordanian soldier who shot Israeli schoolchildren freed after end of sentence
March 12, 2017 By Faith Matters

Jordanian soldier who shot Israeli schoolchildren freed after end of sentence

A Jordanian soldier who was convicted of killing seven Israeli school girls two decades ago has been released from prison after serving his sentence, family sources said on Sunday. They said Ahmad Daqamseh was now in his family home in the village of Ibdir near the city of Irbid in northern Jordan. In July 1997, […]

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Pope signals elderly married men could become priests
March 11, 2017 By Faith Matters

Pope signals elderly married men could become priests

Pope Francis has said he is willing to consider ordaining older married men as priests in isolated communities, but has ruled out making celibacy optional to tackle a shortage of clergy. The shortage has prompted calls from some progressives to end the ancient tradition of celibacy for Roman Catholic priests. Such a move would represent […]

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Trump’s new travel ban will worsen refugees’ woes: UN
March 8, 2017 By Faith Matters

Trump’s new travel ban will worsen refugees’ woes: UN

President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban on refugee resettlement will worsen the agonies of refugees, a spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday. Speaking at a press briefing at the UN headquarters, Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson for Guterres, said refugees are ordinary people forced to flee war, violence and persecution in their […]

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Last letters – From Mosul schoolboys to Islamic State ‘martyrs’
February 27, 2017 By Faith Matters

Last letters – From Mosul schoolboys to Islamic State ‘martyrs’

“My dear family, please forgive me,” reads the handwritten letter discarded in the dusty halls of an Islamic State training compound in eastern Mosul. “Don’t be sad and don’t wear the black clothes (of mourning). I asked to get married and you did not marry me off. So, by God, I will marry the 72 […]

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Philadelphia Jewish cemetery desecrated by vandals
February 27, 2017 By Faith Matters

Philadelphia Jewish cemetery desecrated by vandals

About 100 headstones at a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia have been knocked over, police said on Sunday, in the latest apparent vandalism incident at a Jewish burial ground in the United States. A Mount Carmel Cemetery visitor called police on Sunday morning to say the gravestones of three of his relatives had been toppled, police […]

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February 27, 2017 By Faith Matters

Specter of xenophobic chaos looming over South Africa again

Tensions between South Africans and foreigners rose again in Pretoria and parts of Johannesburg recently. Authorities say despite government pleas for peace, damage to property, acts of violence and looting continue to be reported in Pretoria. The Home Affairs minister spoke out Thursday to respond to reports from the Nigerian government claiming that 116 of […]

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Comics and music shows in Saudi Arabia draw rebuke from clerics
February 26, 2017 By Faith Matters

Comics and music shows in Saudi Arabia draw rebuke from clerics

A comic show and a recent pop concert have drawn rebuke from powerful religious figures and social media users in Saudi Arabia this week, highlighting the sensitivity of cultural reforms underway in the conservative kingdom. Thousands of Saudis – including women – decked out in costumes and face paint attended the country’s first-ever Comic Con […]

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The power struggle behind Thailand’s temple row
February 24, 2017 By Faith Matters

The power struggle behind Thailand’s temple row

A stand-off between security forces and monks at Thailand’s biggest temple has exposed a struggle as much about power as religion in the predominantly Buddhist country, where the junta has shut down dissent since a 2014 coup. For the past week, some 4,000 police and soldiers have surrounded the Dhammakaya temple, which practices a form […]

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