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Myanmar: ‘Hijab is like a key’ – beauty blogger battles bias
August 14, 2018 By Faith Matters

Myanmar: ‘Hijab is like a key’ – beauty blogger battles bias

Muslims in Buddhist-majority Myanmar usually keep a low profile for fear of intimidation, but Win Lae Phyu Sin, one of the community’s rare bloggers on beauty care, has gone the other way. The 19-year-old was the centre of attraction at a recent launch of beauty products in Yangon, her striking multi-coloured make-up offset by a […]

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Tunis: President proposes inheritance equality for women
August 14, 2018 By Faith Matters

Tunis: President proposes inheritance equality for women

Tunisia’s president on Monday proposed giving women equal inheritance rights despite protests from thousands of people objecting to any challenge to Islamic law. The North African Muslim country, which toppled autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, grants women more rights than other countries in the region, and since last year has allowed Muslim […]

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Yemen: Children killed by Saudi air strike
August 14, 2018 By Faith Matters

Yemen: Children killed by Saudi air strike

Thousands of mourners on Monday buried dozens of children killed in a Saudi-led coalition air strike on a bus in northern Yemen, one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in the three-year-old war. At least 40 children were killed in Thursday’s strike, which hit the bus as it drove through a market in Dahyan, a […]

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Australia: Archbishop begins home detention over sex abuse cover-up
August 14, 2018 By Faith Matters

Australia: Archbishop begins home detention over sex abuse cover-up

A former Australian archbishop, the most senior Catholic cleric in the world convicted of concealing child sex abuse, was spared jail on Tuesday when he was ordered to serve his one-year sentence at home. Newcastle Court Magistrate Robert Stone allowed Philip Wilson, 67, to serve his detention at home after an assessment by prison authorities […]

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Indonesia: President highlights nationalism amid controversy
August 13, 2018 By Faith Matters

Indonesia: President highlights nationalism amid controversy

Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, brandished his nationalist and religious credentials on Friday amid reports he had come under pressure from Islamic party allies to accept a conservative cleric as running mate in next year’s election. In a last-minute decision, Widodo announced on Thursday Ma’ruf Amin, who heads the board of advisers of the country’s biggest […]

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Germany: Far-Right leader sceptical of Bannon’s anti-EU push
August 13, 2018 By Faith Matters

Germany: Far-Right leader sceptical of Bannon’s anti-EU push

A leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has poured cold water on plans by Steve Bannon, U.S. President Donald Trump’s former political strategist, to forge a wide populist alliance to undermine the European Union. “We’re not in America,” Alexander Gauland, one of two co-leaders of the anti-immigrant party, told the Funke Mediengruppe […]

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Charlottesville: Hundreds take to streets a year after far-right rally
August 13, 2018 By Faith Matters

Charlottesville: Hundreds take to streets a year after far-right rally

Hundreds of students and left-wing activists took to the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, as a rally to mark the anniversary of last year’s white nationalist gathering turned largely into an anti-police protest. With chants like, “Cops and Klan go hand in hand,” the protesters’ criticisms of both police and the University of Virginia […]

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Israel: Arab minority rallies against new nation-state law
August 13, 2018 By Faith Matters

Israel: Arab minority rallies against new nation-state law

Thousands of protesters rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday against Israel’s new law declaring it the nation-state of the Jewish people, legislation that has angered the country’s Arab minority and drawn criticism abroad. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defended the law, which says only Jews have the right of self-determination in the country and downgrades […]

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US: Hackers at convention test voting systems for bugs
August 13, 2018 By Faith Matters

US: Hackers at convention test voting systems for bugs

Def Con, one of the world’s largest security conventions, served as a laboratory for breaking into voting machines on Friday, extending its efforts to identify potential security flaws in technology that may be used in the November U.S. elections. Hackers will continue to probe the systems over the weekend in a bid to discover new […]

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Russia: Orthodox nationalists hope for tsar’s return
August 10, 2018 By Faith Matters

Russia: Orthodox nationalists hope for tsar’s return

Their slogan is Orthodoxy or Death. They are convinced Russia should be ruled by an autocratic monarch. They believe the coming of a new tsar may be imminent. The Union of Orthodox Banner Bearers is a small fringe group of Russian nationalists with no political power that stages processions, rallies and even burns books to […]

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