Author: Staff Writer

Source: The Star Online

Wire Service: Reuters

Author: Michelle Slackman

Source: The New York Times

Author: Julia Zappei

Source: Yahoo News

http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/ap/20100130/tap-as-malaysia-hindu-festival-b3c65ae.html

Hundreds of thousands of people - many with hooks pierced through the skin of their backs -thronged temples Saturday to celebrate a Hindu festival amid tensions surrounding attacks on houses of worship in Muslim-majority Malaysia.

Eleven churches, three mosques, two Muslim prayer...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: The Fresno Bee

Wire Service: AP

http://www.fresnobee.com/state/story/1802761.html

Islamic-rights activists are criticizing the mayor of Lancaster for promoting Christianity during his State of the City speech this week, specifically his comment that he is "growing a Christian community."

The Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said Friday that Mayor R....

Author: Kate Linthicum

Source: Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-immigrant-nebraska28-2010jan28,0,6078807.story?page=1

Hawa Farah was living in Minneapolis three years ago making $8 an hour at a bakery when her fiance, Hussein Hussein, got a call about good jobs that paid better.

So the couple, like many Somali immigrants who follow work around the...

Author: Do Je-hae

Source: The Korea Times

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/01/113_59889.html

The case of a drunken group of policemen beating up a monk is testing the relations between the Lee Myung-bak administration and the Buddhist circles.

The assault took place on the night of Jan. 19 at Yonghwa Temple in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province. Jigwan, the chief monk of the temple, claimed that he went out when he...

Author: Ruta Tumenaite

Source: Ecumenical News International

http://www.eni.ch/featured/article.php?id=3732

Lithuania has come out in support of Italy in its efforts to revise a ruling of the European Court of Human Rights that obliges State schools throughout Italy to remove crucifixes from classrooms. 

The online news daily www.delfi.lt, on 13 January reported that the Committee for Foreign Relations of the Lithuanian...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8482267.stm

Several severed pigs' heads have been found in mosque compounds in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.

The national police chief, Musa Hassan, linked the discoveries to recent attacks on various houses of worship.

Pigs are considered unclean by Muslims and their presence in the mosque compound will be taken as an insult.

In recent weeks,...

Author: Mary Beth Lane

Source: The Columbus Dispatch

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/01/27/poster-with-10-commandments-puts-judge-back-in-spotlight.html?sid=101

A second constitutional challenge to an Ohio judge's display of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom is making its way through the court system.

At issue is whether a...

Author: Yolande Knell

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8478397.stm

Worshippers arriving for mass at St Mary's Church in central Cairo say they were shocked but not surprised by a deadly attack against Coptic Christians in southern Egypt earlier this month.

"Copts have been suffering for a long time," comments Magda accompanying her teenage son to the service.

"There have been a lot of tensions between Christians...

Author: Nataliya Vasilyeva

Source: Yahoo News

Wire Service: AP

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100125/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_religious_freedoms

Religious freedoms are being rapidly curtailed throughout Russia as the Orthodox Church seeks to boost its dominance, human rights activists warned Monday.

In its annual report on...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: The Hindu

Wire Service: AP

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/international/article94649.ece

A Muslim mob torched unlicensed churches and priest’s home in western Indonesia last week and security forces have deployed to ensure order, a government spokesman said on Monday.

No one was hurt when hundreds of villagers burned down two Protestant churches on Friday in Sibuhuan...

Author: Bronislaus B. Kush

Source: Worcester Telegram & Gazette

http://www.telegram.com/article/20100124/NEWS/1240408/1101

Delegate members of the Massachusetts Council of Churches were challenged this weekend to continue to seek common ground in addressing the social, economic, and environmental problems racking the world. 

Additionally, they were urged to take a hard look at their own commitments to the ecumenical movement...

Author: Dana Chivvis

Source: AOL News

http://www.sphere.com/nation/article/after-earthquake-haitians-in-the-us-turn-to-religion-for-answers/19328395

Since last week's earthquake, the Rev. Donelson Thevenin, a priest at the Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church in Brooklyn, where many of New York's Haitians live, has been helping his congregation deal with the tragedy. He has prayed with them,...

Author: Katie Balestra

Source: The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/22/AR2010012202919.html

Inside a red brick house in Falls Church, Bridget Mary Meehan placed a silver chalice of wine and a plate of flatbread on the coffee table in her living room and prepared to lead a sacred, forbidden ceremony.

"As we gather around this table, this intimate little house church...