Lebanon cancels gig by gay-friendly band for fear of 'bloodshed'
A top Lebanese music festival Tuesday canceled for security reasons a concert by a band accused of offending Christians, in a move activists decried as an attack on freedom of expression. Mashrou' Leila, whose singer is openly gay and whose outspoken Arabic lyrics tackle often ...
Kenya's rape survivors win right to abortion in landmark court ruling
Kenya's High Court ruled that rape survivors had the right to an abortion on Wednesday, as it ordered authorities to pay almost $30,000 in damages to the mother of a teenage victim who died after a botched abortion. The landmark ruling in a country where ...
Sri Lanka bombings put Christians on front line of religious divides
The Easter Sunday attacks on three churches in Sri Lanka mark a devastating escalation of violence against a Christian minority that has been targeted in the past, but never to such brutal and deadly effect. Ethnic and religious violence has plagued Sri Lanka for decades, ...
Western Christians mark Easter at Jerusalem's Holy Sepulchre church
Hundreds of pilgrims filed into Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the traditional site of Jesus's resurrection, for Easter celebrations Sunday. Catholics and Protestants marked Easter on Sunday, while Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrated Palm Sunday, with Easter Sunday coming for them on April 28. The church, ...
Mass grave yields remains of 34 Ethiopian Christians executed by Islamic State in Libya
The remains of 34 Ethiopian Christians killed by the Islamic State group in 2015 have been found in a mass grave, a branch of the interior ministry said Monday. IS jihadis published a video in April 2015 showing the execution of at least 28 men, ...
Catch and release: Anti-nuke protesters break into joint German-U.S. air base
The German military said seven protesters were detained Monday after cutting through a fence surrounding an air base believed to hold U.S. nuclear weapons. Germany's dpa news agency reported that the intruders were stopped by guards after entering the security zone at Buechel Air Base, ...
Drive-by shooters gun down two Christians exiting church in Pakistan's Quetta
Two members of Pakistan's beleaguered Christian community were killed on Sunday in the country's southwest when unknown gunmen opened fire on a small group that had just left a local church, police officials said. The churchgoers were on their way home in Quetta, the capital ...
Nigeria holds mass burial for 73 killed in clashes between farmers and herdsmen seeking fertile land
Seventy-three people killed since the start of the year in communal violence between semi-nomadic herdsmen and farmers were buried in Nigeria on Thursday highlighting a bloody conflict over fertile land that is taking on political significance. The mass burial took place in Makurdi, in the ...
Father Christmas returns to war-ravaged Raqqa in wake of Islamic State's bloodletting
Amid the gray ruins of Syria's devastated city of Raqqa, three boys stopped and stared as two Father Christmases walked by with black sacks slung over their backs. The two men in red outfits and fake white beards rang their bells as they marched through ...
In 'China's Jerusalem,' Christians say faith trumps official Sunday school ban
Despite authorities in China's southeastern city of Wenzhou having outlawed Sunday school earlier this year, Christian parents are still determined their children learn about Jesus and the Bible. Churches in Wenzhou started teaching children in private homes or at other venues. For example, some billed ...
Japan's historical resistance to Christianity
Jesus and Japan go back a long way, longer than you'd think if you don't happen to know of a peculiar legend that has the Son of God sojourning — twice: once before, once after the crucifixion — in a remote mountain village in ...
Widodo upholds Indonesia as a model of moderate Islam despite extremist undercurrents
Indonesia's president said on Monday his country remains a model of moderate Islam, countering critics who point to mass rallies by radical Muslims and the jailing of a Christian politician for blasphemy as evidence its reputation is crumbling. "Pluralism has always been a part of ...
