Religion News on the Web
Selected religion-related news from around the Web
March 12, 2012
- The Guardian
Guardian: St Petersburg bans 'homosexual propaganda'
Twenty years after homosexuality was decriminalised in Russia, anti-gay legislation is making a rapid comeback, with St Petersburg becoming the latest city to ban "homosexual propaganda".
March 12, 2012
- The Christian Science Monitor
CS Monitor: Russian Orthodox Church: Ban homosexuality 'propaganda' among minors
A controversial new law enacted in St. Petersburg and three other Russian regions, aimed at banning "homosexual propaganda aimed at minors," has members of Russia's besieged gay community worrying that all progress toward civil rights for sexual minorites in recent years might be thrown into reverse.
March 11, 2012
- The Washington Post
Wash. Post: Iraqi youth panicked by reports of killings
Panic is spreading among young people in Iraq after reports by Iraqi media and rights groups that dozens of people have been threatened or killed in the past few weeks because they are suspected of being gay or because they dress in a distinctive, gothic style known as emo.
March 11, 2012
- The Associated Press
AP: 3 abortion bills facing NH House votes
Abortion opponents call a bill before New Hampshire’s House “informed consent’’ because it requires women to wait 24 hours and be given information on fetal development, but pro-choice groups say it is insulting to require women to wait and would require biased counseling.
March 11, 2012
- The New York Times
NYT: Attack may derail effort to force Taliban into talks
The outrage from the back-to-back episodes of the Koran burning and the killing on Sunday of at least 16 Afghan civilians imperils what the Obama administration once saw as an orderly plan for 2012: to speed the training of Afghan forces so that they can take the lead in combat missions, all while drawing the Taliban into negotiations to end more than a decade of constant war.
March 10, 2012
- The Washington Post
Wash. Post: Al-Qaeda makes ‘alarming’ advances in Yemen, U.N. envoy warns
A reinvigorated al-Qaeda has made “alarming” advances in Yemen, expanding its military control over several southern towns and launching a series of brazen attacks that threaten the U.S.-backed political transition there, a senior U.N. envoy warned the Security Council in a confidential briefing last week.
March 08, 2012
- The Washington Post
Wash. Post: In secular Britain, a clash over public prayer
Perhaps the locals should have anticipated sparks on a town council stocked not only with a practicing pagan, a staunch atheist and an agnostic former stripper but also two evangelical Christians and a Methodist church organist.
March 08, 2012
- The Korea Herald
Korea Herald: Opinion: Turkey: Nation of multiple faiths
After decades of official neglect and mistrust, Turkey has taken several steps to ensure the rights of the country’s non-Muslim religious minorities, and thus to guarantee that the rule of law is applied equally for all Turkish citizens, regardless of individuals’ religion, ethnicity, or language.
March 08, 2012
- The Independent
Independent: Back to the bad old days: Karzai beats retreat on women's rights
President Hamid Karzai has backed guidelines issued by Afghanistan's religious council that relegate women to the position of second-class citizens, raising questions about whether British soldiers should continue to put their lives at risk for a government that seems prepared to sell out on the issue in order to engage the Taliban in a peace deal.