QASR EL-YAHUD, West Bank (AP) — Pilgrims seeking serenity during a visit to Jesus’ traditional baptism site may be rattled to discover they are surrounded by thousands of land mines left over from dormant Mideast conflicts. But a project now underway plans to rid the West Bank site of the explosive devices, clearing away the […]
A friend recently sent me a photograph that tells a powerful story about the situation Venezuelans find themselves in now. It’s not a very good picture, really, just a blurry cellphone shot of trash: some wrapping material, an old CD — the detritus left behind after a store was looted last week in San Felix, […]
Chinese authorities have demolished a well-known Christian megachurch, inflaming long-standing tensions between religious groups and the Communist Party. Witnesses and overseas activists said the paramilitary People’s Armed Police used dynamite and excavators to destroy the Golden Lampstand Church, which has a congregation of more than 50,000, in the city of Linfen in Shaanxi province. ChinaAid, […]
Christians celebrated Christmas in Iraq‘s second city of Mosul for the first time in four years today – and hymns and cries of joy flooded the church. The seasonal event marked the end of jihadist rule in the city and the Mass opened with the Iraqi national anthem as women wailed with emotion. Despite the modest interior of […]
CAIRO (AP) — Hundreds of Muslim demonstrators attacked an unlicensed church south of Cairo wounding three people, an Egyptian Coptic Christian diocese said on Saturday, in the latest assault on members of the country’s Christian minority. The incident took place after Friday prayers when dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the building and stormed it. The […]
The secrets of the Roman Empire’s ancient and ‘luxurious’ harbour of Corinth have been revealed in a series of new underwater excavations. Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of ‘large-scale engineering’ at the port of Lechaion, which was mostly destroyed in the 6th or early 7th century AD by a massive earthquake. Wooden foundations preserved so well […]
President Donald Trump set off protests throughout the Middle East on Wednesday as he announced that America formally recognizes Jerusalem as Israel‘s capital city. He changed decades of U.S. policy in a brief afternoon speech and cast the move as a bid to preserve, not derail, aspirations for regional peace. Appearing in the White House’s Diplomatic Reception Room […]
Palestinian Authority textbooks issued for the new academic year are “significantly more radical” than their predecessors, routinely erasing Israel and glorifying “martyrdom,” a watchdog group has warned. In its review of the grades 1-11 curriculum — which underwent a full reform starting last year — the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) […]
LONDON — A prominent Anglican cleric and gay rights campaigner known for contentious gestures has urged believers to pray for Prince George — age 4, and third in line to the throne — to find the love “of a fine young gentleman” when he grows up so as to advance the cause of same-sex marriage […]
A former Nigerian government minister has claimed that migrants from his country are having their organs harvested after being sold into slavery in Libya. Femi Fani-Kayode, a onetime aviation minister in Nigeria, claimed that 75 per cent of slaves who have their organs harvested in North Africa are from his country. The Cambridge University-educated lawyer added that […]
