RNS By Bruce Nolan New Orleans – Nearly two years after Hurricane Katrina, members of 132-year-old Rayne United Methodist Church have finally moved back into their storm-damaged sanctuary, even as masons continue substantial repairs to the church’s toppled brick steeple. Meanwhile, in Algiers, contractors are just starting what promises to be at least nine months…

RNS by Michelle Rindels Washington – Several Congressmen are urging the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to investigate an allegedly anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic chaplain at a government-run clinical research hospital in Bethesda, Md. The Rev. O. Ray Fitzgerald, a Methodist minister and former head of the Spiritual Ministry Department, was demoted after a Catholic…

RNS by Michelle Rindels Washington – A broad coalition of evangelical leaders is attempting to “correct a serious misperception” that all evangelicals oppose creating a Palestinian state. Led by Ron Sider, a professor at the American Baptist-affiliated Palmer Theological Seminary and head of Evangelicals for Social Action, the coalition sent a letter to President Bush…

Associated Press Kandahar, Afghanistan – July 30, 2007 – A purported Taliban spokesman claimed the hardline militia killed a second South Korean hostage Monday because the Afghan government failed to release imprisoned insurgents. Afghan officials said they hadn’t recovered a body and couldn’t confirm the claim. The Al-Jazeera television network, meanwhile, showed footage that it…

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