WASHINGTON, Jul 23, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) — A secretive religious group paid for trips to Japan and the Middle East by U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., now under fire for an adulterous affair, records show. The travel in 2003 and 2004 did not violate the Senate ethics rules then in force, the Las Vegas…

JERUSALEM – For centuries, people have stuffed prayers written on scraps of paper into the ancient cracks in the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem. In recent years they could fax or e-mail their prayers – and now they can tweet them, too. The Western Wall now has its own address on the…

(RNS/ENI) Turkey’s government has agreed to extend indefinite permission for Christian worship at an historic church in Tarsus, the birthplace of St. Paul, says the head of the country’s Roman Catholic bishops’ conference. “I’m confident the church in Tarsus could soon change from being a museum to a center of spiritual pilgrimage,” said Bishop Luigi…

WASHINGTON – Days after his return from an unannounced pilgrimage to the Islamic holy site of Mecca, Rep. Keith Ellison talked about it as a transformational personal experience, saying “I didn’t want to turn it into a politics thing.” Nearly eight months later, the Minnesota Democrat faces a House Ethics Committee review of his decision…

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