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Associated Press – March 14, 2008 BEIJING – Protests led by Buddhist monks against Chinese rule in Tibet turned violent Friday, with shops and vehicles torched and gunshots echoing through the streets of the ancient capital, Lhasa. A radio report said two people had been killed. The U.S. and the European Union called on China…

Associated Press – March 14, 2008 DES MOINES, Iowa – David Lynch says his nonprofit foundation will donate $1 million to fund scholarships for students who want to learn a meditation technique taught at the Maharishi University of Management. Lynch, who directed “The Elephant Man,” “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Dr.” movies and the “Twin Peaks”…

Associated Press Dehra, India – Police dragged away more than 100 Tibetan exiles in northern India on Thursday to prevent them from continuing a march to their homeland to protest China’s hosting of the Olympic Games. Clutching Tibetan flags and pictures of the Dalai Lama and Indian pacifist Mohandas K. Gandhi, the protesters began a…

Associated Press Baghdad – The body of a Christian archbishop kidnapped last month was found in northern Iraq Thursday while in Baghdad, a car bomb exploded and killed 18 people. Gunmen abducted Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho and killed three of his companions soon after they left Mass in the city of Mosul on…

Associated Press Fresno, California – Episcopal leaders have ousted a breakaway conservative bishop in a struggle for control of the Diocese of San Joaquin and its properties. The Episcopal House of Bishops, meeting in Texas, took the action Wednesday against Bishop John-David Schofield, who last December led the Fresno diocese to secede from the Episcopal…

By Daniel Burke Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS) Indianapolis voters on Tuesday (March 11) choose Andre Carson to fill a seat vacated by his late grandmother, making him the second Muslim ever elected to serve in Congress. Like Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., who in 2006 became the first Muslim elected to Congress, Carson is a…

By Michele Chabin Religion News Service JERUSALEM (RNS) After seeing how successful Birthright Israel has been in acquainting young Diaspora Jews with Israel and Judaism, a Palestinian group has established Birthright Palestine to help youths of Palestinian descent connect with their roots. The program is organized by the Palestine Center for National Strategic Studies (PCNSS),…

By Chris Herlinger c. 2008 Religion News Service NEW YORK — Michael (Michal) Heller, a Polish cosmologist and Roman Catholic priest whose commitment to combining the insights of science and religion stretches back to his youth in war-torn Europe, has won the 2008 Templeton Prize. The $1.6 million award is the largest annual monetary prize…

Ian Wilhelm Religion News Service Polish officials have announced that they will allow Jews who fled the country four decades ago to reclaim their Polish citizenship. After anti-communist protests erupted in Warsaw and other cities in 1968, the authorities blamed “Zionists” for the social unrest and expelled about 20,000 Jews. They were stripped of their…

Associated Press Lahore, Pakistan – The spread of terrorism across Pakistan from its wild tribal regions to the cultural capital of Lahore on Tuesday adds to the pressure for a reconsideration of its U.S.-allied president’s approach to countering al-Qaida and the Taliban as its new government prepares to take office. After two deadly suicide bombings…

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