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Associated Press Cairo, Egypt (AP) — Osama bin Laden appeared for the first time in three years in a video Friday released ahead of the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, telling Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end. American officials said the U.S. government had…

Associated Press ATLANTA – The suicide rate among preteen and young teen girls spiked dramatically in a disturbing shift that federal health officials say they can’t fully explain. For all young people between ages 10 to 24, the suicide rate rose 8 percent from 2003 to 2004–the biggest single-year bump in 15 years–in what one…

Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO – Before he transferred to San Francisco State University, Emo Loredo knew only a few other openly gay students. So he was pleasantly surprised when he discovered his new college offered not only dozens of classes on gay issues, but an undergraduate minor in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender studies. “One…

Religion News Service Ken Thorbourne KEARNY, N.J. – The high school student who blew the whistle on a history teacher who was proselytizing in the classroom is slated to receive an award that puts him in distinguished company. The New York Society for Ethical Culture plans to give 17-year-old Matthew LaClair its “Ethical Humanist Award,”…

Religion News Service Daniel Burke LANCASTER, Pa. – Wearing the bushy beard and black vest common to Amish men, Steve Lapp stood near the pulpit of a Pentecostal church on a recent Sunday night and offered his services as a healer. For the next half-hour, according to the handful of Christians who accepted his offer,…

United Press International YANGON, Myanmar – A group of Buddhist monks ended a tense standoff with authorities Thursday in Myanmar by releasing 20 government officials they had taken hostage. The situation at the monastery in Yangon, formerly known as Rangoon, began Thursday morning when the monks took a government delegation hostage as part of a…

Religion News Service Christine Harvey SLIDELL, La. – Napoleon, Confucius, Hammurabi and more than a dozen other historical figures have joined Jesus Christ on the wall at courthouse in a bid to reassure visitors that the court wanted nothing more than to showcase people who helped to create the laws of civilized nations. Officials mounted…

By Ron Csillag TORONTO (RNS) A Canadian court has ruled that the father of a teenaged Jehovah’s Witness who died five years ago can proceed with legal action against the church. In its ruling on Aug. 31, the Alberta Court of Appeal revived large portions of a $925,000 lawsuit filed by Lawrence Hughes of Calgary,…

United Press International – September 5, 2007 SYDNEY, Sep 5, 2007 (UPI via COMTEX) — An exhibit of Christian religious icons infused with Islamic overtones, including an image of Osama bin Laden as Jesus, has raised a stir in a Sydney gallery. At first look, “Bearded Orientals: Making the Empire Cross” appears to be a…

Religion News Service The Rev. D. James Kennedy, a Florida minister who took to the airwaves and became a force in driving conservative Christians to the polls and into the public square, died Wednesday (Sept. 5) after months of serious illness. Kennedy, 76, died after suffering complications from a cardiac arrest in late December. He…

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