Indonesian officials have dropped their proposal to require graduating female high school students to undergo virginity tests before they are allowed to receive their diplomas following a public outcry.
An international watchdog group said this week that Sudanese army troops raped at least 221 women and girls in mass rape incident in the city of Darfur last year.
Deceased American hostage Kayla Mueller may have been paired with a male Islamic State fighter while in captivity, anonymous government officials announced this week.
The U.S. has declared a former rapper to be a global terrorist due to his connection with the Islamic State terrorist group.
The Vatican has finished building shower and barber facilities for the homeless and poor just off St. Peter's Square in Rome.
The Vatican in Rome, Italy has announced plans to open public showers and barbers free of charge for the homeless community.
The World Health Organization has revealed that new cases of the Ebola virus have risen for the first time this year on the three most affected West African countries – Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
A wanted Islamic terrorist linked with Al-Qaeda is now believed to be dead following a disastrous raid conducted in the Philippines by Filipino police commandos last Jan. 25, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has announced. The raid led to the death of more than 40 members of an elite unit of the ...
Jordan has sworn to eradicate the so-called Islamic State while announcing the killing of 7,000 ISIS fighters after three days of airstrikes. In another major development, the United Arab Emirates has announced that it is set to join the airstrikes on the jihadist group based in Syria and Iraq.
Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner drew rebuke from Chinese netizens for mocking the accent of her hosts when she visited China last week to drum up financial support for her country.
U.S. President Barack Obama called the visiting Dalai Lama a "good friend" during their first public encounter in Washington last week, a move that infuriated Beijing which described the American president as "playing with fire."
Chinese authorities have detained multiple pastors and church workers from Beijing Jiaquan Church, an independent house church that has operated in the capital for more than two decades. ChinaAid founder and President Bob Fu said his organization is “urgently concerned for the safety, health and legal rights of every Jiaquan pastor and church co-worker who has been taken away.”
A planned church in East Java Province in Indonesia is facing renewed opposition from Muslim residents who argue that an address discrepancy in permit documents should halt construction. Residents in the Dukuh Kukun area of Babat Jerawat Urban Village, Pakal District, Surabaya, say the address listed on the official permit does not match the church site in the CitraLand housing complex.
National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School may continue pursuing plans to become the nation’s first religious charter school while its legal challenge to an Oklahoma law moves forward, a federal judge ruled. According to Baptist Press, the National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation is challenging provisions of the Oklahoma Charter Schools Act that bar religious organizations from operating publicly funded charter schools because of their religious character.
Former President Joe Biden received an award from Planned Parenthood of Delaware on Thursday and used his remarks to defend his abortion-rights record while encouraging supporters to continue their efforts. Biden spoke at Planned Parenthood of Delaware’s 22nd Annual Chocolate & Champagne Gala in Claymont, where former first lady Jill Biden presented him with the Sonia Schorr Sloan Service Award.
A bipartisan group of 10 U.S. senators called on President Donald Trump to raise China’s persecution of Christian pastors and other religious minorities during his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington this week. Led by Sens. Ted Budd, R-N.C., and Tim Kaine, D-Va., the lawmakers thanked Trump for diplomatic pressure they said helped secure the July 3 release of Beijing Zion Church founder Ezra Jin after 266 days in detention.