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In life, the approximately 900 people who followed the Rev. Jim Jones to build a utopian commune in the South American jungle in 1977 were relatively anonymous. But in death, the Jonestown pilgrims became front-page news when they died a year later after following Jones’ order to drink punch laced with poison. On Nov. 18,…

The Dalai Lama said Monday that his approach to Tibet’s greater autonomy has so far failed, and that Tibetans should decide for themselves the future direction the region should take. “My trust in the Chinese government has become thinner, thinner, thinner,” he said. Speaking to a packed room at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan…

Vatican City – The Vatican is hosting a three-day Catholic-Muslim forum meant to improve relations strained by a speech made two years ago by Pope Benedict XVI that angered many in the Islamic world. The meetings will culminate in a papal audience and is intended to help the two faiths find common ground. The closed-door…

California voters remain hotly divided over a proposed constitutional amendment that would require minors to notify their parents before getting an abortion. A recent Public Policy Institute poll found supporters of Proposition 4 — Sarah’s Law — slightly in the lead, with 46 percent of likely voters approving the amendment and 44 percent opposing it.…

ORANGE, Calif. – A Southern California county will allow jailed Muslim women to wear headscarves after settling a lawsuit with a woman who claims that deputies violated her religious freedom by making her remove her hijab. The settlement agreement signed by the county last week and released Monday specifies that Muslim women must be provided…

CLEVELAND — The preacher’s voice rises to a booming pitch. Near the end of his sermon, the Rev. David Cobb Jr. runs down a list of politicians in mesmerizing, rapid-fire rhythm: “You don’t really need Bush. You don’t really need Cheney. You don’t really need Palin. You don’t really need Biden,” he thunders to his…

WASHINGTON (RNS) Democrat Kay Hagan filed a defamation suit Thursday (Oct. 30) against Sen. Elizabeth Dole’s re-election campaign, saying her opponent for a Senate seat from North Carolina inaccurately accused her of having ties to an atheist political action committee. “A leader of the Godless Americans PAC recently held a secret fundraiser in Kay Hagan’s…

NEW ORLEANS – It’s Halloween, and Anne Rice has a new book – a memoir in fact – that’s climbing best-seller lists. Everything is normal, then. Normal if it were 1994 – the height of Rice’s megaselling fame as a queen of Southern Gothic pulp. For those who haven’t been paying attention lately to vampire…

HIRBET QEIYAFA, Israel – An Israeli archaeologist has discovered what he believes is the oldest known Hebrew inscription on a 3,000-year-old pottery shard – a find that suggests Biblical accounts of the ancient Israelite kingdom of David could have been based on written texts. A teenage volunteer discovered the curved shard bearing five lines of…

Vatican City – A Jewish leader says Pope Benedict XVI is considering a request to freeze the sainthood process for wartime Pope Pius XII, who critics say did not speak out enough during World War II to save Jews amid Hitler’s extermination campaign. Rabbi Ravid Rosen says the pope was asked to do so during…
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