RELIGION

Professor Simon Chapman of the University of Sydney refers to a recent Dutch research, saying that cigarette may contain traces of pig's blood, with a warning that religious groups could find its undisclosed presence very offensive.

A Palestinian youth was killed by Israel troops and another was seriously wounded on Saturday during a clash in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian hospital officials said.

Pope Benedict apologized on Saturday to victims of child sex abuse by clergy in Ireland and ordered an official inquiry there to try to stem a scandal gripping the Catholic Church which has swept across Europe.

Young people in Britain turn to the internet to look for help with personal problems rather than seek advice from their parents or friends, according to a survey released on Thursday.

Sporadic shooting rang out overnight in the central Nigerian city of Jos and witnesses said at least one person was killed by soldiers enforcing a curfew days after attacks on three nearby Christian villages.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday Western powers were trying to widen differences between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims to divert attention from the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Four Islamist militants who admitted planning a monstrous bloodbath with foiled car bomb attacks on U.S. targets in Germany were convicted on Thursday of conspiracy to murder.

SWEIMEH, Jordan, March 3 - Islamic banking must speed standardization to grow while monetary authorities should enact laws that allow expansion into new Sharia-based products in domestic markets, industry experts said on Wednesday.

Canada's Olympic inquisition was put on ice after an extraordinary day of raw emotion at the Vancouver Winter Games on Tuesday.

Some of the U.S. missionaries imprisoned in Haiti on charges of child kidnapping could be released today, according to a report from the Associated Press, citing Haiti's Judge Bernard Saint-Vil.

I recently visited Roatan, a Caribbean island located off of the mainland of Honduras. Though Hurricane Ida had just moved through the area and the waves lapping up on the shore were more than a bit choppy, I stood on the beach in the light of the sun.

A new study finds an abstinence-only intervention for pre-teens was more successful in delaying the onset of sexual activity than a health-promotion control intervention.

France's National Assembly should pass a resolution denouncing full Muslim face veils and then vote the strictest law possible to ban women from wearing them, a parliamentary commission proposed on Tuesday.

For God's sake, blog! Pope Benedict told priests on Saturday, saying they must learn to use new forms of communication to spread the gospel message.

Using Koranic verses and the call to prayer as mobile phone ringtones is inappropriate and violates the sanctity of the word of God, Egypt's highest religious legal authority, Mufti Ali Gomaa, said on Wednesday.

Pope Benedict made his first visit to Rome's synagogue on Sunday, which he hopes will be a milestone in Catholic-Jewish relations despite Jewish anger over his decision to move a wartime predecessor nearer to sainthood.

Rev. Pat Robertson's comments on the Christian Broadcasting Network's 700 Club Wednesday have stirred controversy after he suggested the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti two days ago, is a curse from God.

Would-be arsonists in mostly Muslim Malaysia struck at a convent school and a sixth church on Sunday while church and government leaders called for calm in a row over Christians' use of the word Allah to refer to God.

Arsonists in Malaysia struck a fourth church on Saturday as the government tried to soothe tensions arising from a row over the use of the word Allah to refer to the Christian God.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told the security forces on Saturday to take firm action against anti-government protesters.

More than 43,000 Malaysians protested online over a court ruling allowing a Catholic paper to use the word Allah to describe the Christian God, signaling growing Islamic anger in this mostly Muslim Southeast Asian country.