Medical teams worked on Friday to identify 45 people crushed to death in a stampede at a religious festival on the slopes of Israel’s Mount Meron, with children among the dead. Witnesses spoke of seeing a “pyramid” of people who were asphyxiated or trampled in a passageway around 3 metres (10 feet) wide at the… Read More Dozens dead following stampede at festival in Israel
Palestinians gathered in celebration outside Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate on Sunday night after barriers put up by Israeli police were removed, allowing them access to a square that became the focus of nightly Ramadan clashes. Thousands filled the East Jerusalem plaza late on Sunday, cheering and chanting, after police permitted them access to the tiered entrance… Read More Palestinians celebrate as Israeli police remove barriers in Jerusalem
France’s highest court for civil cases, the Cour de Cassation, on Wednesday rejected an appeal against an earlier court ruling that had found Roman Catholic cardinal Philippe Barbarin not guilty of failing to report clerical sexual abuse. Last year, an appeals court overturned a 2019 ruling against Barbarin, who was convicted of failing to report… Read More French top court upholds not-guilty ruling for Cardinal Philippe Barbarin in sexual abuse case
Two suicide bombers believed to be members of an Islamist militant group attacked a Catholic church in the Indonesian city of Makassar on Sunday on the first day of the Easter Holy Week, wounding 19 people, police said. The mass was finishing when the attackers detonated at least one device outside the church. The two… Read More Nineteen injured following bomb attack at Catholic church in Indonesia
Pope Francis has ordered cardinals to take a 10 percent pay cut and reduced the salaries of other clerics working in the Vatican in order to save jobs of ordinary employees as the coronavirus pandemic has hit the Holy See’s income. The Vatican said on Wednesday that Francis issued a decree introducing proportional cuts starting… Read More Pope Francis orders pay cuts for cardinals and clerics to save jobs of ordinary employees
The Vatican said on Monday that priests and other Roman Catholic Church ministers cannot bless same-sex unions and that such blessings are “not licit” if carried out. The ruling was a response to practices in some countries, such as the United States and Germany, where parishes and ministers have begun blessing same-sex unions in lieu… Read More Vatican issues decree that Catholic Church cannot bless same-sex unions
A Malaysian court on Wednesday overturned a decades-old government policy barring non-Muslim publications from using the word “Allah” to refer to God, in a landmark ruling on an issue that has fanned religious tensions in the mainly Muslim country. The decision by the Kuala Lumpur High Court, which was confirmed by a lawyer in the… Read More Malaysian court overturns policy barring use of ‘Allah’ in non-Muslim publications
Pope Francis walked down a narrow alleyway in the holy city of Najav to hold a historic meeting with Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric and visited the birthplace of the Prophet Abraham on Saturday to condemn violence in the name of God as “the greatest blasphemy”. The inter-religious events, one in a dusty, built-up city and… Read More Pope Francis holds historic meeting with Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani
