Thousands of abortion opponents rallied Monday on the National Mall, encouraged by recent federal and state GOP wins and hopeful about proposals to tighten bans on federal funding for abortions, according to WaPo.
Deadly attacks against Shiite pilgrims in Iraq continued on Monday, including three car bombings around the city of Karbala, where as many as 10 million marchers are expected to travel in observance of one of the sect’s most sacred holidays, reports NYT.
Egypt arrested 19 Arabs suspected of having links to al-Qaida en route to Iraq, according to the AP. The men have no connection with the New Year’s Day suicide bombing of a Christian Coptic church in Alexandria that killed 21 people, said Egypt’s interior minister.
Human Rights Watch wants the U.S. to return Vietnam to a list of the world’s worst abusers of religious freedom, saying the country continuously harasses groups trying to worship peacefully, the AP reports. India’s Supreme Court withdrew a paragraph in an opinion it handed down last week that seemed to condone killing Christian missionaries “to teach a lesson.”
Two brave women in Pakistan are standing up to Muslim clerics and challenging the country’s oft-abused blasphemy law, Reuters reports. A Swiss court says you can’t trademark the word “Madonna,” because it would offend Italian Catholics. Italy’s top bishop issued a scathing critique of Premier Berlusconi, who is mired in another sex scandal, this time with an under-age prostitute.
A Southern Baptist leader withdrew from a coalition that supports the rights of American Muslims to build mosques. Some mohels are being asked to circumcise deceased Jewish babies. Interest in an ancient Hindu fire ritual has flared.
A South Carolina woman has been charged with animal cruelty after hanging her nephew’s dog from a tree because it chewed on her Bible. That is not the dog at left; that is a different dog, who is also interested in the Bible. The White Stripes frontman Jack White says he once considered the priesthood, and that blues singers have a similar calling.