NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Sudan’s military bombed a Bible school built by a U.S. Christian aid group, prompting students and teachers at the school to run for their lives in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan state. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations condemned the attack. Pictures obtained by The Associated Press on Friday showed that two stone school buildings were demolished in the attack. No one was hurt or killed despite the fact school was in session. Ryan... Read more

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Republican front-runner Mitt Romney seemed poised to pick up another state Friday in the race to challenge President Barack Obama this fall, as candidates made a last push before the caucuses in Nevada this weekend. Romney, a Mormon with close ties to church leaders, is expected to carry an overwhelming majority of votes from Nevada members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Saturday. Roughly 7 percent of Nevada’s population is Mormon, but... Read more

BAGHDAD (AP) — An aide to Iraq’s most prominent Shiite cleric says the leader is urging politicians to make concessions to solve the country’s ongoing political crisis. Ahmed al-Safi, who often speaks for Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, says that the cleric believes that Iraq’s leaders are taking the country “into the unknown.” He spoke during a Friday sermon in the holy city of Karbala. The country has been plunged into a political crisis after the Shiite-led government issued an arrest... Read more

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran will help any nation or group that confronts the “cancer” Israel, the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Friday. He also said in remarks delivered to worshippers at prayers in Tehran and broadcast on state TV that the country would continue its controversial nuclear program, and warned that any military strike by the U.S. would only make Iran stronger. Khamenei also warned that Tehran would reveal a letter that it says U.S. President... Read more

KUWAIT CITY (AP) — Opposition groups that include hard-line Islamists have taken control of Kuwait’s parliament, according to election results Friday, in a rise that could limit the hands of pro-Western rulers in dealings such as U.S. plans to boost its military presence in the oil-rich Gulf nation. The conservative surge also left the 50-seat assembly without any women lawmakers. The outcome highlights the growing pressures on Kuwait’s ruling family after months of political upheavals that included charges of high-level... Read more

The Obama administration’s decision requiring church-affiliated employers to cover birth control was bound to cause an uproar among Roman Catholics and members of other faiths, no matter their beliefs on contraception. The regulation, finalized a week ago, raises a complex and sensitive legal question: Which institutions qualify as religious and can be exempt from the mandate? For a church, mosque or synagogue, the answer is mostly straightforward. But for the massive network of religious-run social service agencies there is no... Read more

ATLANTA (AP) — Jewish leaders are criticizing a ceremony that involved a controversial megachurch leader being wrapped in a religious scroll and exalted as a “king” to the applause of his parishioners. The video from a service last Sunday at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church shows Rabbi Ralph Messer, a Messianic preacher, instructing two men to slowly wrap Bishop Eddie Long in a large scroll that’s purported to be the Torah. “It doesn’t matter where you go, how you try... Read more

ATLANTA (AP) — Fifteen teenage girls report a mysterious outbreak of spasms, tics and seizures in upstate New York. But tests find nothing physically wrong. Scores of adults in Northern California report crawling skin sensations and other bizarre symptoms. Government doctors find no physical cause after an extensive study. The conclusion by experts is that these are just the latest examples of what used to be called mass hysteria. Now known as conversion disorder, sufferers experience real, but psychologically triggered... Read more

White House, religious groups in fight over doctrine, religious freedom and contraception The Obama administration’s decision requiring church-affiliated employers to cover birth control was bound to cause an uproar among Roman Catholics and members of other faiths, no matter their beliefs on contraception. The regulation, finalized a week ago, raises a complex and sensitive legal question: Which institutions qualify as religious and can be exempt from the mandate? For a church, mosque or synagogue, the answer is mostly straightforward. But... Read more

NEW YORK (AP) — A Jewish charity co-founder who claimed he traveled the world as a “Jewish Indiana Jones” to rescue Torahs pleaded guilty to fraud charges Thursday, saying he lied when he claimed he had personally obtained vintage Torah scrolls in Europe and Israel for six years. Menachem Youlus entered the plea to mail and wire fraud charges in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Youlus, the owner of the Jewish Bookstore in Maryland, where he lives. A plea deal... Read more