ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Thousands of people have joined a Turkish opposition rally denouncing a government education reform bill they say is designed to boost the influence of Islamic schools. The protest was staged Tuesday hours before parliament began debate on the proposal. The bill would extend compulsory education from the current eight years to 12 and pave the way for middle school students to attend Islamic schools. The bill reverses a military-imposed move dating back to 1997 that closed... Read more

WASHINGTON (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday released records it obtained from the FBI division in San Francisco that showed the bureau secretly used its Muslim outreach efforts to collect intelligence on religious activities protected by the Constitution. Under the U.S. Privacy Act, the FBI is generally prohibited from maintaining records on how people practice their religion unless there is a clear law enforcement purpose. ACLU lawyers said the documents, which the organization obtained under the Freedom... Read more

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — It was barely 4 a.m. when 19-year-old Rinkal Kumari disappeared from her home in a small village in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province. When her parents awoke they found only her slippers and a scarf outside the door. A few hours later her father got a call telling him his daughter, a Hindu, had converted to Islam to marry a Muslim boy. Only days later, Seema Bibi, a Christian woman in the province of Punjab, was kidnapped... Read more

ROME (AP) — Vietnam has revoked the visas of three representatives of the Roman Catholic church seeking to hold talks about the possible beatification of a late cardinal who was forced into exile, church officials said Tuesday. The delegation was set to arrive Friday and planned to discuss the late Cardinal Francois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, who was appointed deputy archbishop of Saigon days before the South Vietnamese capital fell to the communist North in 1975. The delegation was sent... Read more

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam has revoked the visas of three Vatican representatives who had been expected to hold talks her about a late cardinal forced into exile, a church official said Tuesday. The delegation was set to arrive Friday and planned to discuss late Cardinal Francois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, who was appointed deputy archbishop of Saigon days before the South Vietnamese capital fell to the communist North in 1975. The revocations were disclosed by an official from the... Read more

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has postponed an open confrontation with the country’s military rulers and other political players Tuesday when it delayed a decision about whether to field a candidate for the first presidential elections since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. An eight-hour meeting of the Brotherhood’s highest leadership body failed to come up with a final decision on whether to reverse an earlier pledge not to contest the presidency. Further meetings of the Brotherhood’s Shura Council were... Read more

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood was debating Tuesday whether to field a candidate in upcoming presidential elections, a much-anticipated decision that would signal whether the fundamentalist group intends to escalate or defuse rising tensions with the nation’s other political players. The Brotherhood has emerged as the most powerful political group since Hosni Mubarak was ousted last year, capturing nearly 50 percent of the seats in Egypt’s first post-uprising parliamentary elections. It’s growing grip on power has fueled concerns among... Read more

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Material that can be used to make nuclear bombs is stored in scores of buildings spread across dozens of countries. If even a fraction of it fell into the hands of terrorists, it could be disastrous. Nearly 60 world leaders who gathered Tuesday in Seoul for a nuclear security summit agreed to work on securing and accounting for all nuclear material by 2014. But widespread fear lingers about the safety of nuclear material in countries... Read more

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Material that can be used to make nuclear bombs is stored in scores of buildings spread across dozens of countries around the globe. If even a fraction of that stockpile fell into the hands of terrorists, it could be catastrophic. Nearly 60 world leaders who gathered Tuesday in Seoul for a nuclear security summit agreed to work on securing and accounting for all nuclear material by 2014. But widespread fear lingers about the safety of... Read more

BEIJING (AP) — China has accused the Dalai Lama of being behind a Tibetan exile’s self-immolation protest in India’s capital days before the Chinese president visits there. But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei offered no evidence Tuesday linking the Tibetan spiritual leader to the exile who lit himself on fire and ran shouting through a demonstration in New Delhi on Monday. Hong says the Dalai Lama and his associates have been instigating Tibetan independence and “creating all kinds of... Read more