WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Justice Department says it is reviewing complaints about surveillance by the New York City Police Department of Muslim and Arab communities. At a hearing before a House appropriations subcommittee, Attorney General Eric Holder said the department has not opened a formal investigation. The Associated Press first reported that the New York polce compiled lists of mosques and Muslim businesses it saw as potential security risks for reasons that included endorsing conservative religious views... Read more

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress on Tuesday that, months after receiving complaints about the New York Police Department’s surveillance of entire American Muslim neighborhoods, the Justice Department is beginning a review to decide whether to investigate civil rights violations. Holder said that police seeking to monitor activities by citizens “should only do so when there is a basis to believe that something inappropriate is occurring or potentially could occur.” Holder responded under questioning by Rep. Mike... Read more

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder says the Justice Department is reviewing complaints about surveillance by the New York City Police Department of Muslim and Arab communities. At a hearing before a House appropriations subcommittee, the attorney general said the department has not opened a formal investigation. The Associated Press first reported that the NYPD compiled lists of mosques and Muslim businesses it saw as potential security risks for reasons that included endorsing conservative religious views or having devout... Read more

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is far from alone in rebuking John F. Kennedy’s 1960 religion speech. Many Roman Catholic conservatives say Kennedy’s landmark address pushed American politicians to separate their faith from policy making. Kennedy’s remarks to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association were meant to confront the anti-Catholic prejudice that was hurting his chance to become the first Catholic U.S. president. He pledged he would keep his religion private. Santorum and other conservative Catholics now argue that Kennedy was... Read more

SAO PAULO (AP) — The Anglican bishop for Brazil’s northeastern state of Pernambuco was killed along with his wife, law enforcement officials in the state capital of Recife said Tuesday, and their son is the chief suspect. Edward Robinson Cavalcanti, 68, and his 64-year-old wife Miriam were stabbed to death on Sunday in their home in the city of Olinda, a spokeswoman for the state’s public safety department said. She spoke on condition of anonymity, citing internal regulations. She said... Read more

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is defending the U.S. mission in Afghanistan after a week of anti-American violence and the killing of U.S. military advisers. Clinton told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee Tuesday that the United States has made progress in combating terrorism through operations in Afghanistan. She insisted that President Barack Obama has made clear that U.S. involvement is not an “endless commitment.” Democrats on the panel pressed Clinton about the continued U.S. role. More than... Read more

BEIJING (AP) — At least 12 people were killed in riots Tuesday in China’s restive northwestern region of Xinjiang, state media reported. No details were given about what might have set off the violence near the city of Kashgar, although Xinjiang sees periodic outbreaks of anti-government violence by members of the region’s native Turkish Muslim Uighur ethnic group. The government has failed to win over Uighurs and other ethnic minorities through policies to boost economic growth and incomes as it... Read more

WASHINGTON (AP) — Newt Gingrich disagrees with Rick Santorum’s harsh criticism of the famous speech on religion that John F. Kennedy delivered as he campaigned to become the nation’s first Roman Catholic president. Gingrich and Santorum, each a Catholic seeking the GOP nomination, view Kennedy’s words differently. Santorum says he felt sick after reading Kennedy’s 1960 speech and believes it advocated absolute separation of church and state. Gingrich calls it a “remarkable speech.” He told Fox News Channel on Tuesday... Read more

CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court on Tuesday tossed out a lawsuit by ultraconservative Islamists who accused a Christian tycoon of insulting Islam by posting an online cartoon of Mickey Mouse with a beard and Minnie in a face veil. Telecom and media mogul Naguib Sawiris angered Muslim hard-liners in June by relaying the cartoon on his Twitter account. The picture was a parody about the growing influence of Islamists in Egypt following the ouster of longtime President Hosni Mubarak... Read more

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of members of the Philippine Christian sect Iglesia ni Cristo, or Church of Christ, have gathered in a massive rally in Manila that organizers say was “purely religious” and not political. Iglesia members have rallied in support of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona, who is facing a Senate impeachment trial. Corona’s chief lawyer is prominent sect member and former Supreme Court Judge Serafin Cuevas. Corona is a target of President Benigno Aquino... Read more