(The Guardian) — A church in northern China was demolished this week, the second in less than a month, sparking fears of a wider campaign against Christians as authorities prepare to enforce new laws on religion. Police cordoned off the area around the Golden Lampstand Church church in Linfen, Shanxi province, on Sunday before construction […]

(Associated Press) — Poland’s lawmakers rejected a proposal to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law Wednesday and voted to continue work on further toughening the rules. The opposing approaches were embodied in two separate draft laws proposed by different civic groups. The current law outlaws abortions in all but the most exceptional cases and only […]

(NBC News) — Some Californians raised “blunts,” cut ribbons and endured long, early morning lines outside marijuana dispensaries to show their love for the state’s recreational pot law, which went into effect at 12:01 a.m. on Monday. At Berkeley Patients Group, which billed itself as the country’s longest-running medical pot dispensary, the number of daily […]

(The Daily Mail) — It has long been advertised as the antidote to the anxieties and stresses of modern living. But mindfulness could be making people more selfish, an expert psychiatrist has claimed. Dr. Alison Gray, of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said meditating makes easier for people to start over-analyzing their life, becoming “inward-looking […]

(Middle East Concern) — Algerian Christians request prayer following several incidents in which churches and individual Christians have faced increased restrictions, raising concerns that these pressures signal a coordinated campaign of intensified action against churches by the governing authorities. Three believers were arrested in Chlef, 200 km north-west of Algiers, during the third week of […]

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WREG-TV) — A doctor is facing several charges after his girlfriend said he spiked her drink with an abortion pill, causing her to lose her unborn baby, according to WROC. Brook Fiske and Sikander Imran had been dating on and off for three years, when Imran, a doctor, moved from Rochester to Arlington, Va., for […]

(Fox News) — A Christian student group is suing the University of Iowa for discrimination after they were booted off campus for requiring student leaders to embrace Christian religious beliefs—including a clause on sexual morality. The university stripped The Business Leaders in Christ of their status on campus after a member claimed he was denied […]

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday let stand a Louisiana sheriff’s firing of two of his deputies for swapping wives and families, refusing to review lower court rulings in a case that raised eyebrows. Brandon Coker and Michael Golden, who worked in the southern state’s Bossier parish, discovered the loves of their lives—in […]

(BBC) — Israel says it has targeted sites in Gaza belonging to militant group Hamas in retaliation for rocket strikes. Israel’s military said it had hit weapons sites early on Saturday. Two people died, a Gaza hospital said, bringing the deaths in Israeli strikes and gunfire over the past day to four. Three rockets were […]

(Todd Starnes) — A 15-year-old pro-life student was sucker-punched during a violent altercation Saturday outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Roanoke, Virginia. The unprovoked attack was captured on film by a Liberty University student. The teenager was part of a Students for Life of America group that was engaged on sidewalk counseling on public property […]