The Ten Commandments must be displayed in Louisiana classrooms under requirement signed into law

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom under a bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry on Wednesday. The GOP-drafted legislation mandates that a poster-sized...

Jihadis from Africa’s Sahel have crossed into Nigeria’s north, a new report says. A lot is at stake

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Jihadi fighters who had long operated in Africa’s volatile Sahel region have settled in northwestern Nigeria after crossing from neighboring Benin, a report said Wednesday, the latest trend in the militants' movements to wealthier West African coastal nations. ...

Louisiana becomes the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in public school classrooms

On Juneteenth, a journalist honors ancestor at ceremony for Black soldiers who served in Civil War

WASHINGTON (AP) — It was the middle of the night in the summer of 2021 when I finally found the missing piece of my family history. My great-great-great-great grandfather Hewlett Sands, born into slavery in Oyster Bay, New York in 1820, was one of the more than 200,000 names listed...

Hundreds died during this year's Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia amid intense heat, officials say

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Hundreds of people died during this year's Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia as the faithful faced intense high temperatures at Islamic holy sites in the desert kingdom, officials said Wednesday as people tried to claim their loved ones' bodies. Saudi...

US lawmakers meet with Dalai Lama in India's Dharamshala, sparking anger from China

DHARAMSHALA, India (AP) — A bipartisan United States congressional delegation met with the Dalai Lama Wednesday at his residence in India's Dharamshala, sparking anger from China which views the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism as a dangerous separatist. This comes as...

Muslim pilgrims wrap up the Hajj with final symbolic stoning of the devil and circling of the Kaaba

MINA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Muslim pilgrims wrapped up the Hajj in the deadly summer heat on Tuesday with the third day of the symbolic stoning of the devil, and the last circumambulation around the Kaaba, Islam's holiest site, in the city of Mecca. The three-day stoning ritual in...

Texas megachurch pastor resigns after woman says he sexually abused her in the 1980s

DALLAS (AP) — The pastor of a Texas megachurch has resigned after a woman said he had sexually abused her on multiple occasions in the 1980s, beginning when she was 12. Gateway Church's board of elders said in a statement Tuesday that they'd accepted the resignation of Robert...

Religious and cultural mentions removed from names of China's Xinjiang villages, rights groups say

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Authorities in China’s western Xinjiang region have been systematically replacing the names of villages inhabited by Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities to reflect the ruling Communist Party’s ideology, as part of an attack on their cultural identity, a report released...

Texas megachurch pastor Robert Morris resigns after woman says he sexually abused her for years starting when she was 12