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(Vatican Radio) The following is a joint statement of the Bilateral Commission of the Holy See and the State of Palestine at the conclusion of their plenary meeting on 26th September 2013. "On 26 September 2013, the Bilateral Commission of the Holy See and the State of Palestine, which is working on a Global Agreement following on the Basic Agreement, which was signed on 15 February 2000, held a Plenary Session in the Vatican to acknowledge the work done at an informal level by the joint technical group following the last official meeting held in Ramallah at the Ministry of...

President Barack Obama on Tuesday assured the United Nations that the world is now a much safer place than it was five years ago. The United States government has “begun to review the way that we gather intelligence so that we properly balance the legitimate security concerns of our citizens and allies with the privacy concerns that all people share,” the president said. “As a result of this work and cooperation with allies and partners, the world is more stable than it was five years ago,” Obama added. The president later added that “even a glance at today’s headlines indicates...

Take a good hard look at the photo. Looking away from it will not change the fact that it happened. This girl’s family had different religious views from the Syrian Rebel Army. When the “Free Syrian Army” marched into her town, they chained her to a fence and forced her to watch as her parents were tortured and killed for their religion. These are the same “Free Syrian Army” soldiers that Obama just violated international law to provide weapons to. I will not gross people out with the graphic video or the violence that happens over there daily under the...

A video apparently made by some of the Islamists fighting and killing each other and the population in Syria reveals quantities of Bibles and biblical materials, such as the Book of John, as a narrator describes them as being “more dangerous than chemical weapons.” The video appeared yesterday, just as reports were coming out of Syria about how the Islamist rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s army were “liberating” villages, and then forcing Christians there to convert to Islam or be beheaded. The video shows stacks of Arabic language Bibles and other books, and a sign that is posted with the...

Updating our earlier report on Senior Master Sergeant Phillip Monk, a Christian serving in the Air Force whose unit is now commanded by a lesbian: according to Monk’s complaint filed with his superiors, he was relieved of duty for refusing his commander’s order to say he supports gay marriage. Now the Air Force has taken the first steps to criminally investigate Monk for talking to the media about his situation. Despite the fact that earlier this year the Obama-Hagel Pentagon said they would never court-martial a service member for their Christian faith, they have taken the first steps to possibly...

CINCINNATI, August 20, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Graphic images of aborted babies have been known to induce profound and searing emotions, ranging from tears and trauma, to nausea and revulsion. Some Planned Parenthood supporters decided the images made a perfect backdrop for a self-portrait. The Ohio-based Stand True Pro-Life Outreach protested outside a Planned Parenthood fundraiser on Saturday. “Summer’s Over – What a Drag…” at The Cabaret charged attendees between $10 and $30 to see drag queens strut their stuff. “We protested and witnessed at a Planned Parenthood fundraiser in Cincinnati last Saturday, it was a Drag Queen show,” said Bryan...

It all starts to make sense once you understand where he's coming from...  More/video at Reaganite Republican...

There is a bit of a hubbub in the interwebs about an interview conducted by Lauren Green, religion correspondent for Fox News Channel, with Reza Aslan, author of a new book on Jesus titled Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. Our friend Joe Carter, over at GetReligion, has the basic story. Green launched the interview (available here in full) with a question about why a Muslim should want to write a book about Jesus. A reasonable question, and not a hostile one on its face–but by the end of the interview Green has returned to it in...

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas laid out his vision on Monday for the final status of Israeli-Palestinian relations ahead of peace talks that have resumed in Washington for the first time in nearly three years. Abbas said that no Israeli settlers or border forces could remain in a future Palestinian state and that Palestinians deem illegal all Jewish settlement building within the land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.

U.S. President Barack Obama welcomed the imminent start of renewed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians on Monday, but urged both sides to approach them with honesty, AFP reported Monday evening. "The most difficult work of these negotiations is ahead, and I am hopeful that both the Israelis and Palestinians will approach these talks in good faith," he said. Obama thanked his own top diplomat, Secretary of State John Kerry, for organizing the talks, which were to begin later Monday in Washington with an initial exchange between top negotiators. "I am pleased that Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu and [Palestinian...

If you think you’ve seen all the crazy antics the pro-abortion side in Texas has to offer as it opposes a pro-life bill to ban late-term abortions, “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!” They’ve found a new way to protest the bill by making voodoo dolls and sending the proceeds from the sale of the dolls to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s biggest abortion business. The Blaze has more on what’s going on in the Lone Star State as Perry signs the bill into law. Michelle Sinched, a noted corset maker, has found a new way to protest the bill: She’s making...

Writer and scholar Reza Aslan was 15 years old when he found Jesus. His secular Muslim family had fled to the U.S. from Iran, and Aslan's conversion was, in a sense, an adolescent's attempt to fit into American life and culture. "My parents were certainly surprised," Aslan tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. As Aslan got older, he began his studies in the history of Christianity, and he started to lose faith. He came to the realization that Jesus of Nazareth was quite different from the Messiah he'd been introduced to at church. "I became very angry," he says. "I became...

Episcopal Church gays and lesbians are weighing a resolution to be put forward at the next General Convention making it illegal for straight white males to be admitted to the priesthood. LA Bishop Mary Glasspool, an avowed lesbian and one of many lesbians and gays supporting the "no white males resolution", crafted her resolution after hearing a straight white male preaching a sermon condemning homosexual behavior last month. "I was shocked, stunned, blown away and mortified. I have never heard such homophobia coming from a pulpit. That was my moment to say enough is enough. "This comes down to a...

Traveler Information Ramadan, a holy month for persons of the Muslim faith, begins this year approximately on Tuesday, July 9, 2013 and ends on Thursday, August 8, 2013. TSA understands that this is a significant religious event for the Muslim community. TSA has reminded its security workforce that traveling passengers may be observed at various areas in the airport - including security checkpoints or on aircraft - engaged in religious practices and meditations during Ramadan. TSA would also like to inform the traveling public that they may notice passengers who are observing Ramadan engaging in the following activities at the...

Is Barack Obama the “promised warrior” coming to help the Hidden Imam of Shiite Muslims conquer the world? The question has made the rounds in Iran since last month, when a pro-government Web site published a Hadith (or tradition) from a Shiite text of the 17th century. The tradition comes from Bahar al-Anvar (meaning Oceans of Light) by Mullah Majlisi, a magnum opus in 132 volumes and the basis of modern Shiite Islam. According to the tradition, Imam Ali Ibn Abi-Talib (the prophet’s cousin and son-in-law) prophesied that at the End of Times and just before the return of the...

Father Charles Arminjon, in his book entitled 'The End of the Present World," explains that, "..the Antichrist will be lord of the world" and that, "It is abundantly clear that the effect of all the events of the present time is to prepare the social setting in which the dominance of the man of sin will be exercised...any careful observer [this would rule out the vast majority today] of the events of the present time cannot escape the conviction that everything is being done to bring about a social environment where the man of sin, by combining in his person...

Via the Examiner and NRO, a few more credible, confidence-inspiring breadcrumbs from this morning’s Ways and Means hearing. It’s starting to make sense now why protesting Planned Parenthood might present a risk to your tax-exempt status, isn’t it?The second clip is of Miller saying that he did indeed ask his underlings who was targeting conservative groups, and they told him, but now he can’t remember the answer. Really. The disdain this guy harbors for the proceedings is palpable, but that’s probably in his best interest: The more antagonistic he is, the more liberal support he’ll have when the administration inevitably...

From May 8, 2012 It was predicted: The rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and its goal of establishing a global caliphate. Now, something Glenn Beck and others who have paid careful attention to the Arab Spring have warned about may be coming to fruition. On Monday, The Blaze reported that during a rally for Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate Mohammad Mursi, Egyptian Cleric Safwat Higazi spoke before an adoring crowd of thousands, proclaiming, “The capital of the United States of the Arabs will be Jerusalem.” And this is not even a veiled reference to an authoritarian Islamic regime, as Higazi goes...

An Air Force spokesperson said personnel are not allowed to proselytize but are free to express their personal religious beliefs so long as it “does not make others uncomfortable.” But a critic pointed out an Air Force officer was told to remove a Bible that was on his desk. “When on duty or in an official capacity, Air Force members are free to express their personal religious beliefs as long as it does not make others uncomfortable,” Lt. Col. Laurel Tingley said in a statement to Fox News. “Proselytizing (inducing someone to convert to one’s faith) goes over that line.”...

The Pentagon has released a statement confirming that soldiers could be prosecuted for promoting their faith: "Religious proselytization is not permitted within the Department of Defense...Court martials and non-judicial punishments are decided on a case-by-case basis...”. The statement, released to Fox News, follows a Breitbart News report on Obama administration Pentagon appointees meeting with anti-Christian extremist Mikey Weinstein to develop court-martial procedures to punish Christians in the military who express or share their faith. (From our earlier report: Weinstein is the head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and says Christians--including chaplains--sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in the military...