According to a report from the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) proceedings, 11 countries called for the country of Nicaragua to legalize abortion.

The Christian Telegraph reports, however, that Delegate Carlos Robelo "flatly refused to bow under pressure" and his country remains one of the few

left in the world that maintains a total ban on abortion.

Two new genome studies of Jews worldwide prove that the Jewish people --- long called the "People of the Book," the "Chosen People" or, in unkind circles, "those people" - are, indeed, a people after all.

The first study, by researchers at New York’s Albert

Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, found that Jews across the globe share distinct genetic traits that are different from other groups and that trace back to the ancient Middle East.

Thousands of Aboriginal individuals assembled in Ottawa recently to release the forgiveness that Prime Minister Stephen Harper requested in 2008. The Prime Minister concluded his apology for Indian Residential Schools by requesting "the forgiveness of the aboriginal peoples of this country for failing them so profoundly."

"At that moment," says Chief Kenny Blacksmith, "the onus was placed on our people as individuals to respond. The only way to come into our full

healing as the First Peoples of Canada is to forgive. Forgiveness is not political; it cannot be bought or sold; it cannot be legislated. It is an individual choice that can break the generational cycle of victimization and accusation."

The Bible often refers to Israel as the "land of milk and honey," but until recently most scholars assumed the "honey" referred to a fruit nectar. Now, since the discovery of a 3,000-year-old apiary in the Jordan Valley three years ago, and the theory that the bees were actually from Turkey, researchers believe the Bible was referring to the "real thing."

"This is a very special discovery...because there is no evidence from before for bringing any kind of

animals from such a distance, especially bees, which represent a quite complicated, sophisticated type of agriculture," said archaeologist Amihai Mazar of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "This throws new light on the economy of the Biblical period."

Rasha Samir was sure her husband, Ephraim Shehata, was dead. He was covered with blood, had two bullets inside him and was lying facedown in the dust of a dirt road. Samir was lying on top of him doing her best to shelter him from the onslaught of approaching gunmen.

With arms outstretched, the men surrounded Samir and Shehata and pumped off round after round at the couple. Seconds before, Samir could hear her husband mumbling Bible verses. But one bullet had

pierced his neck, and now he wasn’t moving.

Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) reports that the Christian community in Iraq "may see a ray of hope" as Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court has approved the results of the March election which include five Christian seats in the Iraqi parliament.

According to the report, the five Christian seats comprise part of 14 seats in the Iraqi parliament that are held by non-Muslims. The legislature has a

total of 325 seats. Last term, Christians only held two seats.

A Christian advocacy group said Thursday, June 3, that Nepal's churches are experiencing "unprecedented growth" despite reported political turmoil and persecution.

U.S.-based International Christian Concern (ICC) reported that an increasing number of people turn to Christianity in Nepal at a time when the Asian

nation faces turmoil, including a strike by the Maoist party.

Muslim hardliners pressure government; nationals fear they may be next victim of ‘purging.’

In a second wave of deportations from Morocco, officials of the majority-Muslim country have expelled 26 foreign Christians in the last 10 days without due process.

Christians in March, the deportations were apparently the result of Muslim hardliners pressuring the nation’s royalty to show Islamic solidarity.

Even as a small child, Khosrow questioned the "meaning of life." Everything around him raised questions. Why do flowers have color? What’s beyond the stars? Where do we go when we die? Who are "those people" inside the TV set? Where do they go when the TV is shut off? When no one could answer his many questions satisfactorily, his sensitive nature gave way to a growing depression.

One day as a young man, he passed by an Assyrian Christian church and decided to go inside, thinking he might find answers to some of his "questions." There were only a few elderly women

there and an elderly pastor who gave him a box of books. The books were all in Farsi and among them was a copy of the New Testament, which Khosrow read from cover to cover.

Israel’s discovery of the one of the world's largest natural gas fields is much larger than previously estimated, according to a new report obtained by Worthy News.

The Tamar Gas field, offshore from Haifa, is now worth $8 billion, nearly double previous estimates of local analysts, said a report prepared by Wood

Mackenzie Research and Consulting.

Saudi Arabia’s security forces freed two German Christian girls kidnapped nearly a year ago in neighboring Yemen but the fate of their abducted parents, their infant brother and a British engineer remained unknown, officials and Christians said Tuesday, May 18.

Anna Hentschel, 3, and Lydia Hentschel, 5, (pictured in front) were reportedly rescued in an operation targeting the hideout of their abductors in Yemen. The raid, in which Saudi military helicopters took part, happened in the Shada district of the

north-western Yemeni province of Saada province Monday afternoon, May 17, officials said.

"When a Gypsy becomes a Christian, the change is extraordinary," says Rudi Walter. He should know. Once in the grip of a drug and gambling addiction, he is a living example of a Sinte who has been powerfully transformed by an encounter

with Christ.

Can the Taliban turn to be Israel-Lovers? Are the Pathan/Pashtun tribes really one of the lost tribes of Israel? Can we all be friends?

Tamar speaks with Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi, a Researcher in Indo-Judaic Studies and Medieval & Modern Indian History with a focus on Pathans/Pakhtuns/Pashtuns, and a Member of the Advisory Team on The Ten Lost Tribes Challenge:

"Expeditions of Discovery".

Authorities relaxed the curfew in Nigeria’s central city of Jos late on Wednesday, after three days of sectarian violence that left over 460 people dead.

The curfew, originally in place round-the-clock, will now only apply between the hours of 17.00 and 10.00, the Plateau State Information Ministry announced.

464 bodies have now been found, according to human rights groups and officials at the Kuru Gada Biu mosque where many corpses have been taken.

A group of 81 Falashmura arrived in Israel on Tuesday – the first group from Ethiopia to immigrate to Israel in over a year. Here new arrivals weep with joy after being reunited after many years with relatives who already settled in Israel.

Eighty one new immigrants from the Falash Mura community arrived in Israel in the early morning hours on Tuesday,

Jan. 19, 2010, and another 63 immigrants will arrive on Wednesday, Jan. 20th, marking the resumption of Aliyah from the community in Ethiopia after a gap of 18 months.

Flying in the face of conventional wisdom, a psychologist has concluded that preschoolers who were spanked by their parents are more likely to grow up happier and be more successful than kids who have never been spanked, the National Post reported.

Dr. Marjorie Gunnoe, a professor of psychology at Calvin College in Grand

Rapids, Michigan, believes there is not enough evidence to prove that getting spanked harms most children. She presented her findings at a conference of the Society for Research in Child Development.

Are the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan descendants of an Israelite tribe that migrated across Asia after it was exiled over 2,700 years ago?

This intriguing question has been asked by a variety of scholars, theologians, anthropologists and pundits over the years, but has remained somewhere between the realms of amateur speculation and serious academic

research.

By decoding the inscription on a 3,000-year-old piece of pottery, an Israeli professor has concluded that parts of the bible were written hundreds of years earlier than suspected.

The pottery shard was discovered at excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa near the Elah valley in Israel -- about 18 miles west of Jerusalem. Carbon-dating places

it in the 10th century BC, making the shard about 1,000 years older than the Dead Sea scrolls.

ROME - Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Thursday voiced his ‘shock and horror’ over the attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt which left at least seven dead and perhaps as many as a dozen injured.

‘The violence perpetrated against the Coptic Christian community in Egypt provoked horror and condemnation,’ Frattini said in a statement. ‘The international community cannot remain indifferent nor ever let down its guard before such religious intolerance, which represents an extremely grave violation of

fundamental rights.’

KATHMANDU, Nepal, December 30 (CDN) — Disillusioned with Hindu nationalists, the leader of a militant Hindu extremist group told Compass that contact with Christians in prison had led him to repent of bombing a Catholic church here in May 2008.

Ram Prasad Mainali, the 37-year-old chief of the Nepal Defense Army (NDA), was arrested on Sept. 5 for exploding a bomb in the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, in the Lalitpur area of Kathmandu on May 23. The explosion killed a teenager and a newly-married

woman from India’s Bihar state and injured more than a dozen others.

(IsraelNN.com) Noam Arnon, a spokesperson for the Jewish community of Hevron, told Arutz Sheva about a very unusual guest who came to show his support on Monday.

Making the trip from Italy to Hevron for the second time in recent years, the head of the Italian Muslim Assembly, Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi, met with local Jewish leaders in a show of

solidarity. The sheikh, an Italian national who received his Islamic education from leading mainstream Saudi and Egyptian Sunni institutions, believes that his religion obligates its followers to support Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. In support of his position, Sheikh Palazzi quotes Koranic passages and traditions that affirm God’s assignment of this land for the Jews.

Bartow, Florida (AP) - James Bain used a cell phone for the first time Thursday, calling his elderly mother to tell her he had been freed after 35 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit.

Mobile devices didn’t exist in 1974, the year he was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping a nine-year-old boy and raping him in a nearby field.

Neither did the sophisticated DNA testing that officials more recently used to

determine he could not have been the rapist.

(IsraelNN.com) Dr. Tawfik Hamid, a one-time Islamic terror organization member, is now in Israel taking part in the Facing Tomorrow conference in Jerusalem. He believes that the Jews have done their best, and that it’s now the Muslim world’s turn to make some changes and concessions.

Hamid, an Islamic thinker and reformer, spoke with INN-TV’s Yoni Kempinsky on Wednesday, and made some surprising statements. His friendly smile

belies his background as a former student of Dr. Ayman Al-Zawaheri, who later became deputy commander of the international Al-Qaeda terrorist organization.

Hamid explained that his motivation in joining a terror group was simply because "I wanted to serve God." He said it was not borne of "poverty or anything like that," and that his sincere intentions were "used to create a Jihadist, violent mindset that accepts violence. I considered doing crimes in God’s name, but thank God in the critical moments my conscience woke up and I refused to continue."

LIVERPOOL, England - A Christian couple in England is now at risk of losing their business after being prosecuted for debating Islam with a Muslim guest.

Police arrested Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang, who run the Bounty House Hotel in Liverpool, after a Muslim woman complained that she was offended by comments made to her in March. Because the legal case is ongoing the couple cannot comment publicly.

According to newspaper reports, the debate at the hotel involved discussion of whether Jesus was the son of God or just a minor prophet of Islam. Newspapers also reported the debate included comments that Mohammed was a warlord and Muslim dress for women was a form of bondage.

He says it’s important that Christians defend their right to talk about their faith.

A LONDON Church was effectively ‘silenced’ by a Court after a decision by Magistrates to uphold a noise abatement notice, not to play excessive sound, after just one Muslim neighbour complained about noise levels of worship in a church which was next door to the house he purchased.

Singing songs of praise on a Sunday is normal

Church activity. Using amplification is a normal part of Church life and it was argued at the Court hearing that the normal use of a Church building entails worship and cannot constitute noise nuisance.

Immanuel House of Worship Church has been meeting in Walthamstow since it bought the premises in 2006. The Church was built in 1894 and was formerly used by the United Reformed Church, when the Church owned all the land on which the current properties are now built.

According to Jon Trott, Jesus People USA (JPUSA) began as a handful of "burned out hippies" who traveled the country in a school bus until they ended up in Chicago in the mid 1970s.

radical commitment to community.

How does JPUSA differ from the newer intentional communities today?

The younger communities are way more cerebral about community. They study Benedict, for example, and build community self-consciously around his principles. We were just trying to study the Bible, and we realized that we needed each other to survive as Christians. I don't say this frivolously, but when I think of us, I think of the verses regarding the things that are not confounding the things that are. We didn't have the brightest and the best. We were the wrecks, the mutts. Many of us had been kicked to the curb.