POLITICS-US/IRAQ: Sheikh&#39s Killing a Blow to Bush

In what was at least a symbolic blow to George W. Bush, a prominent Iraqi tribal sheikh and self-styled leader of the "Sunni Awakening" movement against al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) was assassinated just hours before the U.S. president was to make his latest appeal for public support for his Iraq strategy.

IRAQ: No Refuge Within or Outside the Country

U.S. occupation authorities and successive U.S.-backed Iraqi governments have done little to stem the flow of Iraqis fleeing their war-torn country since the beginning of the occupation.

Q&A: &#39Migration of Religion Can Work Both Ways&#39

Migrants most often carry their religion with them, and this often leads to clashes with people in their host country, Peter Schatzer, Director Mediterranean Regional Office and Head of Mission in Italy for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), tells IPS correspondent Sabina Zaccaro. And that makes religion a particular issue for about 95 million migrants around the world.

MIDDLE EAST: Bridging the Shia-Sunni Divide With Free Trade

While Iran and the United States exchange aggressive statements, the Arab countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have been busy building trade relations with Tehran and charting an economic course with a potential of mending ties in a tough neighbourhood.

IRAQ: Fighting Amongst Shias Adds to Violence

Clashes between rival Shia militas in Kerbala have spread across southern Iraq and Baghdad, adding a new dimension to sectarian violence.

POLITICS-US: Ahmadinejad as Goldfinger

On the same day General David H. Petraeus delivered to Congress his much anticipated progress report on the U.S. military's "surge strategy" in Iraq, neoconservative ideologues associated with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) took aim at another one of the reputed foes of "freedom" - the Islamic Republic of Iran.

IRAQ: Clerics Begin to Take Over

Religious clerics are beginning to play an increasingly powerful role in Iraq. Many Iraqis now fear that they are endangering human rights and religious freedom in the once largely secular country.

POLITICS-US: Bush Appointee Campaigns for Evangelicals

The head of the U.S. federal government agency that doles out benefits to disabled veterans is under fire for saying Bible study is "more important than doing [my] job."

MALAYSIA/INDONESIA: Ethnic Ties Won&#39t Paper Over Class Differences

They share the same Malay cultural roots and the Islamic religion, but the shoddy treatment of Indonesian workers in Malaysia has soured relations between the South-east Asian neighbours.

RELIGION-INDIA: Mother Teresa&#39s Work With the Dying Lives On

Garishly made-up sex workers hang around the seedy street that leads to ‘Nirmal Hriday’, the home for the dying founded by Nobel peace laureate Mother Teresa, in a portion of an abandoned temple to the Hindu demon-slaying goddess Kali.

HEALTH-ASIA: &#39Tackling HIV/AIDS Goes Beyond Morality&#39

On the second day of the three-day Interfaith Community Forum ahead of the 8th International Congress for AIDS in the Asia-Pacific (ICAAP) here, different religious groups gathered together to share their experiences dealing with HIV and AIDS - once a controversial, taboo issue for many of them.

EGYPT: U.S. Funnels Aid to Coptic Christians, Documents Show

The United States has quietly funnelled millions of dollars of its annual aid to Egypt to groups among the country's increasingly restless Christian Coptic community and to areas with large Christian populations as part of an effort to "empower" the religious minority in a little-noticed multi-year aid programme, according to a review of several recent congressional documents.

ENVIRONMENT-MALAYSIA: Water a Sacred Gift Affirm Interfaith Leaders

When religious leaders from different faiths sought to jointly affirm the sacredness of water as the source of life but were shooed away by authorities, it was seen as a move to scuttle interfaith harmony as well as support plans to privatise a common resource.

BOOKS-MIDEAST: Beneath Superheated Rhetoric, Pragmatism Rules

The last few years have produced an enormous trove of literature about conflict and violence in the Middle East, no doubt because there appears to be so much of it.

Q&A: &#39Targeting Fundamentalism Does Not Help Muslim Women&#39

Rising fundamentalisms around the world are challenging human rights, and particularly women's rights, feminist groups say. But this is not an Islam-related problem only, and isolating Muslim fundamentalism does not help Muslim women.

RUSSIA: &#39The Army Needs Religion&#39

Low morale and high crime within the Russian army could be tackled if the interior ministry and the military authorities accept strengthening army chaplaincy as an instrument of change, religious leaders say.

IRAQ: Religious Minorities Hit From All Sides

In the months leading up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, scholars from around the world urged the war planners in Washington to take steps to protect Iraq's priceless archaeological heritage.

RELIGION: U.S. Evangelicals Approach Muslim Envoys

That it happened at all was a major feat. That not much was resolved was not surprising. That those involved are determined to meet again is fascinating. That it was organised by a controversial faith healer has made it that much more noteworthy.

EGYPT: One Pope Takes On Another

A recent statement by Pope Benedict XVI in which he declared the Roman Catholic Church to be the only "complete" Christian faith met with angry responses from the heads of several western, Protestant denominations. In Egypt, meanwhile, Benedict's assertion about Eastern Orthodox churches - that they "lacked something" in their capacities as churches - prompted no less of an angry reaction from the Orthodox Coptic Christian community.

Q&A: Mormon Church Spreads Out in Russia

For more than a century, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has been struggling to establish itself in the former Soviet republics and parts of Eastern Europe.

LATIN AMERICA: Catholic Church Renews &#39Option for the Poor&#39

The Roman Catholic Church plans to undertake concrete projects in the next four years to help overcome poverty in Latin America, the region with the most glaring income inequalities in the world.