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• Also: Egypt arrests three members of Toronto-based Copt group | Trio allegedly accused of insulting Islam, converting Muslims to Christianity (The Globe and Mail, Toronto)
  
  
• Muslim convert who wants to renounce Islam to undergo counseling | A Muslim convert who wants to renounce Islam after her Iranian husband left her will be referred to the State Islamic Religious Affairs Department for counseling (The Star, Malaysia)
  
  

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Middle East:

• World Evangelical Alliance head unveils plans for Iraq | Tuncliffe "committed" to opening a branch in 2008 (Christian Post)
  
  
• Private charity pledges welfare assistance to Arab local councils | The president of the National Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Rabbi Yehiel Eckstein, approved this week the expansion of the group's operations in 20 Bedouin and Druze municipalities by NIS 1.7 million, in addition to the NIS 9 million it already supplies to other Arab municipalities (Haaretz, Tel Aviv)
  
  
• U.S. promotes free elections, only to see allies lose | The paradox of American policy in the Middle East is that almost everywhere there are free elections, the American-backed side tends to lose (The New York Times)
  
  

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Church and state:

• Sonora officially trusts a deity | Council votes to display 'In God we trust' on wall at City Hall; critics steam (Modesto Bee, Ca.)
  
  
• Judge reverses conviction for distributing religious tracts | Forsyth County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Bagley threw out Baumann's conviction for violating a Cumming city ordinance by demonstrating without a parade permit (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
  
  
• Lawmaker wants legal opinion on faith-based prison program | A law giving rights to faith-based groups within the prison system is unconsitititonal, a lawmaker said Wednesday (Tulsa World, Okla.)
  
  
• Romanian Orthodox Church protests allegations it had ties to communist secret police | Mircea Dinescu, a poet who is now a board member of the state council for studying the Securitate archives, had claimed the late Metropolitan and Archbishop Antonie Plamadeala, who died in 2005, had been an undercover Securitate officer. (Associated Press)
  
  

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Education:

• Wren cross case closed? | The cross's display in the chapel may finally settle the controversy at William and Mary (Daily Press, Hampton Roads, Va.)
  
  
• Parent sues district over school prayer | The Crofts argue that the Texas Education Code's minute of silence, passed in September 2003, is a form of state-sanctioned prayer in schools (Carrollton Leader Star, Tex.)
  
  
• Also: Intent of school day's moment of silence debated | In court, state argues law has secular intent; dad sees religious aim (The Dallas Morning News)
  
  
• God and class | God was never expelled. Prayer was never expelled. "Put God back in schools?" He never left (Editorial, Waco Tribune-Herald, Tex.)
  
  

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Life ethics:

• Abortion under siege in Latin America | Though leftist parties hold power in countries like Bolivia, pro-choice activists are finding themselves on the defensive (Time)
  
  
• Amnesty faces Catholic church boycott over abortion policy | Amnesty International's policy on abortion has become the subject of renewed controversy on the eve of the organisation's international council meeting (The Guardian, London)
  
  

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August (Web-only) 2007, Vol. 51