Rebel News - Independent News and Analysis

Developments across Europe on Tuesday have intensified a damaging scandal over allegations of child molestation and physical abuse at Catholic-run schools.

Dutch religious leaders ordered a “broad, external, and independent” investigation into alleged crimes committed by pedophile Catholic priests.

While German authorities are seeking to break the Catholic Church's “wall of silence” on child molestation, Catholic reformers turn to Pope Benedict XVI for answers.

Sexual abuse of child pupils at several German Catholic schools, including a monastic boarding school in Bavaria, have sparked a nationwide scandal with more than 150 ex-students coming forward with allegations of suffering abuse during the 1970s and 80s.

St. Petersburg may be best known for its imperial palaces, famous museums, and White Nights, but it is also a growing hub of Russian hi-tech. Join us on the fast train to the Northern Capital, and we will take you off the typical tourist map to visit top-class naval navigators, the worlds most powerful neutron-beam reactor, Intels Russian innovators, and a new generation of wireless wonders. St. Petersburg lights a whole new way on Technology Update. Weve got the future covered.

Ameneh Bahrami was once an independent Iranian woman living in Tehran. In November 2004, her life changed forever when a rejected suitor threw acid into her face, scarring her and blinding her in both eyes. For four years Ameneh fought hard for the right to have her attacker tried under Islamic law which allows for victims' retribution. A rare look at contemporary life and law in Iran.

An influential Muslim scholar in Britain has issued a fatwa banning terror attacks and bombings, insisting that there is no justification for terror acts in the name of Islam.

At a news conference attended by officers from London's Metropolitan Police, lawmakers, charitable organizations and think-tanks, Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri said that acts of terrorism cut people off as true followers of Islam.

Iraq's top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has issued a Fatwa (religious ruling), declaring vote-buying as Haraam (forbidden) ahead of the country's parliament elections.

Speaking on behalf of the Ayatollah, Sheikh Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalaei, called on candidates and political parties to respect election laws and avoid trying to influence voter decision through dishonest means.

The popular head of Germany's Protestant Church, Margot Kaessmann, has resigned less than a week after she admitted to driving under the influence of alcohol.

Police pulled Kaessmann over for crossing a red light and tests showed that the mother of four had been driving with three times the legal blood-alcohol limit.

The Vatican's top bioethics official on Monday dismissed calls for his resignation following an uproar over his defense of doctors who aborted the twin fetuses of a 9-year-old child who was raped by her stepfather.

Monsignor Renato Fisichella told The Associated Press he refused to respond to five members of the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life who questioned his suitability to lead the institution.

Halal meat, or meat slaughtered in line with Muslim tradition, is at the centre of a political controversy. Quick - a fast-food French restaurant chain - is testing out a new niche market, withdrawing all pork products from the menu and serving only halal meat in some of its branches. Experts say that with more than 5 million French Muslims who are potential customers, Quick is targeting a booming market: the $7.5bn halal business. But the mayor of Roubaix, a French town near the northern city of Lille , has launched a law suit against the food chain, arguing that it constituted "discrimination" against non-Muslims. And Marine Le Pen, the vice-president of the far-right National Front party, has warned of "Islamisation". Al Jazeera's Estelle Youssouffa reports from Paris. [February 21, 2010]

Jason Hamza Perez, a former drug dealer who converted to Islam, says Muslims in the US have suffered more harassment since Obama took office than during the Bush era.