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The reported appearance of former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in the Russian capital has sparked intense speculation over the purpose of the conservative media personality's visit to Moscow. Carlson arrived in Moscow on February 1, and was spotted attending the Bolshoi Theater in the capital, according to Russian outlet Mash. Questions quickly swirled over why the TV anchor would have traveled to Moscow, and whether he intended to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin during the visit.

Former Scientologist and King of Queens star Leah Remini said she has found “amazing” comfort in returning to the Catholic Church after leaving Scientology two years ago, contrasting Scientology’s abusive policies with Christianity. During an interview with Howard Stern Tuesday morning, the 45-year-old actress said she was so happy to be “reconnecting” to the faith of her childhood.Initially, Stern tried to lump all religions together as equally fanatical, but Remini jumped in, telling the shock jock he was making a big mistake.“I’ve come to the conclusion in my life that all religions are sorta nutty,” Stern said. “And, you know,...

The president of the Evangelical Theological Society, an association of 4,300 Protestant theologians, resigned this month because he has joined the Roman Catholic Church. The May 5 announcement by Francis J. Beckwith, a tenured associate professor at Baptist-affiliated Baylor University in Waco, Tex., has left colleagues gasping for breath and commentators grasping for analogies. One blogger likened it to Hulk Hogan's defection from the World Wrestling Federation to the rival World Championship Wrestling league.

Former Catholics return to the church Why did these Catholics leave the church and what brought them back? Katie Bahr | Catholic Herald Ashleigh Buyers | Catholic Herald Illustration Maybe they had a bad experience with a priest. Maybe they were upset about a church teaching. Maybe they lost their faith or never had it. No matter the reasons, the sad truth is that Catholics leave the church every day.According to a recent study from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, approximately one-third of survey respondents who were raised Catholic no longer describe themselves as such. Nearly...

Signs that Canadian citizens were involved in the attack by hostage-taking Islamist militants on a remote gas plant in Algeria are of great concern to American authorities, U.S. intelligence officials said on Thursday. While Algerian authorities apparently have not yet provided Western governments with cast-iron proof, a senior U.S. intelligence official said: “We’re taking very seriously the reports of the two Canadians’ involvement.” ... Confirmation that Canadian citizens were involved in the attack on the In Amenas facility in the Algerian desert would raise concerns about a worrying nexus between North America and North African militants. At least 38 plant...

SNIPPET: "The U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa announced Thursday that a grand jury has indicted Shelton Thomas Bell, 19, of Jacksonville, on charges of conspiring and attempting to provide material support to terrorists. He faces up to 15 years in prison for each of the two charges. According to the indictment, Bell had planned to travel to the Arabian Peninsula and join Ansar Al-Sharia, which is an alias for al-Qaida there. The group has taken responsibility for multiple attacks on Yemeni forces, including a suicide bombing during a parade in May 2012, which killed more than 100 Yemeni soldiers. The...

SNIPPET: "Today the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) announced the arrest of two Canadian-born citizens, John Stuart Nuttall and Amanda Marie Korody, in a terror plot targeting a public gathering at the British Columbia Legislature in Victoria on Canada Day, July 1. According to online court records, Nuttall and Korody appeared at the Surrey Provincial Court this morning. The two suspects face charges that include "conspiring to place an explosive in or against a place of public use, a government or public facility, with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury, for the benefit of, at the direction...

A man reported to be a serving soldier is dead and two people have been shot in Woolwich, south east London, after what Sky sources understand is being treated as a terrorist attack. Downing Street has called a meeting of the Government's Cobra emergency committee after the incident in John Wilson Street, which David Cameron described as "truly shocking". Sky sources understand that senior police officers believe the killing was likely to be a politically-motivated Islamist terrorist attack. Dozens of weapons - including a number of knives - and pools of blood could be seen on the ground, where a...

SNIPPET: "Muslim convert Richard Dart declared “judging is only for Allah” and refused to stand in the dock as he was jailed for six years for terrorism yesterday." SNIPPET: "Mr Justice Simon said the three held “radical Islamist beliefs” and showed they were “committed to acts of terrorism”. Dart, 30, of Ealing, west London, was jailed for six years; Mahmood, 22, from Northolt, west London for nine years and nine months, and Alom, 26, of Stratford, east London, for four years and six months." SNIPPET: "Dart and Alom travelled to Pakistan to try to get terrorist training, and took advice...

(CNSNews.com) – Although no group has claimed responsibility for Monday’s deadly bomb blasts at the Boston Marathon, a leading al-Qaeda ideologue last year recommended that jihadists in America include sporting events in their list of prospective terror targets.

March 27, 2013 VATICAN CITY (RNS) Three days after Pope Francis appealed for greater inter-religious dialogue between Catholics and Muslims, a high-profile Italian Muslim who converted to Catholicism and was baptized by Pope Benedict XVI announced that he will leave the church to protest its soft stance against Islam. Egyptian-born Magdi Cristiano Allam, 61, a prominent journalist and outspoken critic of Islam, publicly entered the Catholic Church on March 22, 2008, during an Easter Vigil service, receiving baptism directly from Benedict. After his conversion, Allam founded a small right-wing political party that lost badly in Italy’s general elections last April....

White Muslim convert Richard Dart and a former police community support officer were among six people arrested for allegedly plotting a terror attack in Britain.Richard Dart, who was radicalised by the cleric Anjem Choudary, was held following police raids in east and west London. A former PCSO and two of his brothers, who were living just over a mile from the Olympic site in Stratford, were also among those detained during the police and MI5 operation to prevent a suspected terror assault. One of the brothers was Tasered by officers. Counter-terrorism police had first searched their home last November. The...

LONDON, July 21 (Reuters) - Olympic organisers are "very alive" to the threat of a cyber attack on the London 2012 Olympics, made more challenging because of its evolving nature, senior Interior Ministry officials said on Tuesday. Ticketing systems, the transport network and hotel bookings as well as security are among potential targets. Olympic security officials are also planning for the possible diversion of aircraft to protect airspace around the venues from terrorist attacks, the officials said. The greatest threat to security at the Games is international terrorism, the government's latest "Safety and Security Strategy" report said.

SNIPPET: "Michael Dale McCright is accused of trying to hit a vehicle with his car in North Seattle after he noticed the driver, a Marine, was wearing a military uniform." SNIPPET: "Document said that before the incident occurred, the Marines had just left a military facility on East Marginal Way in South Seattle where new recruits are processed. The building was the target of a thwarted terrorism plot earlier this summer. Court documents reveal a possible connection."

A 21-year-old Baltimore man has been arrested for attempting to blow up a military recruitment center in Catonsville with a fake bomb supplied by federal agents. Federal authorities say Antonio Martinez, also known as Muhammad Hussain, attempted to detonate what he believed to be a vehicle bomb this morning at the Armed Forces Career Center in the 5400 block of Baltimore National Pike. Court records paint Martinez as obsessed with Jihad and intent on punishing the military. He praised Nidal Hassan, the U.S. Army major who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, and discussed obtaining weapons and shooting up military...

SNIPPET: "CHANTING fundamentalist bile, extremist Abu Jibreel was on the front line battling police officers during a mock "funeral" for Osama Bin Laden. With his beard and flowing robes, the follower of hate preacher Anjem Choudary was happy to tell anyone who would listen that he wants to bring down democracy..." SNIPPET: "The Sun can reveal that the 39-year-old Muslim convert was born Paul Steven Mellor in Cheshire." SNIPPET: "He is campaigning for Sharia law and self-governing Muslim "states" to be established in Britain." SNIPPET: "Choudary gloated: "We have a former British Army soldier in our organisation. Next we want...

SNIPPET: ""All I want is shahadah in Kashmir. I don't want to be famous or well known." Those were the words of Abu Adam Jibreel al Amreekee as we walked around the center in Muridke, Pakistan. As we strolled around the giant masjid and school and looked at the horses at the horse stable we talked of the difficulties in training and jihad in general. Abu Adam was only nineteen years of age when he went to the killing fields of occupied Kashmir. Born into a considerably wealthy family in Atlanta Georgia, Abu Adam had always excelled in most of...

SNIPPET: "In July, the British government warned that Al Qaeda’s exploitation of social networking websites is on the rise." SNIPPET: "The massive and multifarious network of websites and social media has presented a challenge to authorities in trying to combat it. Additionally, civil liberty concerns have conflicted with government efforts to spy on communications. Reducing terrorist activity on social media sites has been particularly difficult because users have adopted new forms of communication to conform with the new formats. Many Arabic speakers on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other sites use Arabizi, a form of colloquial Arabic written in the Latin...

A Dominican with an anti-American grudge has been busted for building a bomb in his upper Manhattan apartment to blow up a police station, sources said Sunday night. -snip- The suspect was identified through one of the al-Awlaki web sites, where he posted anti-American comments, the source said.

A federal appeals court has thrown out the 17-year prison sentence imposed on convicted terrorism plotter Jose Padilla. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the sentence imposed by a Miami federal judge was too lenient. The appeals court sent the case back for a new sentencing hearing.