Daily Times - Lahore,Pakistan
Nafigulla Ashirov looks at St George slaying the dragon and the surrounding crosses on Russia's official state emblem and sees an affront to his Islamic faith. Despite Russia's secular status, he says, Christian symbolism is becoming ever more pervasive in official circles ...

Under a law passed in the years following the collapse of the officially atheist Soviet Union, four main faiths are recognised: Russian Orthodox Christian, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism ...

Forum 18 - Oslo,Norway
A whole series of Macedonia's religious communities – including the Baptists, Evangelicals, Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses and Muslims - have complained to Forum 18 News Service that the authorities routinely refuse to give them permission to build new places of worship ...

New York Sun - New York,NY,USA
A battle is brewing in Jerusalem between two patriarchs of the Greek Orthodox Church after one was said to have leased church land to Jews ...

World Magazine - USA
Santa Claus had his origins in St. Nicholas, the fourth-century bishop of Myra in present-day Turkey ...

But there is more to the story of Nicholas of Myra. He was also a delegate to the Council of Nicea in a.d. 325, which battled the heretics who denied the deity of Christ...

During the Council of Nicea, jolly old St. Nicholas got so fed up with Arius, who taught that Jesus was just a man, that he walked up and slapped him! ...

The Coloradoan - Fort Collins,CO,USA
... So this Christmas in Bethlehem, Muslims will be wishing their Christian neighbors a "merry Christmas." The Catholic Church, meeting just beside the historic Manger Church (built over the traditional site of Jesus' birth), will be packed with local worshippers...

So will the Greek and Syrian Orthodox, Ethiopian, Lutheran and Baptist churches, along with an evangelical church meeting in rented space that will sing to a praise band projecting the words of carols via PowerPoint ...

Athens News Agency - Athens,Greece
President of the Republic Karolos Papoulias on Wednesday received the new Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos, who is making his first official visit to Greece ...