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A German court has ruled that seven Muslim men who formed a Sharia street patrol did not break laws against political uniforms.
The group sparked outrage in the western city of Wuppertal in 2014, when they approached people in orange vests bearing the words "Sharia Police".
They demanded that locals stop gambling, listening to music, and drinking alcohol.
Men who had sex with underage girls could have their convictions overturned if they marry their victims, under a bill due before Turkey's parliament on Tuesday.
The Turkish government said the bill is not intended to pardon rapists, but to address underage marriage.
The law would allow the release of men who assaulted a minor "without force" and later married the victim.
Behnam Lalo crunches over jagged glass and tiptoes around a fallen altar, burned Bibles and a decapitated porcelain Virgin Mary. He picks up a cross from a heap of rubble and wipes away ashes with his priest's robes.
He recognizes the cross immediately; he used it at confirmation ceremonies of so many boys and girls here at St. George Church. He no longer knows where some of them are. Or, if they are still alive.
This was a sanctuary once, a place of peace and love in the northern Iraqi town of Bartella, just 13 miles east of Mosul. Now everything is in disarray -- defaced and damaged, covered in soot and remnants of war. In the adjoining cemetery, a rocket launcher points east toward the front lines, and bullet-ridden gravestones stand as silent witnesses to the desecration.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has withdrawn a bill that would pardon men convicted of sex with underage girls if they had married them.
The government acted just before the controversial legislation went to a final vote in parliament, which is dominated by the ruling AK Party.
The bill sparked protests and was met with international condemnation.
Islamic State (IS) jihadists hung Karlus, a 29-year-old cook, from the ceiling of the jail he was held in, by a rope attached to his left foot. As blood poured from his foot, they beat and kicked him, rubbing salt into his wounds. He was sexually abused in prison by three women wearing niqabs. He was told he would be shot dead; but for reasons he still does not understand, on the day his execution was due to take place, 26 September 2014, he was released.
When IS seized control of Iraqi territory in the summer of 2014, they gave Christians, as “People of the Book”, four options: leave, convert to Islam, pay a protection tax (jiyza) or be killed. The vast majority fled – an estimated 120,000 in a few short weeks that summer. But those left behind were subjected to torture, forced conversion, sexual slavery and even crucifixion, according to testimonies collected from Iraqi refugees in Jordan by the religious freedom charity ADF International.
The Palace of Westminster will be lit up in red on Wednesday evening to commemorate people who suffer for their religion around the world.
The Houses of Parliament joins Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral on a list of iconic buildings to adopt red lighting in memory of those killed for their faith. The gesture is part of the Red Wednesday campaign organised by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
The Liberal Jewish Synagogue in St John's Wood, the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Stevenage and Bolton Town Hall are among dozens of other buildings including churches, synagogues and mosques across the UK lighting their buildings red to mark the occasion.
Yazidis persecuted by ISIS have been failed by the UK, the government was told last week as dozens of MPs urged the Home Office to do more for those fleeing ISIS in Iraq.
Forty-six MPs and peers across parties wrote to home secretary Amber Rudd and secretary of state for international aid Priti Patel on Thursday, calling on them to allow Iraqi refugees into the UK.
Those fleeing ISIS in Iraq are barred from asylum in the UK as the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (SVPRS) only accepts those with Syrian identity documents.
A Christian magistrate sacked for speaking out against adoption by same-sex parents is suing Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt after also losing a senior NHS role.
Richard Page was suspended as an NHS Trust director following decades of service in the organisation after he said it was better for children to be brought up by a man and a woman.
It was claimed his remarks ‘undermined’ the confidence of staff and patients, and the former NHS finance manager has now been effectively barred from working again as a non-executive director on the board at Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT).
The NHS referred 420 patients and staff to police in England and Wales in a year over concerns they were at risk of radicalisation, the BBC has learned.
National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) figures show an average of 35 referrals a month in the year to July 2016 - up from 21 a month the previous year.
Since July 2015, public bodies have a legal duty to report people considered at risk of being drawn into terrorism.
At a time when large numbers of people are drifting away from formal religion, one church is bucking the trend. Huge numbers of Gypsies and travellers in England now say they've joined a new movement called Light and Life. Those who join have given up drinking alcohol and fortune-telling, and many have even abandoned their traditional Catholic faith.
The movement, which is Gypsy-led, has grown rapidly in the past 30 years - it says up to 40% of British Gypsies belong to it. There's no way to prove that claim, but most Gypsies and travellers will agree that there is a surge in people joining.