California has banned local authorities from outlawing male circumcision, striking a final blow to a San Francisco group that had hoped to put the matter to a popular vote.

The activists believe that male circumcision, a cornerstone ritual of the Jewish and Muslim faiths, is essentially culturally accepted genital mutilation, and should be a matter of individual, not parental, choice.

A San Juan Capistrano, California, has been ordered to stop holding a Bible study in their home on the grounds that the meeting violates a city ordinance as a “church” and not as a private gathering.

The Pacific Justice Institute says it is “committed to defending this family’s home Bible study all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary.”

The Turkish government made a historic U-turn in state policy this past weekend, issuing an official decree inviting Turkey’s Christian and Jewish communities to reclaim their long-confiscated religious properties.

The return of these extensive properties to their rightful owners has been a key demand of the European Union (EU), to which Turkey is applying for full membership.

Five years after it abolished Hinduism as the state religion, Nepal is working on a new criminal code forbidding a person from one faith to “convert a person or abet him to change his religion.”

Article 160 of the proposed code also says no one will be allowed to do anything or behave in any way that could cause a person from a caste, community or creed to lose faith in his/her traditional religion or convert to a different religion. The proposal would also prohibit conversion “by offering inducements or without inducement,” and preaching “a different religion or faith with any other intent.”

A new constitution that Nepal’s parliament is scheduled to put into effect before May 28 may not include the right to propagate one’s faith.

The draft constitution, aimed at completing the country’s transition from a Hindu monarchy to a secular democracy, contains provisions in its “religious freedom” section that prohibit anyone from converting others from one religion to another.

Bhutan officials have given assurances that freedom for Christians to worship “within the cultural norms” of the tiny Buddhist nation in the Himalayas will not be violated, but they remain ambiguous on whether and when the miniscule community will obtain legal identity.

An American woman who placed an advert in her church for a Christian roommate has had a complaint against her dismissed.

The unnamed single woman from Michigan had been landed with a civil rights complaint for the advert and was facing a big fine.

But following intervention from a leading US religious liberty group, which had labelled the case “absurd”, the complaint against the 31-year-old woman was thrown out.

Joel Oster, from the Alliance Defense Fund legal group, welcomed the decision, saying it was right that the “frivolous complaint” had been dismissed.

A Christian student in the US has been told she will not be permitted to graduate unless she changes her beliefs.

Jennifer Keeton, 24, is studying for a degree in counselling at Augusta State University in Georgia. But University chiefs say her beliefs about sexual ethics do not conform to the prevailing views of the counselling profession, and she much change or get out.

She has been ordered to undergo a re-education plan involving “remediation” assignments and “diversity sensitivity training”.

She must report back on how the re-education has influenced her beliefs. If she refuses, she has been told she faces being thrown off her degree course.

She has also been urged to attend a homosexual parade in Augusta.

American pro-freedom group, the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), has come to the student’s aid.

Supported by the ADF, she is suing the University for interfering with her religious liberty.

The amendment bill would punish “proselytizing” that “uses coercion or other forms of inducement” – vaguely enough worded, Christians fear, that vigilantes could use it to jail them for following the commands of Christ to feed, clothe and otherwise care for the poor.

“There was always a virtual anti-conversion law in place, but now it is on paper too,” said a senior pastor from Thimphu on condition of anonymity. “Seemingly it is aimed at controlling the growth of Christianity.”

“Freedom of worship” has recently replaced the phrase “freedom of religion” in public pronouncements from the Obama administration. Experts are concerned that the new rhetoric may signal a policy change.

While Obama’s administration may simply be using different words to say the same thing, the timing of the change is worrisome, said Thomas Farr, religion professor at Georgetown University. Obama just recently announced an ambassador for international religious freedom (Suzan Johnson Cook), but the position has been demoted within the State Department.

“It puts what otherwise might have been passed off as a rhetorical shift under the spotlight a little more,” Farr said.

Dale Mcalpine, 42, was charged with a public order offence and hauled away by three police officers after preaching to shoppers in Workington, Cumbria last month.

But after an outcry from Christian groups, civil liberty supporters – and even gay rights activists, the charges have been dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service.

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal against a previous court ruling of the Rostov regional court issued on September 11, 2009, which declares the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ branch in the southern Russian city of Taganrog an extremist organization and bans its activities.

A plot of land, an office building and other property belonging to the group were also seized.

Defending her 26 October decision to ban a Baptist congregation in the capital Dushanbe for meeting for worship in a private home without state registration is Judge Soliya Ismailova of Somoni District Court.

She rejected the Baptists’ argument that this violated their freedom of worship. “I already made my decision, and if the Baptists do not agree they may complain to a higher court.”

Pressure on religious leaders in Cuba has increased significantly over the past year according to a new report by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). Comprehensive evidence within the document details a sharp rise in religious liberty violations there.

Independent church leaders from the fast growing Apostolic Movement have been particularly targeted for harassment, detentions and court summons by the Government.

Last week the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a district court’s ruling, paving the way for a Santeria priest in Euless, Texas, to resume goat sacrifices as part of religious ceremonies.

His lawyer tells the Wall Street Journal why he choose to represent the priest in court.