President Obama has picked a physician and geneticist best known for his work on the Human Genome Project to lead the National Institutes of Health, NPR has learned.

The potential for global symbolism abounds whenever an American President meets the Roman Pontiff, and the first-ever encounter between the 47-year-old Obama and the 82-year-old Benedict offered a vivid snapshot of how the change of the guard in Washington looks on the world stage.

Christianity, Judaism and Islam are both peaceful and violent. Robert Wright discusses what circumstances bring out the best and worst in religion.

Instead of passing an anachronistic and medieval blasphemy law, we should be building a secular Ireland, writes Michael Nugent.

A Gainesville, Florida church has a shocking anti-Islam sign on its front lawn and says it is going to put up more.

The archbishop of Canterbury is bracing himself for fresh turmoil in the Anglican Communion ahead of a crucial vote that could overturn a ban on the ordination of gay bishops.

Militant Catholics hurled gasoline bombs, fireworks and other makeshift weapons at Northern Ireland police Monday in a failed effort to prevent a Protestant parade from passing through the bitterly divided north side of Belfast.

Authorities are investigating how an Arkansas woman died Sunday in what they call a voodoo cleaning ritual in a southern New Jersey town house.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem have clashed with police in protest at what they see as interference by the Israeli authorities in their community.

The theory that church attendance grows in times of economic crisis seems to be a myth.