News Bites | Sojourners

News Bites

  • Travel Bans. The Treasury Department dropped the threat of a $34,000 fine against five Alliance of Baptists churches for allegedly violating the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba by sending mission teams there. Travel rules revised in 2005 have drastically curtailed the number of those licensed to travel to Cuba for religious activities.

  • Sunny Side Up. Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada has launched construction of the largest solar photovoltaic system ever built in North America. The system is expected to supply more than 25 percent of the base's annual power usage, according to a press release by project partner MMA Renewable Ventures.

  • Seek Peace. A coalition of more than 35 U.S. religious groups launched an initiative to "zero out funding for the production of new nuclear warheads," according to a recent press conference hosted by Peace Action West. In January, 74 religious organizations sent a statement to the Department of Energy opposing the construction of a new nuclear weapons complex.

  • Lending an Ear? The Vatican decided in May to restore the importance of Catholic-Muslim dialogue by returning the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue to its former status as a "separate department" after it was unceremoniously downgraded last year.

  • Home Schooling. Costa Rica will no longer send police to the former School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia, for training. President Oscar Arias made the decision in May after meeting with representatives from School of the Americas Watch, which has linked the school with human rights abuses in Latin America.
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    Sojourners Magazine August 2007
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