President Barack Obama awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously to Father Emil Kapaun, a Roman Catholic Army chaplain who served in the U.S. army during the Korean War and provided physical and spiritual aid to countless soldiers.

"When his commanders ordered an evacuation, he chose to stay, tending the injured," Obama said at the ceremony at the White House on Thursday.

"When the enemy broke through and the combat was hand-to-hand, he carried on comforting the injured and the dying," the president added. more >>

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) cited Jesus and St. Augustine as he criticized some Republicans and evangelical Christians for being "too eager for war," in a Christian Broadcasting Network interview.

When asked to explain his views on "just war theory," Paul said, "I think part of Republicans' problems, and, frankly, to tell you the truth, some in the evangelical Christian movement, I think have appeared too eager for war."

Paul has been critical of U.S. involvement in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and would like to see the U.S. military reduced in size. His father, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), was the only Republican presidential candidate last year who argued for a quick reduction in U.S. military involvement abroad. Rand Paul has said he is considering running for president in 2016. more >>

The Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of Holy See of St. Mark the Apostle, H.H. Pope Tawadros II, has accused the Egyptian regime and security forces for failing to prevent the sectarian incidents of El-Khosos and St. Mark's Cathedral.

The patriarch added that security forces came up short in performing their duty, as it was possible to contain the situation by making the right decision to protect innocent citizens. Due to the state of unrest and idleness, forces instead chose the "leniency of law."

Pope Tawadros highlighted the negligence and complacency with which the St. Mark's Cathedral attacks were handled crossed all lines. He also pointed out that the events had reached a chaotic state and placed the responsibility on the state and President Mahmoud Morsi. more >>

The Egyptian Center for Development Studies (ECDS) has called for Coptic Members of Parliament in the Shura Council to resign in protest against the siege of St. Mark's Cathedral.

The center also called for "holding President Mohamed Morsi accountable for failing to protect his people," referring to "the failure of the state to protect its citizens and places of worship, especially the cathedral, which is seen a symbol by the Orthodox Copts in Egypt and all over the world."

The center also demanded that the interior minister, Mohamed Ibrahim, be fired and have charges levied against him "for failing to address the events of the cathedral." more >>

In the wake of the attacks on St. Mark's Cathedral in Cairo, religious leaders are warning that their country is in a state of imbalance and close to falling into total chaos.

"Egypt is now in a state of political, social and religious imbalance," associate patriarch of the Catholic Church H.G. Bishop Yohanna Qolta, told Mideast Christian News. "Where the prestige of state and law has fallen, and become unchecked and anarchic."

"According to the presidential statement, the Copts perhaps began throwing stones from inside the cathedral, and they were in a state of grief, but does that offset some young people going, masked, from police armored vehicles," the bishop continued. more >>

Egyptian political intellectual and writer Amin el-Mahdi described the recent assault on St. Mark's Cathedral and Al-Azhar earlier as an attempt for "sectarian fragmentation" by the Muslim Brotherhood in order to control Egyptian society.

Mahdi said that the attack by the interior ministry on the Coptic youth inside the cathedral during the funeral of the victims of El-Khosos City was aimed at suppressing Copts.

In his comment on current events in a seminar organized on Wednesday evening at San Gabriel Cultural Center in Alexandria under the title, "Crisis of Democracy and Peace," Mahdi said that the state assaulted on and besieged the cathedral to suppress Coptic youth. The efforts came because the Maspero Youth Union participated in the solidarity march with Sheikh of Al-Azhar against "Brotherhooding" the institution. more >>