WORLD
May 14, 2013 | By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times
NEW DELHI - Thousands gathered Tuesday in the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza garment factory complex in Bangladesh to pray for the 1,127 people who died in the world's worst apparel industry disaster. Pictures taken at the Islamic prayer ceremony on the outskirts of Dhaka, the capital, showed a rescue worker in yellow headgear affixing a red flag in the ruins. Army personnel, who have been working around the clock for almost three weeks, ended their cleanup and recovery operation early Tuesday, handing responsibility to civil authorities.
SPORTS
April 13, 2013 | By Ben Bolch, Los Angeles Times
Image makeover Kevin Durant is not nice? The marketing slogan may have a sliver of truth to it after the Oklahoma City Thunder star's questionable gesture and explanation Thursday against Golden State. Durant collected the ball off a Russell Westbrook block and drove for a vicious dunk. If only he had stopped there. The player who is so polite that he routinely exchanges pleasantries with out-of-town reporters in the hallways of Chesapeake Energy Arena then pretended to slash his throat before crossing his hands in prayer.
WORLD
April 11, 2013 | By Emily Alpert
Israeli police detained five women for wearing prayer shawls at the Western Wall on Thursday, days after a new proposal emerged to set aside part of the holy site for men and women to pray together. Female worshippers at the sacred site are barred from performing religious rituals that Orthodox Jewish religious authorities say are solely for men. Women have repeatedly been detained for violating those rules, a continuing clash between the Orthodox rabbis who steer Israeli religious institutions and more liberal strains of Judaism in which women can use prayer shawls and lead congregations as rabbis.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 7, 2013 | By Carlos Lozano
Rick Warren's Saddleback Church congregation in Orange County began Sunday morning worship services with a prayer for their pastor, who announced the day before that his 27-year-old son had committed suicide. Tom Hollladay, a teaching pastor at the mega-church in Lake Forest, led the prayer for Warren and his wife, Kay, at the 9 a.m. service, according to the Associated Press. Warren did not attend the service. On Saturday, Warren released an emotional message to his congregation in which he paid tribute to his son Matthew Warren, who he said died Saturday after battling mental illness all of his life.
NATIONAL
April 6, 2013 | By David Kelly
For the first time in memory, a woman has led a prayer at the major conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. Jean A. Stevens offered the closing prayer for more than 100,000 Mormons gathered Saturday for the church's general conference. Millions of others watched via satellite. “Women have been praying in church and speaking at conferences for years,” church spokesman Eric Hawkins told the Los Angeles Times. “But this is the first time in memory that we have had a sister lead a prayer.” A feminist group launched the Let Women Pray campaign in January asking for the right to offer opening and closing prayers at the conference, which has been held for 183 years.
OPINION
March 30, 2013
Re "Lancaster's prayer problem," Editorial, March 28 What a logical editorial on the prayers at Lancaster City Council meetings. People don't seem to understand why we separate church and state until there is mention of a religion other than their own. There is no reason whatsoever to pray before meetings, other than to foist your religious beliefs on others. Pat Hall Hacienda Heights Wow, imagine that, a woman who will travel from Arcadia to Lancaster to be offended, to feel like an outsider, and then sue the city.