ST. LOUIS (RNS) Until recently, many Muslims buried their loved ones in Muslim sections of Christian cemeteries, relying largely on non-Muslims to guide them through the process of death. As the Muslim population has grown, so has the need for Muslim-specific services like funeral homes and cemeteries. By Tim Townsend.

CLEARWATER, Fla. (RNS) The face of aging in America isn't a pretty one. Not because the flesh is sagging, but because the nation that once built schools, malls and suburbs for Boomer families when they were young has turned against its elderly. By Tom Ehrich.

DAMASCUS, Syria (RNS) Many of Syria's Christians continue to stand by Bashar Assad's regime not out of support but out of fear of civil war if rebels gain strength, or worse, if they win and install an Islamist government hostile to religious minorities. By Stephen Starr and S. Akminas.

WASHINGTON (RNS) The campaign to abolish the death penalty has been freshly invigorated this month in a series of actions that supporters say represents increasing evidence that America may be losing its taste for capital punishment. By Kevin Johnson/USA Today.

WASHINGTON (RNS)  In the more than three decades since the national moratorium on the death penalty was lifted, there is no reliable research to determine whether capital punishment has served as a deterrent, according to a review by the National Research Council. By Kevin Johnson / USA Today.

PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) After a botched murder-suicide involving a desperate older couple, experts in health and legal services are asking how two very poor people with disabilities found themselves in such desperate circumstances. By Rick Bella.

(RNS/ENInews) A Texas-based Christian ministry says James Cameron's 1997 film still delivers a decidedly un-Christian message: That "class warfare" aboard the doomed Titanic resulted in the disproportionate deaths of poor, female and young passengers. By Ron Csillag.

(RNS) In his new memoir, "Paranormal: My Life in Pursuit of the Afterlife," Raymond Moody, the man who coined the term "near-death experience," takes a look back, reflecting on his fascination with death, the effect of his life's work, and pondering what it's all meant. By Piet Levy.

CENTREVILLE, Va. (RNS) It's been five years since Celeste Peterson's only daughter was killed in a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech. And while the grieving mother has rediscovered her faith, it hasn't been easy. At first, her prayers were near obligatory: "Thank you for this day. I'm not talking to you. Amen." By B. Denise Hawkins.

PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) Peter Goodwin, the first doctor in Oregon to campaign publicly for the terminally ill to obtain medical help in ending their lives, died Sunday shortly after exercising the right he fought to secure. He was 83. By Anne Saker.

(RNS) Doomsday prophet Harold Camping conceded last week that his failed May 21 end-of-the-world prediction was "incorrect and sinful," but a man who runs a rescue for pets that have been left behind by the Rapture wishes he'd keep on talking. By Adelle M. Banks.

(RNS) The posthumous Mormon baptism of slain journalist Daniel Pearl shows that it's not just the proxy "baptism" of Holocaust victims that is problematic. Because of Judaism's communal sense of identity, performing this ritual for any Jews without their community's consent, raises basic questions of fairness and respect. By Philip A. Cunningham.

(RNS) When the person you married goes through a dramatic change -- a car accident, brain injury or dementia --  what's a spouse to do? As Valentine's Day approaches, clergy, ethicists  and brain injury experts agree: There are no easy answers.  By Adelle M. Banks.

"My stand on self immolation is the same as that of the Dalai Lama, who has always discouraged drastic actions by Tibetans," says Lobsang Sangay, the prime minister of Tibet's government-in-exile. "He does not even endorse hunger strikes."

(RNS) Desecrating enemy dead is not always a vengeful impulse, and in some cultures even has a religious component. At the same time, disgust at the desecration of the dead is not always a simple case of demanding respect for a fallen human being, but also carries religious implications, and even one's journey in the afterlife. By Omar Sacirbey. 850. With photo.