Some interesting law and religion news stories from around the web this week:

•  Somali militants awoke Kenyan miners in the middle of the night, methodically separated the Christian workers from the Muslims, and killed 36 Christians. It appears the Muslim miners were spared.
• Myanmar’s President approved and submitted to parliament a controversial religion and family planning draft law which imposes restrictions on interfaith marriages, religious conversions, and family size. Critics say it discriminates against Muslims and women in the conservative, predominantly Buddhist country.
• Chinese authorities in the predominantly Muslim Xinjiang region have banned citizens from practicing religion in any state-owned entities, which likely includes all property in the communist country. The Communist Party will also impose heavy fines for religiously-motivated Internet posts that have been determined to “undermine national unity.”
• An Atheist activist group is launching an anti-God advertising campaign in the Bible Belt. Billboards feature a young girl and the message  “Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is to skip church! I’m too old for fairy tales.”
• The Ohio House of Representatives passed two bills aimed at protecting students’ religious expression at school and ensuring religious student groups have equal access to school facilities. Opponents claim the bill is duplicative of existing law and may raise new issues for schools to deal with.
• The Michigan House of Representatives passed a bill providing protections for people with sincerely held religious beliefs on a straight party-line vote. The impact of the proposed law is  debated.
• During a trip to Turkey, Pope Francis met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of the Orthodox Church. They prayed together, discussed the current problems in the Middle East, and made a joint declaration calling for “justice, peace and respect for the dignity and rights of every person.”
• As he left Turkey, Pope Francis asserted that it is wrong to consider Islam a terrorist religion, and compared it to considering all Christians to be “fundamentalists.” While in Turkey, the Holy Father visited Turkey’s Blue Mosque, where he prayed next to Rahmi Yaran, the nation’s highest Islamic leader.
• Support for state sponsorship of Shinto in the Japanese Diet and among members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet indicates that elements of State Shinto may be returning to the center of nationalist politics in Japan.
• Cardinal Pell, whom Pope Francis asked to oversee Vatican financial reforms, said his team discovered that the Vatican’s financial situation is “much healthier than it seemed,” due to hundreds of millions of euros that did not appear on the balance sheet.