TOKYO — As world attention is focused on the plight of migrants fleeing conflicts in Syria and Iraq, a Japanese diplomat who risked everything to save thousands of Jewish refugees during World War II is finally getting his due.
Chiune Sugihara was Japan's vice consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, when he defied government orders and issued travel visas allowing thousands of Jewish refugees to escape Nazi persecution in 1940. He later resigned under pressure from the Foreign Ministry and spent years in self-imposed exile.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Issues of race and diversity with the Mormon faith have bubbled up again after the church selected three white men last weekend to fill vacancies on a high-level governing body — a disappointment to many who hoped for an infusion of diversity.
On Friday at a conference at the University of Utah, a series of panels will explore the status of blacks in a religion that didn't allow men of African descent in the lay priesthood until 1978 and still has a void of black leaders.
