BETHLEHEM, West Bank (CNS) — Palestinians are hopeful that the Jan. 9 presidential election will bring about a change in the political and social spheres, said a Bethlehem University political science professor. "After the death of (Palestinian leader Yasser) Arafat, the people are realizing that maybe Arafat was an impediment for the Israelis and the United States, and they are hopeful that if the impediment is no longer there is a chance to see a normalization of their living conditions," said the professor, Manuel Hassassian, an Armenian Catholic. With the winning candidate for the presidency, Mahmoud Abbas, acceptable to the United States and Israel, there is a "mood of optimism" among Palestinians who believe his less militaristic public stance will have a favorable effect on their lives, he said.

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNS) — Four hundred Sri Lankan women will be released from prison in Lebanon to return to their homeland, following a campaign by a Lebanese priest to secure their release. The majority of the woman were jailed because they did not have updated official working papers. The prisoners were the first to receive permission from the Lebanese government to be repatriated to their homeland after it was hit by tsunamis Dec. 26. The government then extended amnesty to all undocumented Sri Lankans in Lebanon, legally allowing them to return home until Jan. 20. Lebanon has 80,000 documented Sri Lankan workers, mostly women. The majority are under contract to work as house servants for three years. In addition, several thousand Sri Lankans in Lebanon are undocumented and therefore illegal in the country. Those who end up in jail often are there because their employer did not renew the required working papers. Franciscan Father Salim Rizcallah, who ministers to Lebanon’s Afro-Asian migrant workers, took action shortly after the tsunami hit Sri Lanka.

SANTIAGO, Chile (CNS) — When Chile legalized divorce in mid-November, many expected a multitude of divorce cases to be filed. But in the first week after the law took effect, only 133 divorce suits were filed nationwide. For many, the conditions set forth by the new law are too complicated and the process too lengthy; for others, a divorce is too costly. Until the new law took effect, Chile was one of three countries, along with Malta and the Philippines, that did not allow divorce. Instead, married couples had to claim they provided false personal information at the time of their marriage in order to obtain a civil annulment. Court officials often accepted these reasons without question because no other alternative was available to end a marriage. The new legislation prohibits false annulments as a means for legal separation. In the months before the law was passed, the Catholic Church paid for television, radio and newspaper ads issuing warnings on the dangers of divorce, calling the legislation "a serious menace to the stability of marriage and the family."

LAKELAND, Fla. (CNS) — A Florida appeals court Dec. 29 denied an appeal from the parents of Terri Schindler Schiavo to reopen the severely brain-damaged woman’s case, based upon statements by Pope John Paul II against euthanasia. The 2nd District Court of Appeals, in Lakeland, issued the denial without a written opinion. Schiavo, 41, has been impaired for the past 14 years and lives in a Clearwater nursing home. She can breathe on her own but requires nutrition and hydration through a feeding tube. Her husband, Michael, who now has two children by another woman, says Terri would want the feeding tube removed. Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, say that she would want to live, in part because of her Catholic beliefs. The Schindlers can ask the appeals court to rehear the motion or can appeal the decision to the Florida Supreme Court.

GEORGETOWN, Del. (CNS) — Samuel Juarez likes history, drawing and, most of all, reading books, everything from Cervantes to Stephen King. He wanted to go to college. But when he graduated from Indian River High School in 2002 it seemed that college was beyond his grasp. His family could not help pay the tuition, and Juarez spent hours in a futile search for financial aid. He went to work pouring concrete and saved what he could. He hoped to earn an associate’s degree from Delaware Technical and Community College in Georgetown, one course at a time. It took him two years to save enough for his first course. Then this fall something happened that makes paying for college much easier for Juarez. "I walked into DelTech to register and it was almost like a miracle," he said. Delaware Tech had just joined the growing number of public colleges and universities, including the University of Delaware, that now admit academically qualified illegal immigrants for the same lower tuition paid by U.S. citizens who are legal residents of Delaware.

HUNTINGTON, Utah (CNS) — There were no Christmas decorations in the small trailer Jesus Galaviz calls home. The interior was only slightly warmer than the outside, with worn carpet stretching across the floor, ending in chunks of torn laminate tile in the kitchen. Two ripped-up couches covered with thin blankets lined the walls. Just five weeks earlier, Galaviz and other workers at the Kingston family-owned Co-Op Mine outside Huntington were celebrating a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board that Kingston family members who worked for the mine would not be able to participate in union elections. With the Nov. 18 ruling, prospects were bright for the Co-Op miners’ hopes to join the United Mine Workers of America union, and from there to improve their working conditions. But within days, C.W. Mining, the mining corporation owned by the Kingstons, claiming that they were acting under directives from federal agencies, sent letters to the mine’s Mexican workers questioning the validity of their Social Security numbers. The company gave them until Dec. 9 to prove the numbers were valid and then fired 30 workers.