**奥巴马举办斋月餐会 谴责宗教偏见**
美国总统奥巴马星期一在白宫举办的伊斯兰斋月餐会上发表讲话，谴责宗教偏见。
一些外交官、议员和美国穆斯林出席了传统的斋月餐会。在斋月中，穆斯林从日出到日落禁食。
奥巴马说，斋月餐会提醒“我们，是自由将我们美国人连结在一起”，包括自由遵行每个人信仰的不可侵犯的权利。
奥巴马谴责了近来一些与宗教有关的致命事件，包括上星期南卡罗来纳州查尔斯顿市一座黑人教堂发生的枪击案。奥巴马说：“当我们的价值观受到威胁时， 我们整个国家团结一致。作为美国人，我们坚信没有人应当由于族裔、相貌、爱好和信仰而受到攻击。我们团结一致，反对这种仇恨行为。”
Obama Holds Iftar Dinner at White House, Promotes Religious Tolerance
U.S. President Barack Obama spoke out against religious prejudice Monday at a White House dinner celebrating the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Several members of the diplomatic community, lawmakers and Muslim Americans were on hand for a traditional Iftar dinner, which follows daily fasting from dawn to sunset.
Mr. Obama said the Iftar dinner is a reminder of "the freedoms that bind us together as Americans," including the "inviolable right to practice our faiths freely."
He condemned a number of recent deadly incidents involving religion, including last week's mass shooting at an African American church in Charleston, South Carolina. "When our values are
threatened, we come together as one nation," the president said. "As Americans, we insist that nobody should be targeted because of who they are, or what they look like, who they love, how they worship. We stand united against these hateful acts."
**自由之家:欧洲民主自由程度降低**
一个民主促进组织说，欧洲各地的自由越来越多地遭受专制国家的侵犯。
总部设在华盛顿的自由之家组织星期二发表一份报告，对中欧和接近欧洲的29个国家进行了评估后，认为其中将近一半国家的民主程度有所降低。
这份报告的项目负责人克拉奇科斯卡说，这些国家的专制政权不断警告本国民众，如果像乌克兰那样实行民主，只能使国家陷于混乱、暴力和贫穷。她指出，要应对这种局面，欧盟及其盟友必须做出更多努力，维护欧洲的民主标准。
自由之家说，由于俄罗斯当局在国内压制不同政见以及在乌克兰制造动乱，其民主程度在2014年出现10年来最大幅度的下滑。
在巴尔干地区七个国家中，四个国家的民主程度降低。在中欧和东欧，只有捷克共和国的民主程度有所提升。
自由之家说，白俄罗斯、土库曼斯坦和乌兹别克斯坦的民主程度被列为最低。
Democracy Group Says Freedoms Decline in Europe
A democracy advocacy group says that freedoms across Europe are increasingly under attack by authoritarian states.
In a report released Tuesday, the Washington-based Freedom House assessed 29 countries across Central Europe and Eurasia, and said nearly half suffered downgrades in their democracy scores.
Project director for the report, Sylvana Habdank-Kolaczkowska, said "Eurasia's authoritarian regimes tirelessly warn their people that moves toward democracy as seen in Ukraine can only end in chaos, violence, and poverty."
She said to counter such measures, the EU and its allies must do more to uphold democratic standards within Europe.
Freedom House says Russia earned its largest rating decline in a decade in 2014 because of suppressing dissension at home and seeking to destabilize Ukraine.
In the Balkans, four out of seven countries registered declines, including Montenegro and Serbia for threats to media independence. In Central and Eastern Europe, the only country to register an overall score improvement was the Czech Republic.
Freedom House said conditions remain "dire" in Belarus, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, which had the lowest scores of the report.