VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has named the Vatican’s former sex crimes prosecutor, Charles Scicluna, as archbishop of his native Malta. The Vatican announcement Friday made clear that Scicluna would continue dealing with the abuse scandal, heading a Vatican committee to hear appeals of priests sanctioned for molesting minors. Scicluna …
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MANAMA, Bahrain – Family members of prominent Bahraini rights activist Nabeel Rajab say he has been arrested again and could face new charges as he appeals an earlier conviction. Defense lawyer Jalila al-Sayed confirmed Rajab’s arrest on Thursday but says she is not aware of what charges, if any, he …
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WARSAW, Poland – Leaked cockpit conversations from the Polish president’s plane that crashed in 2010, killing all on board, are suggesting that the pilots were under pressure from presidential and Air Force officials to land in unfavorable conditions. But military investigators cast doubt on the leaked material, published by Radio …
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SEOUL, South Korea – U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter says the U.S. has made progress against the Islamic State group in Iraq but cannot predict how long the fight will take. Speaking at a joint news conference with his South Korean counterpart, Carter said he would not go so far …
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BERLIN – A 65-year-old German mother of 13 is getting ready to give birth again — this time to quadruplets. Annegret Raunigk, a Berlin schoolteacher who is due soon to retire, is expected to give birth to the four babies within the next two months, Bild newspaper and RTL television …
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MEXICO CITY – Mexican authorities have issued an alert for five states over the theft of a container of hazardous radioactive material used for industrial inspection in the country’s southeast. The container was reported stolen from a truck in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco on April 13, the Interior …
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UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council is calling for $30 million in emergency aid to help Palestinian refugees in the embattled Yarmouk camp in the Syrian capital. The council called for unhindered humanitarian access and protection of civilians inside the U.N. camp, now mainly controlled by Islamic State militants …
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WARSAW, Poland – Poland’s leaders have guardedly accepted words of regret from FBI boss James Comey over remarks that seemed to equal Poland’s role in the Holocaust with that of Germany. The remarks last week sparked protests and demands for an apology from Poland’s leaders, who stressed that Poland was …
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – A Hamas-run court has suspended the results of a rare free union vote in Gaza that ended with a landslide victory by the rival Fatah party. The decision is the latest setback in Palestinian reconciliation efforts between the bitter rivals. The April 6 election in …
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BEIJING – “The purpose of the exercise is to strengthen the friendly exchanges between the two sides … and to improve the capability of the two navies to deal with maritime threats,” Geng said. He said the drills did not target any third parties and were not a response to …
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