ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The European Central Bank and national central banks should be part of a debt relief deal with near-bankrupt Greece’s private sector creditors ahead of a pressing deadline early next week, the Greek Finance Minister said Thursday. Evangelos Venizelos said the deal should also involve reducing the interest rates Greece pays its European partners and the International Monetary Fund for its first bailout agreed in May 2010. The ECB and European central banks have so far been... Read more

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The European Central Bank and national central banks should be part of a debt relief deal with near-bankrupt Greece’s private sector creditors ahead of a pressing deadline early next week, the Greek Finance Minister said Thursday. Evangelos Venizelos said the deal should also involve reducing the interest rates Greece pays its European partners and the International Monetary Fund for its first bailout agreed in May 2010. The ECB and European central banks have so far been... Read more

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The leader of Greece’s Orthodox Church on Thursday warned rising poverty in the crisis-hit country could trigger a “social explosion,” as the government raced to push through more cost-cutting reforms needed to conclude debt deals and avoid a default in March. “Homelessness and even hunger — phenomena seen during (World War Two) — have reached nightmare proportions,” Ieronymos wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Lucas Papademos. “Patience among Greeks is running out, giving way to... Read more

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — President Joseph Kabila’s party has lost 45 percent of the legislative seats it held before November elections that were denounced as fraudulent and chaotic, according to belated results announced Thursday by Congo’s electoral commission. Kabila still will command a majority in parliament, where his coalition of several parties has won about 260 of the 500 seats, down from more than 300 in the previous assembly. Officials from the discredited electoral commission announced the last of the... Read more

PARIS (AP) — A French appeals court has upheld the Church of Scientology’s 2009 fraud conviction. The French branch of the group was accused of pressuring members into paying large sums for questionable remedies and using “commercial harassment” against recruits. While Scientology is recognized as a religion in the U.S., Sweden and Spain, it is not considered one under French law. The original trial court, however, stopped short of banning the organization in France, instead shutting down its operations. The... Read more

MILWAUKEE (AP) — About 550 people are asking for restitution for alleged sexual abuse by clergy in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee — more than in any of the other U.S. dioceses that have filed for bankruptcy protection, according a lawyer involved in the Milwaukee case. The Milwaukee Archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection last year, saying pending sex-abuse lawsuits could leave it with debts it couldn’t afford. The archdiocese has paid more than $30 million in settlements and other court costs... Read more

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua’s death may not greatly alter the March trial of an aide charged with child endangerment for allegedly keeping predator-priests around children. Bevilacqua’s testimony was preserved on videotape late last year, since he was 88 and ailing. And though a judge found him competent to testify, his dementia would have been evident on the witness stand, lawyers said. Still, his 10 combative appearances before a Philadelphia grand jury in 2003 and 2004 exposed church secrets... Read more

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Church leaders called on parishioners Wednesday to pray for the soul of retired Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, who led them for more than 15 years but was also an uncharged central figure in a child sex-abuse case that involves the alleged shuffling of predator priests. Bevilacqua, who was 88, died in his sleep at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood after battling dementia and an undisclosed form of cancer, according to archdiocese spokeswoman Donna Farrell. He had been... Read more

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A couple from Texas who moved to a remote and violence-plagued area of northern Mexico to run a Baptist church were found slain at their ransacked home, their children said. John and Wanda Casias was originally from Amarillo, Texas, but relatives said they moved to an area outside the city of Monterrey in the late 1970s or early 1980s and made it their home Valerie Alirez, the eldest child of John Casias, told The Associated Press... Read more

MILWAUKEE (AP) — About 550 people have filed claims for restitution for alleged sexual abuse by clergy in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee — the most of the eight dioceses in the U.S. that have sought bankruptcy protection, a lawyer in the Milwaukee case said Wednesday. James Stang, a bankruptcy lawyer who represents creditors in the Wisconsin case, estimated about 550 claims had been filed by the Wednesday afternoon deadline set by the court. The Milwaukee Archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection... Read more