CAIRO (AP) — A group of ultraconservative Muslim clerics says the Muslim Brotherhood’s presidential hopeful has promised to give clerics power to oversee legislation in Egypt. The promise came when Brotherhood candidate Khairat el-Shater met a panel of hard-line Salafi scholars and clerics, trying to win support in next month’s presidential election. El-Shater wants to avert a rift in the Islamist ranks between multiple candidates and unite them behind himself. The panel, called the Jurisprudence Commission for Rights and Reform,... Read more

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Mali’s crisis deepened Wednesday, as officials in the fabled northern city of Timbuktu confirmed that the Islamic rebel faction that seized control of the town over the weekend has announced it will impose sharia law. Rebels in the country’s distant north have taken advantage of the power vacuum created last month when renegade soldiers in the capital of Bamako overthrew the nation’s democratically elected leader. In the chaos that followed the March 21 coup, they advanced... Read more

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Iraq’s fugitive vice president arrived Wednesday in Saudi Arabia hours after he vowed in a television interview that he would return home. Tariq al-Hashemi, the top Sunni official in Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government, flew to Saudi Arabia from neighboring Qatar where he stayed for four days, the official Saudi news agency reported. He was greeted by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal in the Red Sea port city of Jiddah, according to a Saudi Foreign Ministry... Read more

PARIS (AP) — French police rounded up 10 suspected radical Islamists in their second countrywide sweep in several days Wednesday, leading to criticism that President Nicolas Sarkozy is ramping up raids to win votes in a tight election. The arrests are part of a high-profile crackdown in the wake of attacks on soldiers and a Jewish school. They were carried out as part of a preliminary investigation opened Monday into terror-linked activity in France, a judicial official said. Another official... Read more

BAGHDAD (AP) — A long-awaited Iraqi reconciliation conference has been postponed indefinitely because of deepening sectarian tensions between rival political groups, the parliament speaker said Wednesday. Osama al-Nujaifi told a news conference that holding it under current circumstances would only complicate matters. The meeting was to formally open on Thursday. “Due to mounting differences, it is better to postpone the conference until we reach a way out of the standoff,” al-Nujaifi said. Iraq’s Sunnis accuse the Shiite-dominated government of seeking... Read more

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) — Muslims in the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan are up in arms at a vodka producer for including the word “Allah” on its liquor bottles. Privately owned Channel 31 cited Bekzat Boranbaiuly, head imam at a mosque in the city of Semey, as saying the vodka maker should seek forgiveness for the blasphemous use of the sentence “The Power of Allah Suffices for All.” Islam strictly forbids drinking alcohol. Channel 31 said in its report Tuesday... Read more

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee, where the nation’s first big legal battle over evolution was fought nearly 90 years ago, is close to enacting a law that critics deride as the “monkey bill” for once again attacking the scientific theory. The measure passed by the Tennessee General Assembly would protect teachers who allow students to criticize evolution and other scientific theories, such as global warming. Republican Gov. Bill Haslam said this week he would likely sign it into law. Haslam... Read more

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A series of confidential memos outlining multiple allegations of sexual abuse against a now-defrocked priest were read to jurors Tuesday in the landmark clergy abuse trial under way in Philadelphia. The memos describe how the archdiocese handled the allegations lodged in the 1990s against the Rev. Stanley Gana. Prosecutors are trying to show that the archdiocese didn’t do enough to protect children from Gana after the accusations arose. Monsignor William Lynn, 61, supervised more than 800 priests... Read more

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — In the four years since Texas authorities swarmed the polygamist ranch of sect leader Warren Jeffs, state prosecutors have spent more than $4.5 million racking up swift convictions against him and 10 loyal followers on child sex and bigamy charges, according to records obtained by The Associated Press. Combined with other state agency costs surrounding the April 3, 2008 raid, documents show the price tag is approaching $20 million for what began as a chaotic roundup... Read more

BOSTON (AP) — An attempt by British investigators to get recorded interviews with former members of the Irish Republican Army has turned into a complicated court battle. And for Carrie Twomey, the legal fight is personal. She’s the wife of Anthony McIntyre, a former gunman for the IRA who conducted the interviews for an oral history project at Boston College. Twomey has played a key role in trying to sway U.S. politicians that turning over the recordings could endanger her... Read more