BEIJING (AP) — A senior official in Chinese-ruled Tibet is ordering heightened security in Buddhist monasteries and along key roadways as the government tries to prevent protests that erupted in neighboring Tibetan communities from spreading. Inspecting security around the Tibetan capital of Lhasa this week, the city’s Communist Party secretary, Qi Zhala, warned officials and clerics at monasteries that they would be dismissed if any trouble arose and told police at a highway checkpoint to be alert for acts of... Read more

Throughout his 45-year career, Leonard Cohen has walked a fine line between love, sex, and religion, often embodying the trinity in the same song. Cohen doesn’t abandon those themes on his latest album, “Old Ideas,” his first studio recording in eight years and perhaps one of his best in decades. Part of the reason the record succeeds is the honesty that the 77-year singer-songwriter delivers as he questions mortality, god, and betrayal with poetic dignity. In 2005, Cohen’s former manager... Read more

NEW YORK (AP) — An Archdiocese of New York clerk with a prior grand larceny conviction was arrested Monday on charges of manipulating the church’s accounts payable system to steal more than $1 million in money used to oversee schools. Anita Collins, 67, was awaiting arraignment Monday. Her lawyer’s name wasn’t immediately available, and no working telephone number could be found for her Bronx home. Collins wrote checks to herself or a relative but recorded them as payments for legitimate... Read more

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia judge has again ruled that a retired Roman Catholic cardinal with dementia is competent and could become a trial witness. Lawyers for Monsignor William Lynn say 88-year-old Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua (beh-vih-LAH’-kwah) no longer recognizes his longtime aide, Lynn. They say Bevilacqua remembers little if anything about his 10 appearances before a grand jury in 2003 and 2004. Lynn is the former secretary for clergy. He awaits trial on charges he endangered children and conspired with... Read more

CAIRO (AP) — Three American citizens barred from leaving Egypt have sought refuge at the American Embassy in Cairo amid growing tensions between the two allies over an Egyptian investigation into foreign-funded pro-democracy groups. The White House said Monday it was disappointed with Egypt’s handing of the issue, which U.S. officials have warned could stand in the way of more than $1 billion in badly needed U.S. aid. The growing spat between the two longtime allies reflects the uncertainty as... Read more

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — An Orthodox Christian church famed for its valuable icons was set alight in southern Macedonia overnight, authorities said Tuesday, amid religious tension between Christians and minority Muslims over a carnival in which Orthodox Christian men dressed as women in burqas and mocked the Quran. Firefighters extinguished the fire late Monday in the two century-old Sveti Nikola church, near the town of Struga. The church’s roof was destroyed but its icons were not damaged, the fire service... Read more

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — Muslim leaders in Macedonia appealed for calm on Monday among community members outraged over a carnival in which Orthodox Christian men mocked Muslims by dressing as Burqa-clad women. The incident at the Jan. 13 Vevcani festival has prompted angry, sometimes violent demonstrations by Muslims, who make up 33 percent of the country’s 2.1 million population and accuse the majority of stoking hatred against them. On Saturday, some protesters attacked buses and defaced a Macedonian flag and... Read more

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — A Syrian dissident says a blind cleric who is an outspoken critic of Syrian President Bashar Assad has fled to Jordan. Fadi Abu Mustafa of the Free Syrian Army says blind mosque preacher Ahmad al-Sayasneh was smuggled into Jordan Saturday from the rebellious border town of Deraa through a hilly northern border area devoid of Syrian patrols. Mustafa says Jordanian police are questioning him. Al-Sayasneh, a Sunni Muslim, preached at Deraa’s Omari Mosque, delivering fiery sermons... Read more

WEST POINT, New York (AP) — A retired U.S. lieutenant general who made comments denigrating Islam withdrew Monday from speaking at a West Point prayer breakfast after a veterans’ advocacy group asked the Army chief of staff to rescind the invitation. VoteVets.org told Gen. Raymond Odierno in a letter that allowing retired Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin to speak at the U.S. Military Academy next week would be contrary to Army values and disrespectful to Muslim cadets. Late Monday afternoon,... Read more

WEST POINT, New York (AP) — A veterans’ advocacy group asked the Army chief of staff Monday to rescind a U.S. Military Academy prayer breakfast invitation to a retired general who made comments denigrating Islam. VoteVets.org told Gen. Raymond Odierno in a letter that allowing retired Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin to speak at next week’s National Prayer Breakfast Service would be contrary to Army values and disrespectful to Muslim cadets. The Council on American-Islamic Relations also asked officials to... Read more