SAN ANTONIO (AP) — State records obtained by The Associated Press show Texas prosecutors have spent more than $4.5 million convicting polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs and 10 of his followers. Tuesday marks the four-year anniversary of the April 3, 2008, raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch. State prosecutors last week convicted the last of 11 members of the polygamist group who were arrested on child sex abuse and bigamy charges. Spokesman Jerry Strickland said Tuesday the manpower the... Read more

NEW YORK (AP) — New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says security will be increased at religious sites around the city during the Jewish holiday of Passover. Authorities say no specific threats have been reported in the city for the weeklong holiday, which starts at sundown Friday. The New York Police Department has sharpened its focus on anti-terrorism after the 9/11 attacks. It has kept a constant eye on militant groups for signs that they might attack the largest Jewish... Read more

BAGHDAD (AP) — Now that U.S. forces are gone, Iraq’s ruling Shiites are moving quickly to keep the two Muslim sects separate — and unequal. Sunnis are locked out of key jobs at universities and in government, their leaders banned from Cabinet meetings or even marked as fugitives. Sunnis cannot get help finding the body of loved ones killed in the war. And Shiite banners are everywhere in Baghdad. With the Americans no longer here to play peacemakers and Sunni-ruled... Read more

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A Santeria leader charged with helping run an organization that allegedly smuggled drugs bound for the U.S. and rigged Puerto Rico’s lottery system to launder money was among dozens of suspects arrested Tuesday, according to federal agents. Orlando Robles Ortiz is accused of helping the group transport U.S.-bound cocaine from the Dutch Caribbean island of St. Maarten to Puerto Rico and of consulting with a spirit named “Samuel” on which days were best to... Read more

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A series of confidential memos from the 1990s are being read to jurors in the landmark priest-abuse trial under way in Philadelphia. The memos being read Tuesday describe how the archdiocese handled allegations of sexual abuse against the Rev. Stanley Gana lodged in the 1990s. Prosecutors are trying to show that the archdiocese didn’t do enough after the accusations arose. Monsignor William Lynn’s child endangerment and conspiracy trial could last several months. The 61-year-old Lynn is the... Read more

CINCINNATI (AP) — A federal judge says a lawsuit can go ahead against a US archdiocese by a Catholic school teacher who was fired after she became pregnant through artificial insemination. The Archdiocese of Cincinnati fired Christa Dias in 2010, saying the single woman violated church doctrine. The judge’s ruling last week says Dias was a non-Catholic teacher with no role in ministering or teaching Catholic doctrine. An archdiocese spokesman says parents who pay to send their children to Catholic... Read more

CINCINNATI (AP) — A federal judge has given the go-ahead for trial in a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Cincinnati by a Catholic school teacher fired after she became pregnant through artificial insemination. The archdiocese fired Christa Dias in 2010, saying the single woman violated Roman Catholic Church doctrine by using artificial insemination. U.S. District Judge Arthur Spiegel says in his ruling last week that Dias was a non-Catholic computer teacher with no role in ministering or teaching Catholic doctrine.... Read more

DUBLIN (AP) — A gunman shot and critically wounded a Belfast man and his daughter Tuesday outside their home, police said. No paramilitary group claimed responsibility for the morning drive-by shooting in north Belfast. But the attackers’ suspected getaway vehicle was found burning in an Irish nationalist area where Irish Republican Army factions operate. Police said the 47-year-old man was shot twice in the chest, his 18-year-old daughter in the stomach and hand, as they were about to step into... Read more

KORNITSA, Bulgaria (AP) — Ibrahim Byalk has had a bullet stuck in his arm for nearly four decades. It adds to the painful memories of communist repression in this quiet village in southern Bulgaria. “It hurts sometimes when I move my arm, but it is nothing compared to the pain left in my mind,” said Byalk, looking over the square where he was shot on March 28, 1973. That day, police and army units stormed the village and opened fire... Read more

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jurors in a landmark priest abuse trial on Monday heard about a priest-turned-camp prowler and another who was accused of bragging about having sex with three boys in a week. Also Monday, two jurors were replaced by alternates, but a gag order prevents lawyers from discussing the reasons for the move. Monsignor William Lynn is on trial on charges of child endangerment and conspiracy. Lynn, 61, is the first Roman Catholic church official in the U.S. charged... Read more