TOKYO (AP) — A senior member of the doomsday cult behind the 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo subways has been charged in a kidnapping case, one of dozens of cult-related crimes in the 1990s. Tokyo prosecutors Friday indicted Makoto Hirata, a 46-year-old member of Aum Shinrikyo, for his role in the abduction and confinement of a follower’s relative in 1995. The victim later was slain and burned inside the cult’s commune, but prosecutors said Hirata wasn’t responsible in these.... Read more

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Christian Bale says he isn’t concerned with what Chinese government censors approved or cut from his new film “The Flowers of War.” “I just do what I do,” Bale said. “What happens after I’m wrapped is always out of my hands. It doesn’t matter which country that’s in. … Which scenes get chosen, which scenes get cut, that has nothing to do with me.” The movie marks Bale’s return to the country where he launched his... Read more

JAIPUR, India (AP) — Booker-Prize winning author Salman Rushdie canceled plans to appear at an Indian literature festival Friday after protests from Muslim clerics and warnings that he could be targeted for assassination. Rushdie’s planned appearance at the Jaipur Literary Festival had reawakened the long dormant controversy over his 1988 book “The Satanic Versus,” which some Muslims consider blasphemous. He spent years in hiding after Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urged he be killed for writing the book, which also... Read more

DETROIT (AP) — Aleeza Adelman teaches Jewish studies at a Jewish school, yet she considers herself a teacher whose subject is religion, not a religious teacher. She’s rethinking how to define her job after a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling left her wondering what could happen if she ever needed to defend her right to keep it. The high court ruled last week that religious workers can’t sue for job discrimination, but didn’t describe what constitutes a religious employee —... Read more

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — A NATO helicopter has crashed in southern Afghanistan, killing six members of the international military force, the U.S.-led coalition said Friday. A coalition statement said that there was no enemy activity in the area at the time of Thursday’s crash. The cause of the crash is still being investigated. The coalition did not disclose the nationalities of those killed. The helicopter crash occurred on the same day that a suicide car bomber killed at least seven... Read more

CLEVELAND (AP) — The leader of a breakaway Amish group charged in beard-cutting attacks against fellow Amish is willing to install electricity at home to permit his pretrial release on electronic monitoring, the defense said, but the government warned Thursday that the issue is risky for his community. The electronic monitoring suggestion was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court by the defense seeking the release of Samuel Mullet Sr., who has said he didn’t order the hair-cutting, considered deeply offensive... Read more

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI says Roman Catholics in the U.S. need to understand the “grave threats” to their faith posed by radical secularism in the political and cultural arenas. He addressed visiting U.S. bishops Thursday and warned that attempts are being made to erode their religious freedom. Benedict did not explicitly mention it, but the bishops have complained their religious freedom is eroding in the face of growing acceptance of gay marriage and attempts to marginalize faith.... Read more

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI says Roman Catholics in the U.S. need to understand the “grave threats” to their faith posed by what he calls radical secularism in the political and cultural arenas. He addressed visiting U.S. bishops Thursday and used the same language in warning that attempts are being made to erode their religious freedom. Benedict did not explicitly mention it, but the bishops have complained their religious freedom is eroding in the face of growing acceptance... Read more

MALE, Maldives (AP) — Maldives police have arrested a prominent Muslim cleric and leader of a hardline religious political party for allegedly inciting hatred during an anti-government protest. Sheik Imran, leader of the Justice party, and two other opposition supporters were arrested Friday during a protest against the military’s recent arrest of a senior judge who ordered the release of a government critic. Imran has accused President Mohamed Nasheed of working against the state religion Islam. Following a faith other... Read more

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The Maldives government is threatening and harassing the media over their reporting of a political crisis and the military’s arrest of the nation’s top criminal court judge, a journalists’ group in the Indian Ocean archipelago said Thursday. The Maldives Journalists’ Association said in a statement that television stations are being penalized for airing opposition politicians’ comments that authorities perceive to be lies. An independent regulator, the Maldives Broadcasting Commission, accused Communication Minister Adil Saleem of... Read more