CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian authorities have detained a Coptic Christian student accused of posting a drawing of Islam’s prophet on Facebook that triggered two days of violence in southern Egypt. Gamal Massoud has been accused by fellow students of ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad. According to a security official, the 17-year-old student denies that and says friends posted the picture on his Facebook page. The official spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the... Read more

CAIRO (AP) — Around 200 Coptic Christians and Muslims clashed in a southern Egyptian province after a drawing depicting the Prophet Muhammad was posted on a local Christian student’s Facebook page. Troops sealed off several flashpoint villages after angry residents in the province of Assiut, 200 miles (320 kilometers) south of Cairo, burnt seven Coptic homes in reaction to the drawing. Muslims generally oppose any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry. This particular... Read more

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Advocates for victims of clergy sex abuse are being ordered to disclose years of records to defense lawyers in the case of an accused priest. A county judge in Missouri says lawyers for the accused man have a right to the documents from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. SNAP says the disclosure order is so broad it could involve sensitive communication with victims in other cases. The group has appealed to the Missouri... Read more

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Maldives ordered hundreds of its luxury resorts to close their spas nearly a week after a protest led by opposition parties demanding a halt to “anti-Islamic” activities, the government said Friday. A statement from the president’s office said “the government has decided to close massage parlors and spas in the Maldives, following an opposition-led religious protest last week calling for their closure.” An official from the president’s office said the tourism ministry notified the resorts... Read more

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — A Roman Catholic diocese in Massachusetts has asked the Vatican to defrock a priest who is facing charges of possessing child pornography and stealing from his parish. A spokesman for the Diocese of Worcester (WUH’-stur) tells The Telegram & Gazette (http://bit.ly/rqPrfv) that Bishop Robert McManus has asked the pope to defrock the Rev. Lowe Dongor. Diocese officials say they are seeking to laicize Dongor in the wake of a “clarification” last spring by Vatican officials that... Read more

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) — Dressed in jeans, shirt sleeves rolled up, Mitt Romney reminisced before a noontime crowd about the long car trips his family took when he was a boy. “My dad made Ramblers, so we had one,” the Republican presidential hopeful said. In fact, Romney’s father didn’t just make cars. He was chairman and president of American Motors, the company that made Ramblers, and a highly successful businessman before he entered politics. It’s a detail the son... Read more

NEW YORK (AP) — More than a dozen Muslim clerics and civic leaders skipped Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s annual interfaith breakfast Friday, saying they were upset that he supported police department surveillance efforts in their neighborhoods. The 15 leaders wrote a letter to the mayor, saying they were protesting the spying program first revealed in a series of Associated Press articles. The letter made a controversy out of a normally sedate end-of-the-year meeting. Bloomberg didn’t directly address the boycott during the... Read more

NEW YORK (AP) — More than a dozen Muslim clerics and civic leaders skipped Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s annual interfaith breakfast Friday, saying they were upset that he supported police department surveillance efforts in their neighborhoods. The 15 leaders wrote a letter to the mayor, saying they were protesting the spying program first revealed in a series of Associated Press articles. The letter made a controversy out of a normally sedate end-of-the-year meeting. Bloomberg didn’t directly address the boycott during the... Read more

RISHON LEZION, Israel (AP) — For years, many Israelis got a little jittery as New Year’s Eve approached. Their neighbors, some of the nearly 1 million Soviet citizens who flocked to the Jewish state as the Communist regime collapsed, would decorate fir trees and wear Santa Claus-like hats, celebrating New Year’s Soviet-style. But after 20 years, Israel has come to terms with the Christmas-like custom, even if most of the country lights Hanukkah candles this time of year. Soviet-born immigrants... Read more

CLAREMONT, California (AP) — Vandalism of a church’s Nativity display that includes depictions of gay and lesbian couples was being investigated as a hate crime, police said. The damage at Claremont United Methodist Church happened late Saturday or Sunday morning. The display’s three panels feature silhouettes of three hand-holding couples — two men, two women and a heterosexual pair. The vandal knocked over the depictions of the gay and lesbian couples but left the straight couple alone. “It’s a hate... Read more