PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia trial witness has described feeling “helpless and trapped” as a 13-year-old because a priest was fondling her at the rectory where she worked. The woman says she was later told he was fondling her younger sisters. She earned $5 on weekends to cook for priests in about 1970. She says she remains deeply wounded. The woman is testifying on the fourth day of the child-endangerment trial of Monsignor William Lynn, the longtime secretary for clergy... Read more

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jurors in the Philadelphia clergy-abuse trial are hearing about one of the most notorious priests named in a 2005 grand jury report. Church documents say the priest admitted in the 1970s that he had sexually assaulted three eighth-grade boys in one year alone. He remained in ministry through 1980, and taught Latin at a Main Line Philadelphia public school in 2004. Monsignor William Lynn is charged with child endangerment for allegedly keeping him and other accused predators... Read more

PARIS (AP) — French police detained 19 people Friday as they launched a crackdown on suspected Islamist extremists in cities around the country, President Nicolas Sarkozy said, promising more raids to come. Tensions are high following a spate of killings in southern France by a radical Islamist that left seven people dead and two wounded and ended up with police killing the gunman last week after a 32-hour standoff. But French Interior Minister Claude Gueant told journalists “there is no... Read more

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood-led parliament began drawing up a no-confidence motion against the military-appointed government Thursday, further escalating the Islamists’ increasingly public power struggle with the country’s ruling generals. The Islamists were also squabbling with liberal and secular groups over the commission that is to draw up the nation’s new constitution. After the Brotherhood took a clear majority on the 100-member body for itself, 25 other members resigned. The latest was the representative of Al-Azhar, the pre-eminent institute... Read more

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood-led parliament began drawing up a no-confidence motion against the military-appointed government Thursday, further escalating the Islamists’ increasingly public power struggle with the country’s ruling generals. Ties between the military and the Brotherhood, Egypt’s most powerful political force and the dominant force in parliament, have deteriorated in recent weeks as the fundamentalist group has pushed for the army to sack the Cabinet for alleged incompetence. The Brotherhood wants to form a new government, a task... Read more

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s most influential political group, the Muslim Brotherhood, is accusing the country’s ruling military of maneuvering to keep the Islamists from power, repeating demands to dismiss the military-appointed Cabinet. The Brotherhood, which holds close to half the seats in parliament, criticized the Cabinet, saying it has failed to solve the country’s economic crisis. Saad Amara, a parliamentarian with the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, said Thursday that the military is trying to protect its privileged position by... Read more

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse thousands of people protesting an education reform bill that opponents say will boost the influence of Islamic schools. Police broke up the demonstration Thursday, ending a two-day standoff with protesters who wanted to march toward Parliament where the bill is being debated. Some demonstrators used slingshots to hurl rocks at police. The reform proposal extends compulsory education from the current eight years to 12 and paves... Read more

PARIS (AP) — France has barred a group of Muslim clerics, including one of the most prominent voices in Sunni Islam, from entering the country to attend a conference. France’s foreign ministry said Thursday the clerics were invited by the French Islamic Union to speak next month at a congress near Paris. One of those barred, the Egyptian-born Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, says he refuses to come to France. Tensions are high in France after Mohamed Merah, a French Muslim of... Read more

LONDON (AP) — The John Templeton Foundation says the Dalai Lama is the winner of its annual prize that honors exceptional contributions to affirming the spiritual dimension of life. The foundation said Thursday that the prize, valued at 1.1 million pounds ($1.7 million), would be presented to the exiled Tibetan leader at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London on May 14. The foundation said the Dalai Lama was “an incomparable global voice for universal ethics, nonviolence, and harmony among world religions.”... Read more

HAVANA (AP) — The spiritual leader of the world’s Roman Catholics and the brothers who have carried Cuba along an increasingly solitary Communist path mixed warm smiles with the hard language of their respective camps during Pope Benedict XVI’s three-day tour of Cuba. Often, the polite octogenarians at the heart of this religio-political drama appeared to be talking past each other, the pontiff using biblical parables about cruel, long-dead kings, the Castros their customary language of revolution and defiance to... Read more