WASHINGTON (AP) — Seeking a new Syria, the Obama administration hopes glimmers of diplomatic progress from U.N. mediator Kofi Annan will accelerate the end of President Bashar Assad’s year of extreme repression. But as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton returns to the region to search for a strategy with America’s Arab and European partners, Syria is stuck in the same conflict between a brutal government and an armed rebellion that no nation is certain it wants to support. And... Read more

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s ruling military council has warned it will not allow civilians to encroach on the armed forces’ extensive business enterprises, in rare comments about its secretive economic interests in the face of increasing demands for public scrutiny. Maj. Gen. Mahmoud Nasr, the deputy defense minister for financial affairs and a member of the ruling military council, defended the military’s economic establishment, saying it was in the public interest. He said the generals have even lent the government... Read more

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s ruling military council warned it will not allow civilians to encroach on the armed forces’ extensive business enterprises in rare comments about its secretive economic interests in the face of increasing demands for public scrutiny. The comments by Maj. Gen. Mahmoud Nasr, the deputy defense minister for financial affairs and member of the ruling military council, were published in the local media Wednesday. They come amid an unprecedented national scrutiny of the huge military economic sector,... Read more

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration said Wednesday it had asked Pope Benedict XVI to raise with Cuban officials the case of American contractor Alan Gross, jailed on suspicion of espionage. The State Department said the request was made directly to the Vatican and through the papal nuncio in Washington before the Pope arrived in Cuba this week. “We obviously are hopeful that the pope will continue to be strong on all of the human rights issues in Cuba, religious... Read more

CLEVELAND (AP) — Parishioners of 13 northeast Ohio churches closed by the bishop but spared by the Vatican must wait to find out if they will re-open. Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon says in a letter to be distributed at weekend Masses that the issue of re-opening the churches “is not nearly as clear-cut as it may appear.” He says there is no easy or perfect solution and he hasn’t made any decisions. He pledges to respect church authority. Two weeks... Read more

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Senate narrowly rejected a bill to allow more employers to drop health insurance coverage for birth control amid concerns that the proposal jeopardized women’s care and privacy. Supporters had changed the bill ahead of the vote Wednesday in an attempt to provide assurances that a woman wouldn’t have to explain to her employer why she wants contraceptives. The amended provisions were a response to criticism that the proposal could force women to divulge private health... Read more

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Several Roman Catholic priests have testified in a landmark clergy-abuse case, including one who said Wednesday that he found pornography and a lewd letter to a boy in the rectory. The priests are prosecution witnesses in the trial of a longtime supervisor in the Philadelphia archdiocese, Monsignor William Lynn. The former secretary for clergy is charged with endangering children by allegedly helping the church cover up abuse complaints. The Rev. Joseph Okonski told jurors Wednesday that he... Read more

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A witness in a U.S. priest abuse trial says a priest stalked and undressed him at his Catholic school before a knock on the door saved him. The 36-year-old is the first accuser called to testify in the landmark trial of Monsignor William Lynn. Lynn, the former secretary for clergy in the Philadelphia archdiocese, is charged with endangering children by helping the church hide abuse complaints. The witness testified Wednesday that the priest saw him at a... Read more

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A witness in the Philadelphia priest-abuse trial says a priest stalked and undressed him at his Catholic high school before a knock on the door saved him. The 36-year-old man is the first accuser called to testify in the landmark trial of Monsignor William Lynn. Lynn, the former secretary for clergy, is charged with endangering children by helping the church hide abuse complaints. The witness testified Wednesday that the priest first saw him at a gay bookstore... Read more

HAVANA (AP) — Cecilia Dalmau’s mother made only one request of her before she flew to Cuba for Pope Benedict XVI’s visit: “I would love to see pictures from my childhood home.” When the 29-year-old pediatric dietitian from Miami and her Cuban-exile father, Sergio, located the address in an upscale part of Havana on Tuesday they found a decaying, two-story building with a priest of Cuba’s Afro-Cuban Yoruba faith living inside — and a wellspring of powerful emotions. “It looks... Read more