PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A landmark sex abuse case that rocked the Roman Catholic Church went to trial Monday, marking the first time a U.S. church official faced a jury on allegations he endangered the welfare of children by covering for predator priests. The trial will be closely followed by Catholics across the country, including some who say their lives were destroyed. Monsignor William Lynn and the Rev. James Brennan of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia pleaded not guilty. Their attorneys are... Read more

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A landmark church sex abuse case that rocked the Roman Catholic Church went to trial Monday, marking the first time a U.S. church official faced a jury on allegations he endangered the welfare of children by covering for predator priests inside the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Monsignor William Lynn and the Rev. James Brennan entered their pleas before the jury Monday morning following a brief delay. The start of the trial came after weeks of jury selection and... Read more

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The high-ranking Roman Catholic official charged with shuffling predator priests to unwitting parishes has pleaded not guilty in front of a Philadelphia jury as the landmark case against him and a priest begins. The trial of Monsignor William Lynn and the Rev. James Brennan began Monday morning after a brief delay. Opening statements are next. A defrocked priest who had been a co-defendant in the case entered a surprise guilty plea last week following weeks of legal... Read more

OSLO, Norway (AP) — An Iraqi-born Islamist cleric was sentenced to five years in prison Monday for making death threats against Norwegian officials and three Kurdish men. The Oslo district court convicted Najmaddin Faraj Ahmad, also known as Mullah Krekar, of making online death threats against the three other Kurdish immigrants he said had insulted Islam. The 55-year-old cleric, who came to Norway as a refugee in 1991, was also convicted of threatening Norwegian government officials in an attempt to... Read more

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Islamic law will not be enshrined in Tunisia’s new constitution, preserving the secular basis of the North African nation, Tunisia’s ruling Islamist Ennahda Party said Monday. Ziad Doulatli, a party leader, said the first article of the new constitution would remain the same as in the 1959 version and it will not call for Shariah, Islamic law, to be the source of all legislation, as many conservatives had wanted. The decision marks a break between the... Read more

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The start of a landmark priest abuse case involving a high-ranking official in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is delayed while a judge weighs a defense request for a new jury following the abrupt guilty plea last week of a co-defendant. Lawyers for Monsignor William Lynn are seeking a new jury for his trial on child endangerment charges because the jurors could be affected by last week’s guilty plea by defrocked priest Edward Avery. Opening arguments were scheduled... Read more

TUNIS (AP) — A top official in Tunisia’s ruling Islamist Ennahda Party says Islamic law will not be enshrined in the country’s new constitution, preserving the North African nation’s civil state. Tunisia has witnessed competing protests by thousands of secularists and Islamists recently over the role of Islamic law in the new constitution. Ziad Doulatli of Ennahda Party said Monday the first article of the constitution would remain same as it had under the country’s secular dictators. Islamists had wanted... Read more

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s powerful Islamists on Monday faced a backlash on two fronts as they try to solidify their hold on the country’s politics, as liberal politicians quit a panel tasked with drafting a new constitution to protest its domination by Islamists. More ominously, the ruling military issued a veiled threat of a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood if the group persisted in demands to form a new government. The warning pointed to a growing possibility of confrontation between... Read more

CAIRO (AP) — Two liberal Egyptian politicians on Monday pulled out of a 100-member panel to draft a new constitution after Islamists took a majority of its seats. The liberals complained that the body is not representative of the whole public. The panel selected over the weekend includes nearly 60 Islamists and only six women and six Christians. The members were chosen by parliament’s two chambers, where Islamists have a majority. The two who quit the constituent assembly are independent... Read more

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Defense lawyers plan to attack the credibility of the troubled adult accusers when two Roman Catholic priests go on trial Monday in a landmark child sex abuse case involving the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. But that strategy took a hit Thursday when co-defendant Edward Avery entered a last-minute guilty plea, confirming one accuser’s account of a brutal 1999 sexual assault inside a church sacristy. The victim was then a 10-year-old altar boy, Avery a 57-year-old priest. Avery’s plea... Read more