KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The charge is only a misdemeanor, but if prosecutors are able to win a conviction against Kansas City Roman Catholic Bishop Robert Finn, they could be opening up a whole new front in the national priest abuse crisis. Finn is accused of violating Missouri’s mandatory reporter law by failing to tell state officials about hundreds of images of suspected child pornography found on the computer of a priest in his diocese. Experts say a criminal... Read more

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s newly empowered Islamists have tightened their grip, giving themselves a majority on a 100-member panel tasked with drafting a constitution that will define the shape of the government in the post-Hosni Mubarak era. Led by the Muslim Brotherhood to victory in parliamentary elections, fundamentalists now have their eyes set on the next prize: the presidency. The new constitution will decide whether Islam will gain even more strength in Egypt, abandoning decades of secular traditions that made... Read more

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s Islamists make up a sizable majority of a 100-member panel tasked with drafting a new constitution, according to a list of names published Sunday by the country’s official news agency. The list reinforces fears by secular and liberal Egyptians that the Islamists dominating parliament will pack the panel with supporters and ignore minority concerns. Of the 50 lawmakers selected by parliament’s two chambers to sit on the panel, 37 are Islamists. The other 50, also selected... Read more

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — Slovenians rejected in a national referendum on Sunday a new family law that included a highly contested clause that would allow same-sex couples to adopt children in some cases. The law drafted by Slovenia’s parliament — and opposed by conservatives close to the Catholic Church — would have allowed gay couples to adopt the biological children of their partners. It did not allow the adoption of children from a third party. With around 80 percent of... Read more

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — Slovenia held a referendum Sunday on a new family law, which includes a highly contested clause allowing same-sex couples to adopt children in some cases. The law — opposed by conservatives close to the Catholic Church — would allow gay couples to adopt the biological children of their partners. It does not allow the adoption of children from a third party. Unlike its Balkan neighbors Serbia and Croatia — where gays often face verbal and physical... Read more

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s fugitive Sunni vice president demanded Sunday that global human rights groups investigate whether one of his bodyguards was tortured to death. Taking the unusual step of speaking in English in a speech aimed at the international community, Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi accused Iraq’s government of covering up the imprisonment and slaying of bodyguard Amir Sarbut Zaidan al-Batawi. Al-Batawi, 33, was one of the bodyguards swept up in the probe launched last December into whether al-Hashemi directed... Read more

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rick Santorum turned in his most impressive performance yet with conservative, blue-collar and religious voters as he rode to triumph Saturday in Louisiana’s Republican presidential primary, capturing robust support from people across the board, according to an exit poll of voters. Highlighting his strength, the former Pennsylvania senator bested Mitt Romney for the first time among those calling the economy the campaign’s dominant issue. As usual this year, more voters named the economy as their top concern... Read more

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rick Santorum won the Louisiana Republican presidential primary Saturday, beating front-runner Mitt Romney in yet another conservative Southern state. “We’re still here. We’re still fighting. We still believe, as this race really shows,” Santorum told supporters in Green Bay, Wis. Although the victory gives Santorum bragging rights and at least eight more delegates, it does not change the overall dynamics of the race; the former Pennsylvania senator still dramatically lags behind Romney in the hunt for delegates... Read more

SILAO, Mexico (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI urged Mexicans to wield their faith against evils such as drug violence before hundreds of thousands of worshippers on Sunday, saying they would find hope if they purify their hearts. Benedict delivered the message during an open-air Mass in the shadow of the Christ the King monument, one of the most important symbols of Mexican Christianity, which recalls the 1920s Roman Catholic uprising against the anti-clerical laws that forbade public worship services such... Read more

SILAO, Mexico (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI addressed hundreds of thousands of Mexicans seeking a message of hope for their violence-plagued country at an open-air Mass on Sunday, saying renewing their hearts and faith would help them in troubled times. He urged Christians “to look deeply into the human heart, especially in times of sorrow as well as hope, as are the present times for the people of Mexico and of Latin America.” He spoke in the shadow of the... Read more