Early exit polls show Mitt Romney’s win in the Illinois Republican primary rests on broad leads among voters with higher incomes and more formal education, with a boost from those focused on defeating President Barack Obama in November. KEYS TO THE MIDWEST: As in Ohio and Michigan, where Romney eked out narrow victories over Santorum, the two candidates ran about evenly among those with lower incomes and less formal education. But Romney outperformed his showing in the other two Midwestern... Read more

BAGHDAD (AP) — The president of Iraq’s self-ruled Kurdish region threatened Tuesday to pull support from the nation’s already wobbly coalition government, criticizing the central government for a power grab he denounced as ideological terrorism. Kurdish Regional Government President Massoud Barzani stopped short of directly saying he would declare independence for the three-province Kurdish region from the that makes up Iraq’s north. But he called political agreements between the region and Baghdad “meaningless” and said he was willing to put... Read more

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Thousands of Tunisians marched through the center of the capital Tuesday calling for a civil state on the 56th anniversary of the country’s independence from France. The march in Tunis was the latest move in the ongoing battle between Islamists and secularists after a popular uprising overthrew dictator President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali a year earlier. Since the fall of the hardline secular regime of Ben Ali, political Islam has flourished in the country. A... Read more

GENEVA (AP) — Swiss prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation against a former justice minister over a scandal that led to the country’s central bank chief quitting in January. Prosecutors in the canton of Zurich say they are investigating Christoph Blocher on suspicion of breaching Swiss banking secrecy laws. Blocher held the justice portfolio in Switzerland’s seven-member Cabinet from 2004 to 2007 and remains a leading figure in the nationalist Swiss People’s Party. Prosecutors said in a statement Tuesday that... Read more

BALTIMORE (AP) — The leading voice of Roman Catholic bishops opposing a contraception mandate in the Obama administration’s health care law was named Tuesday as the 16th archbishop of Baltimore, the nation’s first diocese. Bishop William E. Lori comes from the Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn., and has testified before Congress several times in the past few months on a proposed measure to make religious employers cover contraception for its employees. The White House later backed off the rule, making insurers... Read more

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The Iranian New Year — or Nowruz, meaning “New Day” — was marked Tuesday in a rare glimpse at customs stretching back to the country’s pre-Islamic past. The traditions draw from Zoroastrian faith, which dominated Persia before the arrival of Islam in the 7th century and still exists in pockets around the country. While some hard-line Muslim clerics object to embracing pre-Islamic rituals, Nowruz remains the highlight of the year for most Iranians. It includes welcoming... Read more

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Bahrain’s king says the Gulf nation has made progress with political reforms drawn up in response to a yearlong uprising by the country’s Shiite majority, which is calling for more rights and an elected government. King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa says security forces and the judicial system have been improved after international investigators criticized them in a report on the unrest. At least 45 people have been killed during months of anti-government demonstrations and harsh... Read more

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican says archdioceses in Ireland are making an “excellent” progress in efforts to implement norms to protect children in the wake of decades of pedophile priest scandals. The Vatican on Tuesday released a summary of findings of its own yearlong investigation ordered by Pope Benedict XVI after the uproar over widespread child abuse by priests and allegations of cover up by the church. The Vatican said its investigators saw for themselves “how much the shortcomings... Read more

WADI NATROUN, Egypt (AP) — Pope Shenouda III, an giant figure for 40 years at the helm of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church, was laid to rest on Tuesday in a desert monastery after a moving funeral Mass at a Cairo cathedral attended by tens of thousands. Shenouda’s death brought an outpouring of expressions of Muslim-Christian unity in this mainly Muslim and conservative Arab nation, but it may have done little to hide the alarm of Egypt’s Christians over the political... Read more

CAIRO (AP) — Tens of thousands of Egypt’s Coptic Christians are taking part in a funeral mass led by senior clerics for the death of their patriarch, Pope Shenouda III, at the main cathedral in Cairo. Shenouda died on Saturday at age 88 after spending 40 years at the helm of the Coptic Orthodox Church, one of the world’s most ancient Christian denominations. Most of Egypt’s estimated 10 million Christians are Orthodox Copts . Shenouda’s body will be flown later... Read more