SAN PEDRO CUTUD, Philippines (AP) — Thousands have gathered in the Philippines to witness devotees nailed to crosses as they mark Good Friday by re-enacting Jesus Christ’s suffering. The yearly rites continue even as Roman Catholic church leaders discourage the practice. Nine men were crucified for a few minutes in Pampanga province’s San Pedro Cutud village, while at least eight others were crucified in neighboring villages. Many take part to atone for sins, pray for the sick or a better... Read more

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — As Holocaust survivors languished in displacement camps around Europe at the close of World War II, the U.S. Army gave them some of their first tangible connections to their faith since before the war: passages from the Talmud. Now two pieces of that limited printing have ended up in the hands of an Ohio rabbi, who will be using one in a pre-Passover service on Friday even as historians ponder their rarity and debate their impact... Read more

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A U.S. rabbi who recently purchased two religious books dating to shortly after the Holocaust has drawn attention from historians and archivists for the books’ limited run by the U.S. Army to help Holocaust survivors in displacement camps around Europe. Rabbi Areyah Kaltmann of Columbus, Ohio, bought the tractates, or passages that make up religious and civil law known as the Talmud, from an auction house on March 21. They are part of a limited number... Read more

LOS ANGELES (AP) — It is a mug shot for the ages. Charles Manson, the most notorious mass murderer imprisoned in California and perhaps the nation, stares glumly at a camera, holding his booking number in front of him. In the latest photo released by the California Department of Corrections, the 77-year-old Manson is gray-haired and gray-bearded, a shadow of the shaggy haired, wild-eyed killer whose visage glared from the covers of magazines in 1969. He was a cult leader... Read more

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A second day of cross-examination of a key witness in a landmark priest abuse trial was marked by more hostile exchanges Thursday between a man who claims he was molested as a teen and the attorney representing the man’s accuser. The accuser, who is now 30, testified that he was 14 years old when the Rev. James Brennan sexually abused him at the priest’s apartment in West Chester, outside Philadelphia. An attorney for Brennan continued grilling the... Read more

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez attended Mass with family Thursday after returning from his latest round of radiation therapy treatment in Cuba, talking emotionally about his struggle with cancer. Amid prayers, Chavez’s spoke earnestly of his hopes for survival. “Give me life even if it’s … painful life. I don’t care. Christ, give me your crown. Give it to me, I will bleed. … Give me life because I still have things to do for these people,”... Read more

JERUSALEM (AP) — A Palestinian militant leader said Friday that his group is adhering to a cease-fire that stopped a barrage of rockets and air strikes between Israel and the Gaza Strip last month. Sheik Nafez Azzam of Islamic Jihad said Israeli reports that he had called for an ongoing struggle against Israel, despite a cease-fire, were mistaken. “We in the Islamic Jihad are committed to the cease-fire,” Azzam told The Associated Press. He said a firebrand speech calling for... Read more

JERUSALEM (AP) — A Palestinian militant leader said that his group’s “struggle” against Israel will continue despite a cease-fire that stopped an exchange of fire between the Gaza Strip and Israel last month. The statement by Sheik Nafez Azzam of Islamic Jihad at a Gaza rally late Thursday came as Israel vowed to strike against the yet-unidentified militants who launched a rocket into the southern Israeli town of Eilat earlier Thursday. Gaza regularly sees days- or weeks-long outbreaks of violence,... Read more

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli army has closed the West Bank border for the first two days of the Passover holiday, which begins Friday at sundown. Under the ban, no Palestinians are allowed to cross into Israel except those needing medical care, the military said. The ban will be lifted on Saturday at midnight. Israel routinely closes the West Bank during Jewish holidays when crowds in synagogues and other public places are most vulnerable to potential attacks by Palestinian militants.... Read more

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Nursing student Ahmad Sayeed was sitting in his class at tiny Oikos University when a gunman burst through the back entrance of the lecture hall holding a terrified school receptionist hostage. Within moments the gunman, identified by authorities as One Goh, began randomly firing, killing seven people and wounding three. “Everyone was scared, panicked,” Sayeed said Wednesday as he sat at home in Newark, Calif., nursing a shoulder wound. “He’s shooting and we are all screaming.... Read more