TOKYO (AP) — Japan's national police chief said Thursday he will resign to take responsibility over the fatal shooting of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a campaign speech last month.
ROME (AP) — The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has canceled his planned attendance at an interfaith meeting in Kazakhstan next month where he was expected to meet with Pope Francis, a top Orthodox official said, in a sign of further deterioration in relations over Russia’s war in Ukraine.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — If Dr. Mehmet Oz is elected to the U.S. Senate this fall, he'll be the first Muslim ever to serve in the chamber. It's something he hardly brings up while campaigning, his Democratic opponent isn't raising it and it's barely a topic of conversation in Pennsylvania's Muslim community.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Myanmar’s military-installed government Wednesday to include ethnic Rohingya in a solution to the country’s political crisis.
He commented on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the start of a mass exodus by the Muslim minority to Bangladesh to escape a military crackdown in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state.
BAGHDAD (AP) — Hundreds of supporters of an influential Shiite cleric in Iraq rallied on Tuesday in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, demanding the dissolution of parliament and early elections.
When San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy receives his prestigious red hat at the Vatican on Saturday, he will bring to the College of Cardinals a fervent loyalty to Pope Francis that has often put him at odds with the conservative majority in the U.S.
IMBABA, Egypt (AP) — For Mariam Habeib, the grief seems never ending: She lost her older sister, two nieces and a niece's three young children in an intense fire that engulfed a church in Egypt's capital during a recent service and killed 41 people.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — About 2,000 protesters upset with the government's pandemic response converged Tuesday on New Zealand's Parliament — but there was no repeat of the occupation six months ago in which protesters camped on Parliament grounds for more than three weeks.
SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil's former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is running to return to the job, said on Monday his rival, incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, is taking the low road against him and his family on the campaign trail.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho's near-total abortion ban appears to have a serious conflict with a federal law governing emergency health care treatment, a federal judge said Monday.
The U.S. Department of Justice sued the Republican-led state of Idaho earlier this month, saying the abortion ban set to take effect on Thursday violates a federal law requiring Medicare-funded hospitals to provide “stabilizing treatment” to patients experiencing medical emergencies.
BAGHDAD (AP) — A landslide collapsed the ceiling of a Shiite shrine in central Iraq over the weekend and killed at least eight people, including a child, officials said Monday as rescuers continued to search for survivors.
NEW YORK (AP) — Weary of Venezuela's autocratic government and the pittance he earned in the military, Dario Maldonado deserted and fled with his family to neighboring Colombia.
But life remained hard — money was tight and expenses mounted.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Retired Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland, a leading Catholic liberal who pushed for social justice and increased power for women in the church before he resigned amid a sex and financial scandal, has died.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Opera star Placido Domingo's name has appeared in an investigation of a sect-like organization in Argentina that also had U.S. offices and whose leaders have been charged with crimes, including sexual exploitation.
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has taken another step to rehabilitate Cardinal Angelo Becciu, inviting the once-powerful Vatican prelate to an upcoming meeting of cardinals two years after Francis forced his resignation based on purported financial improprieties.
SINGAPORE (AP) — Singapore's gay community Monday hailed a plan to decriminalize sex between men as “a triumph of love over fear" but warned there is still a long way to equality and new bans on same-sex unions could entrench discrimination against them.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis voiced worry Sunday about the situation in Nicaragua, where police detained several Roman Catholic clergy, including a bishop, critical of President Daniel Ortega’s administration.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Demolition of a shuttered 19th-century church in Philadelphia has begun following a yearslong battle by some neighbors to save the crumbling structure.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Survivors and faith leaders rallied Friday at the Utah State Capitol to demand change to a state law that exempts religious leaders from requirements that they report child sexual abuse brought to their attention in spiritual confessions.
MELIPEUCO, Chile (AP) — Mist suddenly arose from the Truful Truful River as it flowed below the snow-covered Llaima volcano, and Victor Curin smiled at the sun-dappled water spray.
A leader in one of the Indigenous communities by the river’s shores in the Chilean Andes, Curin took it as a sign that the waterfall’s ngen — its owner and protector spirit — approved of his visit and prayer that mid-July morning.
ALONG THE PILMAIQUEN RIVER, Chile (AP) — A ceremonial dip in the frigid waters of the fast-flowing Pilmaiquen River in southern Chile was the culmination of the multiday celebration of We Tripantü, one of the most sacred holidays for the Mapuche, the country’s largest Indigenous group.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Nicaraguan police on Friday raided the residence of a Roman Catholic bishop critical of President Daniel Ortega’s administration, detaining him and several other priests in a dramatic escalation of tensions between the church and a government increasingly intolerant of dissent.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Abortion opponents and abortion rights advocates together spent more than $22 million on a ballot question this month in Kansas, and famed film director and producer Steven Spielberg contributed to the successful effort to affirm abortion rights.
ROME (AP) — The Vatican cardinal accused in a class-action lawsuit in Canada of sexual assault against a woman on Friday denied any inappropriate behavior and said he would vigorously fight the “false” and “defamatory” accusations if the case proceeds.
OSOGBO, Nigeria (AP) — Yeyerisa Abimbola has dedicated most of her 58 years on Earth to the Osun, a waterway in deeply religious Nigeria named for the river goddess of fertility. As the deity’s chief priestess, she leads other women known as servants of Osun in daily worship and sacrificial offerings along the riverbank.
ROME (AP) — The Vatican said Thursday that a preliminary church investigation into sexual assault allegations by a Canadian woman against a top cardinal, Marc Ouellet, has determined the case doesn’t warrant further investigation.
ALONG THE JORDAN RIVER (AP) — Kristen Burckhartt felt overwhelmed. She needed time to reflect, to let it sink in that she had just briefly soaked her feet in the water where Jesus is said to have been baptized, in the Jordan River.
ROME (AP) — Italian environmental activists staged a second museum protest in as many months, gluing their hands Thursday to the base of one of the Vatican Museums’ most important ancient sculptures, the Laocoon.
An Arizona judge overseeing a high-profile lawsuit accusing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of conspiring to cover-up child sex abuse has ruled that the church may not refuse to answer questions or turn over documents under the state’s “clergy-penitent privilege.”
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A bombing at a mosque in the Afghan capital of Kabul during evening prayers killed at least 21 people, including a prominent cleric, and wounded at least 33 others, eyewitnesses and police said Thursday.
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's president on Thursday appointed a caretaker governor of the central bank, the president's office said, a day after the bank's chief resigned amid a grinding economic crisis triggered by Russia's war on Ukraine.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Saudi court has sentenced a doctoral student to 34 years in prison for spreading “rumors” and retweeting dissidents, according to court documents obtained Thursday, a decision that has drawn growing global condemnation.
ALONG THE COLUMBIA RIVER (AP) — James Kiona stands on a rocky ledge overlooking Lyle Falls where the water froths and rushes through steep canyon walls just before merging with the Columbia River. His silvery ponytail flutters in the wind, and a string of eagle claws adorns his neck.
NEW DELHI (AP) — A Muslim woman who was gang raped while pregnant during India's devastating 2002 religious riots has appealed to the government to rescind its decision to free the 11 men who had been jailed for life for committing the crime, after they were released on suspended sentences.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Thousands of Unification Church followers rallied in South Korea on Thursday protesting negative Japanese media coverage of their religion after the suspect in the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe blamed the church for his family’s troubles.
RENO, Nev. (AP) — Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak said Wednesday that if he wins re-election he would seek to codify in law next legislative session an order he signed that protects in-state abortion providers and out-of-state patients.