Obama says religious freedoms are central during speech to Muslims in Cairo

CAIRO — President Barack Obama says freedom of religion is central to peoples’ ability to live together.

Saga of Catholic priest who left church for a woman is big news in Spanish-language community

MIAMI — It has the makings of a telenovela: A handsome Cuban-American priest and TV personality caught cavorting with his girlfriend on a Florida beach. After much soul-searching, he decides to leave the Catholic Church for his love.

With possible election win, Hezbollah-Christian alliance could redefine Lebanon’s politics

BEIRUT — It’s an unusual alliance in a country where your religion usually determines your politics: Christians siding with Shiite Muslim militant Hezbollah. But it has shaken up Lebanon’s politics, and backers say it represents the future of this long divided nation.

HK cardinal says China is still controlling Roman Catholic church on mainland

HONG KONG — China has held off on ordaining bishops without Vatican approval, but government interference in the state-backed Chinese church is still a concern, Hong Kong’s cardinal — a key adviser to the pope— said Monday.

AP News in Brief

Iran test fires missiles amid global flap over its nuclear ambitions

Roman Catholic archbishop who stepped down in disgrace reveals in memoir that he’s gay

NEW YORK — A Roman Catholic archbishop who resigned in 2002 over a sex and financial scandal involving a man describes his struggles with being gay in an upcoming memoir about his decades serving the church.

Indonesian president’s party wins elections as Islamist parties lose ground

JAKARTA, Indonesia — The secular party of Indonesia’s president tripled its share of the vote in parliamentary elections as support for religious parties nose-dived in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country.

Outraged Catholics seek to stop Obama’s Notre Dame speech; fight shows big divide in church

NEW YORK — A campaign by outraged Roman Catholics to keep President Barack Obama from delivering the commencement address at Notre Dame shows that the gulf between the church and backers of abortion rights remains deep.

Judge calls NY rabbi “perverse,” sentences him to 30 years for molesting daughter

NEW YORK — A New York rabbi convicted of molesting his daughter has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Beijing rejects latest US report saying China lacks religious freedom as ‘groundless’

BEIJING — Beijing on Tuesday said a U.S. report criticizing the state of China’s religious freedom was biased and groundless.

Egypt’s Christians decry religious bias in government decision to destroy all pigs

CAIRO — The Egyptian government is using swine flu as an excuse to get rid of tens of thousands of pigs raised by garbage collectors who live amid the refuse in Cairo slums. But the move has prompted accusations Monday that Muslims are attacking minority Christians, who breed the animals.

Case of ritual abuse in 2 Mo. rural churches whittled down to 1 defendant, no trial date

WASHBURN, Mo. — There was a lot of public attention when leaders of two obscure churches in the Ozarks woods were accused of ceremonially abusing girls, preparing them for “service to God” by molesting them.

US commission says religious freedoms deteriorating in Russia, Turkey and 4 other nations

WASHINGTON — A congressionally backed panel said Friday that religious freedoms were deteriorating in Russia, Turkey and four other nations that were added to a watch list of countries where people’s rights to worship as they please or not to worship at all are at risk.

Pastors who endorsed candidates wonder why IRS is silent nearly 7 months after protest

MILWAUKEE — Nearly seven months after defying a prohibition on endorsing candidates from the pulpit, 33 churches across the country are still waiting to learn whether the Internal Revenue Service will take action against them.

China’s campaign to wipe out Falun Gong drives tenacious movement underground

BEIJING — A musician dies in police custody, a lawyer is beaten, an aid worker abandons China after 10 years of persecution — the stories are the human toll behind China’s decade-long campaign to wipe out Falun Gong, a spiritual movement that the government calls an evil cult.

China’s 10-year campaign to crush Falun Gong drives movement underground

BEIJING — Now entering its second decade, China’s relentless drive to obliterate the Falun Gong spiritual sect has left a human toll ranging from the deaths of followers in custody to the self-exile of others and the beatings of their lawyers.

Malaysia bars religious conversion of children without both parents’ consent to ease conflicts

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia announced Thursday it will bar the religious conversion of children without both parents’ consent in a major step to ease interfaith conflicts that have strained this Muslim-majority country.

As gay-marriage dominoes fall throughout New England, Maine gets its turn

AUGUSTA, Maine — A legislative hearing to extend gay marriage to Maine took on the atmosphere of a religious revival Wednesday as ministers made impassioned speeches for and against the bill before thousands of cheering spectators packed into a civic arena.

Religion News in Brief

PITTSBURGH — State House officials say they have been inundated with protests about a policy that barred a clergyman from using the word “Jesus” in a prayer that was to open one of the lawmakers’ daily sessions.