News/International

{mosimage}WASHINGTON - During nearly 50 years of rule, Fidel Castro had an often-stormy relationship with the Cuban Catholic Church.

{mosimage}LONDON - An English cardinal has rejected suggestions that aspects of Shariah, or Islamic law, might be incorporated into the British legal system.

{mosimage}MEXICO CITY - Mexico’s Catholic bishops have pleaded with the federal government to renegotiate a trade treaty with the United States and Canada that they say is leading to the cultural death of their nation.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Aid workers, church groups and peace activists are deeply disappointed in the Manley panel’s report on Canada’s future role in Afghanistan — which calls for Canada to continue its mission while seeking more troops from NATO — with aid workers worried the panel’s approach to development could result in murders and kidnapping of project staff and Taliban targeting of communities where they work.

{mosimage}NAIROBI, Kenya - A mob brutally killed a priest of the diocese of Nakuru in Kenya’s Rift Valley amid continuing post-election violence which has pitted rival ethnic gangs against each other.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Winnipeg Archbishop James Weisgerber has returned from his first trip to the Holy Land with a deep understanding of the pressure and suffering the historic Christian community experiences there.

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI has decided to reformulate a Good Friday prayer in the 1962 Latin Roman Missal that was offensive to Jews, according to an Italian newspaper.

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - It was a first, at least in modern times: In Rome, the centre of the Catholic world and the capital of Catholic Italy, a pope felt unwelcome to give a speech at the public university.

When Pope Benedict XVI cancelled his planned visit to La Sapienza University Jan. 17, it marked a setback in the pontiff’s difficult dialogue with the contemporary scientific and intellectual world.

{mosimage}ROME - Spanish-born Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, the newly elected superior general of the Jesuits, called on the more than 19,000 members of his order to strengthen their service to the poor and those excluded from the benefits of economic globalization.

{mosimage}NAIROBI, Kenya - Church leaders, pastors and bishops are working to change the channel on the cycle of ethnic and political violence which has claimed nearly 500 lives since Kenya’s disputed national elections Dec. 27.