Pope says he won’t ‘judge’ gay priests
ABOARD THE PAPAL AIRCRAFT – A remarkably candid Pope Francis struck a conciliatory stance toward gays Monday, saying “who am I to judge” when it comes to the sexual orientation of priests.
“We shouldn’t marginalize people for this. They must be integrated into society,” Francis said during an extraordinary 82-minute exchange with reporters aboard his plane returning from his first papal trip, to celebrate World Youth Day in Brazil.
“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” the pope asked.
Scientists find mystery coffin at Richard III site
LONDON – A team of archaeologists said Monday it has unearthed an unusual coffin-within-a-coffin in the central England parking lot where it found the skeleton of King Richard III, and that they hope to identify the remains within.
University of Leicester scientists have been digging at the Grey Friars site in Leicester after finding the body of Richard there in September. He died nearby in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field.
The team said it had discovered a fully intact medieval stone coffin during a dig in September but wasn’t able to investigate it further at the time. When it was opened this week, the team said, it found a lead coffin within it, one likely to contain a “high status” individual.
Scientists think the lead coffin could contain one of the friary’s founders, a medieval monk, or the remains of a 14th-century medieval knight, Sir William Moton.
Tunisian gunmen kill soldiers in ambush
TUNIS, Tunisia – Gunmen ambushed a Tunisian army patrol Monday in a mountainous border region known as an Islamic militant stronghold, killing at least eight soldiers, the presidential spokesman said.
Jebel Chaambi, Tunisia’s highest mountain at 5,000 feet, is located near the Algerian border and the city of Kasserine, and was the site of an intensive military hunt for an al-Qaida-linked militant group during the spring.
“An entire patrol carrying out a search operation in this mountainous region was decimated,” said presidential spokesman Adnan Mancer.
New car bombings kill scores in Baghdad
BAGHDAD — A wave of over a dozen car bombings hit central and southern Iraq during morning rush hour on Monday, officials said, killing at least 47 people in the latest coordinated attack by insurgents determined to undermine the government.
The blasts, which wounded scores more, are part of a months-long surge of attacks that is reviving fears of a return to the widespread sectarian bloodshed that pushed the country to the brink of civil war after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Suicide attacks, car bombings and other violence have killed more than 3,000 people since April, including more than 500 since the start of July, according to an Associated Press count.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but they bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida’s Iraqi arm.
Associated Press
