Victims of clerical sex abuse have reacted furiously to Pope Benedict's claim yesterday that paedophilia wasn't considered an “absolute evil” as recently as the 1970s.
In his traditional Christmas address yesterday to cardinals and officials working in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI also claimed that child pornography was increasingly considered “normal” by society.
“In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorised as something fully in conformity with man and even with children,” the Pope said.




Mercury poisoning takes a long time to work its horrific damage. Hiding for decades in the body and brain before its lethal work is accomplished, people think it is safe to use. Early symptoms include: a "burning tongue" sensation, or metallic taste in your mouth, or a burning feeling at the bottom of your feet. First a word, here or there, is forgotten.
The Obama administration is preparing an executive order that would formalize indefinite detention without trial for some detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but allow those detainees and their lawyers to challenge the basis for continued incarceration, U.S. officials said.
One of Bernard Madoff's trusted former workers got an early lump of coal for Christmas this morning from a judge who revoked her bail and ordered her to surrender to US Marshals. Annette Bongiorno -- who allegedly pocketed $14.5 million through her boss's Ponzi scheme -- surrendered to marshals in West Palm Beach, Fla., this afternoon.
Congress on Tuesday passed legislation to better protect sharks, creatures that swam the oceans before the age of dinosaurs but now are being killed by the millions for their fins, a delicacy used in a traditional Chinese soup.
Our destination was Jub Al-Dib in the Bethlehem area. We located it on the map but getting there by car was a different story. That’s because the West Bank is very spread out, despite its small area. There are hundreds of sometimes tiny communities strewn across the hills and valleys. And going from Palestinian point A to Palestinian point B in the West Bank has nothing to do with directions, logic, or geography.





























