BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An 11-year-old girl toting a loaded AR-15 assault weapon appeared Monday with her grandfather, who is supporting legislation that would allow visitors to Idaho who can legally possess firearms to carry a concealed handgun within...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Monday it will hear a dispute over a Philadelphia Catholic agency that won't place foster children with same-sex couples, a big test of religious rights on a more conservative court.The justices will review an...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The Albany Jewish Community Center was evacuated and searched Sunday morning after it and several other centers around the country received anonymous emails with vague threats that mentioned a bomb, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.Cuomo went...

ANN ARBOR, Michigan (AP) — An Olympic wrestler has accused a University of Michigan doctor of touching him inappropriately during medical exams at the school and said the physician's reputation for such conduct was well known among his teammates.Andy...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Survivors of church sex abuse have descended on Rome this week, marking the first anniversary of Pope Francis’ summit of church leaders on preventing abuse with calls for more accountability and acknowledgment of their pain.On...

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudan’s rival leaders on Thursday announced they have agreed to form a coalition government just two days before the deadline, a breakthrough after months of delays and a major step in the emergence from a five-year...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, filed for bankruptcy Wednesday, six months after disclosing it had paid millions of dollars to people sexually abused as children by its clerics.The diocese joins at least...

The Boy Scouts of America urged victims to come forward Tuesday as the historic, 110-year-old organization filed for bankruptcy protection in the first step toward creating a huge compensation fund for potentially thousands of men who were molested as...

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Gunmen killed 24 civilians, including a church pastor, and kidnapped three others on Sunday in Burkina Faso, an official said. It was the latest attack against a religious leader in the increasingly unstable West African...

MILAN (AP) — The Vatican effort to reform the disgraced Legion of Christ religious order is coming under new scrutiny, with four Legion priests and a Legion lawyer due to stand trial on charges they tried to obstruct justice and extort the family of...

MILAN (AP) — The cardinal’s response was not what Yolanda Martínez had expected — or could abide.Her son had been sexually abused by a priest of the Legion of Christ, a disgraced religious order. And now she was calling Cardinal Valasio De Paolis...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A fire swept through a Haitian children's home run by a Pennsylvania-based religious nonprofit group, killing 15 children, officials said Friday.Rose-Marie Louis, a child-care worker at the home, told The Associated Press...