RELIGION

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed sharply criticized Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday for her handling of an ethnic crisis that led to mass killings and the exodus of more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims from her country.

Pope Francis is giving a prominent new role to the Vatican's most trusted sex crimes investigator in a sign that he's looking to improve the Holy See's response to abuse at a time when the church and papacy are facing a credibility crisis.

An abrupt change of plans at the Catholic bishops' bi-annual meeting in Baltimore; religion correspondent Lauren Green reports.

An explosion struck near an anti-Taliban rally in the Afghan capital on Monday, killing at least three people, officials said as authorities reported that the insurgents killed at least 20 members of the country's security forces over the past 24 hours in eastern Ghazni province.

The Pakistani government, already struggling with a crisis surrounding Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy charges after eight years on death row, now has to deal with "fake" images on social media purporting to show her leaving the country or out of Pakistan.

Repatriation efforts for Rohingya Muslims who have fled from Burma to Bangladesh in the face of alleged ethnic cleansing – even genocide – at the hands of the Buddhist-majority Burmese military are slated to begin this month. However, much of the international community and human rights groups have expressed grave concern that a return is only a recipe for further persecution. Yet even as allegations of widespread abuse pile up, the government of Burma – officially now known as Myanmar – and its permanent representative to the United Nations are doubling-down with the narrative that they are merely attempting to stop violent Islamic “extremism” from spreading.

Kenya's internal security minister Friday launched a police internal affairs unit to investigate allegations of abuses in the force including corruption and accusations that officers kill suspects and perpetrate other human rights abuses.

Most of the population of Yemen's Hodeida has been forced to flee amid a Saudi-led coalition offensive to take the key Red Sea port city from Shiite rebels, the United Nations' refugee agency said Friday, as fierce battles continue to rage in the area.

The uproar surrounding Aasia Bibi — a Pakistani Christian woman who was acquitted of blasphemy charges and released from death row but remains at a secret location for her protection — has drawn attention to the plight of the country's Christians.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and Germany's main Jewish leader warned against tolerating modern-day anti-Semitism and racism as they marked the 80th anniversary Friday of the Nazis' anti-Jewish Kristallnacht, or "Night of Broken Glass," pogrom.