News/International

KARACHI, Pakistan - The president of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops' Conference called the suicide bomb attack Sept. 22 at All Saints' Church in Peshawar a "shameful act of cowardice," adding that all Christian educational institutions in the country would be closed Sept. 23-25 in mourning and protest.

NAIROBI, Kenya - As Kenyan security forces worked to end a standoff at an upscale mall in Nairobi, the nation's Catholic leaders praised their fellow citizens for "the Kenyan spirit."

VATICAN CITY - Visiting an Italian region especially hard hit by the European economic crisis, Pope Francis blamed high unemployment on globalization driven by greed and said those who give charitable aid to the poor must treat their beneficiaries with dignity.

KILIS, TURKEY - While diplomats shuffle between Geneva, Moscow and Washington, their plans to place Syria’s chemical weapons under international control are having no impact on the war of attrition Syrians are fighting with rifles, rocket propelled grenades, tanks and bombing raids. As the violence that’s killed more than 100,000 Syrians wears on, Turkey is seeing more and more of the human toll in the form of refugees and wounded fighters.

MEXICO CITY - The archdiocese of Acapulco has suspended church services and instructed priests to turn their parishes into support centres after torrential rains on one of the busiest weekends of the year left the city cut off from other parts of Mexico.

MANCHESTER, England - The bishop of Northampton, England, has appointed a priest to investigate the possibility of opening the cause for sainthood of G.K. Chesterton, a British journalist and author of the early 20th century.

JERUSALEM - Christians in Syria are continuing to be targeted by outside fundamentalist groups who have joined the country's long civil war, said the head of the Syriac Catholic Church in Jerusalem.

WARSAW, Poland - A larger-than-life model of Blessed John Paul II as a younger man reaches out from the top of the exterior steps that ascend to All Saints Church, Warsaw's largest church.

WASHINGTON - As military, police and federal investigators searched for answers as to why a lone gunman opened fired Sept. 16 at the Washington Navy Yard, killing 12 people and wounding at least eight more, religious leaders and public officials offered prayers for the victims and their families.

OXFORD, England - A senior Catholic priest in the Central African Republic has warned of growing clashes between Christians and Muslims, and urged the international community to act "within weeks" to prevent the country's breakup.