SANTA FE, N.M. Authorities say the leader of an apocalyptic sect in northeastern New Mexico has been released from jail after his son posted his bond.

NEW YORK Conservative legal advocates are recruiting pastors nationwide to defy an IRS ban on preaching about politicians, in a challenge they hope will abolish the restriction.

NEW YORK Author Brian McLaren is among the most influential American religious thinkers of the last decade.

WASHINGTON Nearly two-dozen conservative Christian leaders have signed a letter to the Senate Finance Committee questioning an investigation into six large ministries that preach a gospel of prosperity.

JERUSALEM Israel staged its 60th birthday bash with fireworks, air force flyovers and a great sense of pride Thursday, but also with uncertainty about its future and doubts about prospects for peace with the Palestinians.

DHARMSALA, India The Dalai Lama's envoys and Chinese officials disagreed more than they agreed at weekend talks on how to move beyond the unrest in Tibet, one of the Tibetan spiritual leader's representatives said Thursday.

Prominent evangelicals urged Christian conservatives Wednesday to support "an expansion of our concerns beyond single-issue politics," angering some leaders on the religious right who have been closely allied with the Republican Party.

KUFR QASSEM, Israel The highway leading to this Arab town in central Israel was lined with blue-and-white Israeli flags Wednesday to mark the country's 60th Independence Day. But no banners fluttered in Kufr Qassem itself.

Every month, Phil Davis receives a deposit of American money in his Czech bank account. And every month, he sees that deposit shrink.

SANTA FE, N.M. The leader of an apocalyptic sect in northeastern New Mexico was arrested Tuesday and charged with felony sex crimes against children.

FORT WORTH, Texas A Roman Catholic priest was sentenced Monday to four years in prison for having sex with two inmates while a chaplain at a women's prison.

BEIJING The China Philharmonic Orchestra plans to perform this week for Pope Benedict XVI, state media reported Monday, the latest indication that the often-strained ties between Beijing and the Vatican are improving.

LONDON Documents released Monday show how the British government tried to send thousands of Palestine-bound Jewish survivors of the Nazi genocide back to postwar Germany without inflaming world opinion.

PARIS A Roman Catholic bishop said Sunday that the church has officially recognized that the Virgin Mary appeared to a 17th-century shepherd girl in the French Alps.

Conservative Christian leaders who believe the word "evangelical" has lost its religious meaning plan to release a starkly self-critical document saying the movement has become too political and has diminished the Gospel through its approach to the culture wars.

FORT WORTH, Texas More than 200 Methodists attended a lesbian couple's commitment ceremony Friday in defiance of a vote to uphold a church law that says gay relationships are "incompatible with Christian teaching."

TULSA, Okla. As Oral Roberts University prepares to hand out diplomas to its Class of 2008, Anna Siebring, a junior, will be mailing out applications to transfer to another school. Siebring, a government major, is among many students having second thoughts about staying at Oral Roberts after six months of scandal at the evangelical Christian university.

ANKARA, Turkey The Turkish gunman who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II is applying for Polish citizenship because he wants to live in the country of the late pontiff, whom he called his "spiritual brother."

CHICAGO About two dozen black ministers from the Chicago area say they're behind Barack Obama despite his split from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

NEW ORLEANS Bishop J. Douglas Wiley has just a tent for a church and a fraction of his congregants, more than 2 1/2 years after Hurricane Katrina.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. Struggling to confront a worsening homicide rate, the mayor invited pastors and citizens to don burlap sacks and ashes in a sign of biblical repentance.

NEW YORK Whatever impressions Pope Benedict XVI took away from his long weekend in New York may influence a big, upcoming decision - picking a successor to Cardinal Edward Egan as archbishop.

DES MOINES, Iowa A bankruptcy judge on Wednesday approved a $37 million settlement between the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport and more than 150 people who say they were sexually abused by its priests.

JERUSALEM A rarely displayed segment of the Dead Sea Scrolls will be part of an exhibition for President Bush and other dignitaries attending Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations next month, a museum official said Wednesday.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. State police have removed three children from an apocalyptic church whose leader claims to be the Messiah and acknowledges having sex with some of his followers.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. A license plate that would have become the first in the nation to prominently feature a religious symbol is unlikely to be on the road any time soon after state lawmakers did not include it in a bill Tuesday.

TIBURON, Calif. The highest court of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has found that a Northern California minister did not violate denominational law when she officiated at the weddings of two lesbian couples.

A wide-ranging group of U.S. Jewish leaders plans to release a statement Wednesday urging Jews worldwide to boycott the Summer Olympics in Beijing, citing China's troubling record on human rights and Tibet.

BATON ROUGE, La. A machete-wielding man held sheriff's deputies at bay for two hours outside the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart's headquarters on Tuesday before officers broke into his truck and arrested him.

NEW YORK Rudy Giuliani should not have received Holy Communion during the pope's visit because the former presidential candidate supports abortion rights, New York Cardinal Edward Egan said Monday.

WESTON, Wis. Two parents who prayed as their 11-year-old daughter died of untreated diabetes were charged Monday with second-degree reckless homicide.

WASHINGTON In a defiant appearance before the Washington media, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright said Monday that criticism surrounding his fiery sermons is an attack on the black church and he rejected those who have labeled him unpatriotic.