Pope Francis

President-elect Joe Biden, right, listens as his nominee for the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and adviser on science Eric Lander speaks during an event at The Queen theater, Saturday, Jan. 16, 2021, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Biden says his advisers will lead with 'science and truth'

Jan. 16, 2021 6:09 PM EST

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — In a dig at the outgoing Trump administration, President-elect Joe Biden introduced his slate of scientific advisers Saturday with the promise that they would summon “science and truth” to combat the coronavirus pandemic, climate crisis and other challenges. ...

Motorists make their way through a road affected by an earthquake-triggered landslide near Mamuju, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, Saturday, Jan. 16, 2021. Damaged roads and bridges, power blackouts and lack of heavy equipment on Saturday hampered Indonesia's rescuers after a strong and shallow earthquake left a number of people dead and injured on Sulawesi island. (AP Photo/Yusuf Wahil)

Damaged roads, lack of gear hinder Indonesia quake rescue

Jan. 16, 2021 10:12 AM EST

MAMUJU, Indonesia (AP) — Damaged roads and bridges, power blackouts and lack of heavy equipment on Saturday hampered rescuers after a strong earthquake left at least 49 people dead and hundreds injured on Indonesia's Sulawesi island. Operations were focused on about eight locations in the hardest-hit city...

FILE - In this file photo dated Sunday, Nov. 29, 2020, Pope Francis holds his pastoral staff as he arrives to celebrate Mass, at St. Peter's Basilica. The Vatican has confirmed that Pope Francis received the first shot of the ant-COVID vaccine on Thursday. No visuals of the 84-yer-old pontiff receiving the shot have been released. The pope has advocated that everyone should get the vaccine, calling it an “ethical option” performed not only for one’s own health but for the “lives of others.” (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, FILE)

Papal jersey: Francis blesses Hawks jersey on MLK birthday

Jan. 15, 2021 7:28 PM EST

ATLANTA (AP) — The Atlanta Hawks sent a special gift to Pope Francis: an MLK jersey that was blessed by the pontiff on Martin Luther King Jr's 92nd birthday Friday. The Vatican delivery followed Francis' meeting in November with a delegation of NBA players to discuss social justice and economic...

FILE - In this Sept. 7, 2010, file photo, Eric Steven Lander, head of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, gestures as he delivers a speech during the forum Mexico XXI Century, organized by the Telmex Foundation, in Mexico City. President-elect Joe Biden picked a pioneering geneticist to be his science advisor and elevated the job to his Cabinet. Friday's announcement of Lander won wide praise (AP Photo/Claudio Cruz, File)

Biden picks geneticist as science adviser, puts in Cabinet

Jan. 15, 2021 6:32 PM EST

President-elect Joe Biden announced Friday that he has chosen a pioneer in mapping the human genome — the so-called “book of life” — to be his chief science adviser and is elevating the top science job to a Cabinet position. Biden nominated Eric Lander, founding director of the Broad...

A man and woman wearing masks to help protect themselves from the coronavirus share a smartphone on the street in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021. A global team of researchers for the World Health Organization arrived Thursday in the Chinese city where the coronavirus pandemic was first detected to conduct a politically sensitive investigation into its origins amid uncertainty about whether Beijing might try to prevent embarrassing discoveries. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

The Latest: China says COVID-19 hospitalizations above 1,000

Jan. 14, 2021 9:40 PM EST

BEIJING — China says it is now treating more than 1,000 people for COVID-19 as numbers of cases continue to surge in the country’s north. The National Health Commission said Friday that 1,001 patients are under care for the disease, 26 of them in serious condition. It says 144 total new cases were...

FILE - In this Dec. 4, 2019, file photo, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, center front left, speaks with U.S. President Donald Trump, center front right, after a group photo at a NATO leaders meeting at The Grove hotel and resort in Watford, Hertfordshire, England. For America’s allies and rivals alike, the chaos unfolding during Donald Trump’s final days as president is the logical result of four years of global instability brought on by the man who promised to change the way the world viewed the United States. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, File)

World warily watches America's postelection aftershocks

Jan. 13, 2021 9:05 AM EST

PARIS (AP) — For America's allies and rivals alike, the chaos unfolding during Donald Trump's final days as president is the logical result of four years of global instability brought on by the man who promised to change the way the world viewed the United States. From the outside, the United States has...

FILE - In this Jan. 11, 2014 file photo, Vatican Gendarmes, background, take position prior to the start of a ceremony for the opening of the Vatican judicial year, outside the Vatican's Court Palace. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, file)

Probe highlights Vatican legal system's limited protections

Jan. 12, 2021 2:16 AM EST

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A criminal investigation into a Vatican real estate investment is exposing weaknesses in the city state’s judicial system and a lack of some basic protections for those accused — highlighting the incompatibility of the Holy See’s procedures with European norms. The...

FILE - In this file photo dated Sunday, Nov. 29, 2020, Pope Francis holds his pastoral staff as he arrives to celebrate Mass, at St. Peter's Basilica. Pope Francis has changed church law to explicitly allow women to do more things during Mass, Monday Jan. 11, 2021, while reaffirming they cannot be priests. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, FILE)

Pope says women can read at Mass, but still can't be priests

Jan. 11, 2021 12:29 PM EST

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis changed church law Monday to explicitly allow women to do more things during Mass, granting them access to the most sacred place on the altar, while continuing to affirm that they cannot be priests. Francis amended the law to formalize and institutionalize what is common practice...

FILE - In this Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020 file photo, a Catholic pastor receives the first of the two Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccinations at a hospital in Chicago. In a growing consensus, religious leaders at the forefront of the anti-abortion movement in the United States are telling their followers that the leading vaccines available to combat COVID-19 are acceptable to take, given their remote and indirect connection to lines of cells derived from aborted fetuses. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Anti-abortion faith leaders support use of COVID-19 vaccines

Jan. 10, 2021 9:11 AM EST

In a growing consensus, religious leaders at the forefront of the anti-abortion movement in the United States are telling their followers that the leading vaccines available to combat COVID-19 are acceptable to take, given their remote and indirect connection to lines of cells derived from aborted fetuses. One...

FILE - In this Dec. 8, 2020 file photo, Pope Francis delivers his message during the Angelus noon prayer from the window of his studio overlooking St.Peter's Square, on the Immaculate Conception day, at the Vatican. The pope said in an interview with Mediaset that is to be broadcast Sunday, Jan. 10, 2021 that he was “astonished” by the mob attack at the U.S. Capitol due to the democratic traditions of the United States. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, file)

Pope prays for dead in Capitol rioting, appeals for calm

Jan. 10, 2021 7:21 AM EST

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis said Sunday that he is praying for those who died in the U.S. Capitol rioting and has appealed for calm to prevail in the United States to help safeguard that nation's democratic values. During his traditional Sunday noon remarks at the Vatican, Francis noted that five...

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