Baghdad locale, slated to be completed in 2007, to be largest of its kind
The Associated Press
updated 4:45 p.m. CT, Fri., April. 14, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The fortress-like compound rising beside the Tigris River here will be the largest of its kind in the world, the size of Vatican City, with the population of a small town, its own defense force, self-contained power and water, and a precarious perch at the heart of Iraq’s turbulent future.
The new U.S. Embassy also seems as cloaked in secrecy as the ministate in Rome.
“We can’t talk about it. Security reasons,” Roberta Rossi, a spokeswoman at the current embassy, said when asked for information about the project.
A British tabloid even told readers the location was being kept secret — news that would surprise Baghdadis who for months have watched the forest of construction cranes at work across the winding Tigris, at the very center of their city and within easy mortar range of anti-U.S. forces in the capital, though fewer explode there these days.
The embassy complex — 21 buildings on 104 acres, according to a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee report — is taking shape on riverside parkland in ...   more »

By Philip Pullella
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pope Benedict, marking the third anniversary of his election, urged the U.S. Catholic Church on Saturday to overcome its divisions and seek "purification" and the truth following its sexual abuse scandal.
Benedict began the penultimate day of his first U.S. papal visit with a solemn Mass in New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Gothic church completed in 1879 with the pennies of immigrants and known as the center of American Catholicism.
The pope rode down New York's usually bustling Fifth Avenue, a section of which was eerily deserted and sealed off by security agents, in a black limousine and emerged wearing a fur-fringed white cape.
He was welcomed on the steps of the great cathedral by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who earlier in an address inside the church joked about being Jewish.
"Pope Benedict could not have picked a better time to come to New York -- a beautiful spring weekend, the 200th anniversary of the archdiocese of New York, and on top of that it's Passover," Bloomberg said.
The Mass reflected New York's ethnic mix, with prayers in Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, German and Akan, a group of languages from West ...   more »

By George Thomas
CBNNews.com - ROME, Italy - In this predominantly Catholic nation, the devil is gaining a foothold.
"There is a greater openness towards the devil," says Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican's Chief Exorcist.
In fact, Rome has been called the most satanized city in Italy.
"Satanism and the occult are in fashion," declares Father Pedro Barrajón, a Catholic priest who serves in Rome.
Devil's Diabolical Influence
There are an estimated 800 satanic cults operating in the country, with more than 600,000 followers. And according to Silvano Lilli, an evangelical pastor in Rome, their numbers are growing.
"The devil's diabolical influence is growing in so many areas of our society," says Lilli."He needs to be driven out."
Leading the battle to drive the devil out of Italy is 82-year-old Father Gabriele Amorth.
"This is the room where I do my exorcisms," says Father Amorth pointing to a small room.
Devil vs. The Vatican
Not too far from the Vatican, Father Amorth uses the practice of exorcism to drive out the devil from possessed souls.
"If a person is not violent I let them sit in this armchair, and I do the exorcism here. If they are violent I lay ...   more »