NEWCASTLE, July 3: The highest ranking Catholic official to ever be convicted of concealing sexual crimes against children has been sentenced to 12 months in Australia for covering up abuse by a pedophile priest.

BAGHDAD June 9 : Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on Friday for a nationwide disarmament campaign and announced his Baghdad stronghold would be first to disarm just two days after an ammunitions cache exploded there and killed 18 people.

KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb 3: An Afghan policeman turned his rifle on his colleagues in a northern province, killing eight, while a gunman in the country's east fatally shot a cleric and his wife, officials said on Friday.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, June 21: Bahrain's government on Monday stripped the country's leading Shiite cleric of his nationality in a move that brought thousands of protesters into the streets and threatened to further ignite sectarian tensions across the region.