The United Nations reports that the number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon has exceeded 265,000 and that it expects 1.1 million Syrian refugees overall in surrounding nations by June. • Human rights groups are concerned by reports that the Zimbabwean prison service, where 74 men and 2 women are b

Three favorites: Cardinals Angelo Scola, Peter Turkson and Marc Ouellet

"My strengths...are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.”

The Rev. Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, a 65-year-old Catholic priest and human rights activist, and the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do of Vietnam have been nominated for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize. Father Ly has been a prominent human rights defender since the 1970s, campaigning for religious freedom,

HHS is unwilling to accommodate for-profit corporations in the same way as religious institutions.

Caritas Internationalis, the church’s global charitable agency, is launching an appeal to help communities in the Central African Republic that are still reeling from attacks on towns and communities by rebels. The rebel forces started to advance in northeastern C.A.R. in December 2012. A ceas