An estimated 150,000 ethnic Tamils are still trapped in a small patch of Tamil-controlled area in the northeast of the island country.

"This is a step in the right direction," said Father Jose Espino, a priest of the Miami Archdiocese and a Cuban native.

Tom McCluskey, vice president of FRC Action, the legislative arm of the Washington-based Family Research Council, said the effort to ratify amendments to the U.S. Constitution may provide a better analogy for state-by-state campaigns to restrict abortion than efforts to abolish the death penalty. Bu

A new report says that after growing rapidly between 1990 and 2006, the population of undocumented immigrants has stabilized.

The arrest of a Chinese 74-year-old bishop was "unfortunately not an isolated case," the Vatican said.

The Catholic conference said the proposal unfairly targets the church and other private institutions.