BRITAIN: A man who pocketed £26,000 (€36,000) in disability benefits while winning golf tournaments and playing off a handicap of six has been jailed for six months.

ROMANIA: Romania’s foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu has apologised to his visiting German counterpart for handing him a booklet during a televised news conference that mixed up a map of Germany with one of France on the cover.

Pope Francis has decreed that Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero was killed in 1980 out of hatred for his Catholic faith, approving a martyrdom declaration that sets the stage for his beatification.

Italy’s rabbis said today they were pulling out of the Italian Catholic Church’s annual celebration of Judaism, saying recent decisions by Pope Benedict XVI were negating 50 years of interfaith progress.

Pope John Paul II was strong enough to turn the pages of written greetings today and speak in a clear voice, according to an Italian bishop who called on him in his hospital room.