Vatican City

Vatican: Inquisition not as widespread as thought

Torture, burning at the stake and other punishment for the faithful condemned as witches or heretics by church tribunals during the Inquisition was not as widespread as commonly believed, the Vatican said Tuesday.

Pope John Paul II praised the research, recalling that in 2000, the church asked pardon for “errors committed in the service of the truth through recourse to non-evangelical methods.”

In 2000, John Paul apologized for the sins of Roman Catholics made in the name of their faith, including abuses during the Inquisition, a systematic crackdown by church officials to defend doctrinal orthodoxy.

Catholics suspected of being heretics, witches or others considered of dubious faith, including Muslims and Jews who had converted to Catholicism, were among the targets.

Indianapolis

Southern Baptists quit worldwide federation

The Southern Baptist Convention quit a global federation of Baptist denominations Tuesday as SBC leaders denounced the Baptist World Alliance and other groups for accepting liberal theology.

At a meeting that has affirmed the SBC’s conservative values 25 years after its rightward shift began, more than 8,000 Southern Baptists also cheered as President Bush — speaking through a live video link — stressed his support for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

The SBC is the world’s largest Baptist denomination and America’s largest Protestant body, with 16.3 million members. It helped launch the alliance 99 years ago and was a strong supporter before its move toward strict conservatism with the election of a right-leaning president a quarter-century ago.

London

Blair takes on fight to secure EU constitution

Bruised by disastrous election results, Prime Minister Tony Blair took on a new fight Tuesday to persuade his skeptical nation of the need for a European Union constitution.

His difficulty was underscored in European Parliament elections last week, when one in six voters backed a party advocating immediate British withdrawal from the bloc. Blair’s Labour Party captured only 23 percent of the vote in the European elections, and slumped to third place in local British council balloting conducted the same day — the worst result for a governing party since World War II.

Rejecting the demands of the U.K. Independence Party, Blair said it would be “an act of extraordinary foolishness” to pull Britain out of the 25-nation union.

Iraq

Oil company official slain

Attackers ambushed the top security official for the state-run Northern Oil company early today, the latest of a string of assassinations on Iraqi leaders in the last several days, security forces said.

Ghazi Talabani was killed as he traveled to work in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, said Gen. Anwar Amin from Iraqi Civil Defense Corps.

No other information was available on the attack.