A Sicilian priest gunned down by the Mafia 20 years ago outside his home in Palermo was beatified in a seafront ceremony.

Read more here: Thousands watch as murdered anti-Mafia priest is beatified in Sicily

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – A group of 80 international aid agencies urged the European Union on Saturday to follow through on pledges it made last year to back Palestinian communities seen as vulnerable to Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank. Not enough action has been taken since EU foreign ministers last May urged Israel to ease curbs to growth on Palestinian villages and criticized its settlement policies, the Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA) said in a report. British Foreign Secretary William Hague and U.S. …

Read more here: Aid groups urge EU to fulfil commitments to Palestinians

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudan’s security services temporarily suspended the country’s two biggest newspapers to punish them for writing about army operations against rebels and the future plans of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, editors said on Saturday. Sudan has clamped down on independent media, think tanks and non-governmental groups since it discovered plans for a coup against Bashir’s government in November. …

Read more here: Sudan suspends two biggest dailies for critical coverage-editors

CANNES, France (AP) — For 66 years, the Cannes Film Festival’s highest prize, the Palme d’Or, has been one of the most prestigious in movies. Winners have ranged from classic American films (Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver,” Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation”) to European classics (Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita”).

Read more here: A list of previous Palme d'Or winners at Cannes

CANNES, France (AP) — After two weeks, 20 films and parade after parade down the red carpet, the Cannes Film Festival has not produced a clear-cut frontrunner for the Palme d'Or.

Read more here: Palme d'Or race wide open at Cannes Film Festival

By Tim Gaynor NACO, Mexico (Reuters) – Mexican activist Maria Elena Borquez takes up a paintbrush and daubs a bright splotch of color on the rusted steel fence separating the small Mexican town of Naco from a neighboring town in the United States. “The wall projects hostility,” she said, paint pot in hand and surrounded by youngsters from both the United States and Mexico. “The idea is to transform it with art, friendship, colors and life … into something that unites us,” said Borquez, who is director of the local museum. …

Read more here: As border tightens, some U.S.-Mexico neighbors reach across the fence

The Justice Department stopped short of saying that Attorney General Eric Holder O.K.’d the investigation into Fox News reporter James Rosen. But critics have seized on a comment Holder made last week, asking if the attorney general misled Congress. The Obama administration has been criticized…

Read more here: Did Attorney General Eric Holder OK Attempt to Hack Journalist's EMail?

The city of Detroit may be facing a deepening financial crisis but that hasn't stopped four trustees of its public pension funds from spending $22,000 of retirement system funds to attend a conference in Hawaii this week.

Read more here: What Detroit crisis? Pension fund trustees hang out in Hawaii

KIEV (Reuters) – About 100 Ukrainian gay rights activists held the country's first gay rally on Saturday, helped by police who arrested 13 people for trying to break up the march. The activists walked for about 250 meters (yards) along Victory Avenue in the capital Kiev while Orthodox Christian activists nearby chanted slogans denouncing them. “Ukraine is not America. Kiev is not Sodom,' shouted one anti-gay demonstrator over a loudspeaker. …

Read more here: Ukraine's first gay march held under police protection

ROME (AP) — An Italian priest who stirred consciences with his anti-Mafia preaching and was gunned down by mobsters has been honored by the Vatican as a martyr.

Read more here: Priest who defied Mafia is beatified in Sicily