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VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has radically reformed the Catholic Church's process for annulling marriages. He's allowing for fast-track decisions and removing automatic appeals in a bid to speed up and simplify the procedure. Francis issued a new law today, regulating how bishops around the world determine when a fundamental flaw has made a marriage invalid. Catholics must get a church annulment if they want to remarry in the church.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Protesters will be rallying today outside a jail where a Kentucky clerk has been thrown behind bars for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. And presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will be joining the protesters. Huckabee also plans to meet privately with Rowan (ROW'-uhn) County Clerk Kim Davis, whose lawyers have filed appeals in an effort to get her released.
BERLIN (AP) — Germany expects some 800,000 migrants this year, but Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel says the country is preparing for more in the longer term. Meanwhile, Greece's coast guard says its patrol vessels picked up nearly 500 migrants in 11 search and rescue missions over the past 24 hours in the eastern Aegean Sea.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A nightclub has burned down in Cambodia, for the second time in about two years, and more lives have been lost. An official says a large fire engulfed the Key Club in Phnom Penh (puh-NAHM' pehn) last night, killing five female workers who were getting ready for a party. Two men were badly wounded. The official says a short circuit may have caused the blaze. In 2013, the nightclub burned down, killing three people including the owner's wife.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — New federal research hopes to explain why some fish populations declined following the 1989 Exxon Valdez (val-DEEZ') oil spill in Alaska's in Prince William Sound. Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say that embryonic salmon and herring exposed to very low levels of crude oil can develop heart defects that hurt their chances for survival. They say fish grew and swim slower, making them more vulnerable to predators.
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