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VIDEO: Today's Headline News from Associated Press

CATHOLICS HEAR POPE'S CALL TO SHAKE UP CHURCH

 

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) -- In the thick of his historic visit to Brazil this week, Pope Francis urged young Catholics to make a "mess" in their dioceses and break out of their spiritual cages.

 

Francis' exhortation during a special meeting with Argentine faithful on Thursday, won him acclaim as a renegade leader of the world's biggest church. But it also left many of his followers with their own interpretations of the pontiff's words about the need to shake up the church.

 

Some said they thought Francis wanted them to object more forcefully when taught ideas that clash with church doctrine. Others said it meant hitting the streets and pushing for social change.

 

"If in my biology class they speak about abortion, I should raise my hand and say I don't believe in that," said Maria Alejandrina de Dicindio, a 54-year-old Argentine catechism teacher who had traveled to Rio to see her pope, a fellow Argentine. "The youth should open their mouths when it's their turn."

 

For Mexican pilgrim Gilberto Amado Hernandez, the pope's message meant he should start showing the world Jesus Christ's message of love.

 

Francis himself didn't specify what to do, but he has displayed his own mold-breaking ways throughout this week's visit to Rio de Janeiro and rural Sao Paulo state, his first overseas trip as pope.

 

JUDGE DELIBERATES IN GI'S WIKILEAKS TRIAL

 

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) -- A military judge is deliberating the fate of an Army private accused of aiding the enemy by engineering a high-volume leak of U.S. secrets to WikiLeaks.

 

Prosecutors argue that Pfc. Bradley Manning is a glory-seeking traitor. His lawyers say Manning is a naive whistleblower who was horrified by wartime atrocities but didn't know that the material he leaked would end up in the hands of al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden.

 

Army Col. Denise Lind began deliberating Friday after nearly two months of conflicting evidence and arguments about the 25-year-old intelligence analyst. A military judge, not a jury, is hearing the case at Manning's request.

 

Lind said she will give a day's public notice before reconvening the court-martial to announce her findings. The most serious charge is aiding the enemy, which carries a potential life sentence in prison.

 

Manning's supporters say that a conviction would have a chilling effect on government accountability by deterring people from disclosing official secrets to journalists. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in a telephone press conference Friday that if Manning is convicted of aiding the enemy, it will be "the end of national security journalism in the United States."

 

He accused the Obama administration of a "war on whistleblowers" and a "war on journalism."

 

BODY FOUND IN NY RIVER WHERE BRIDE-TO-BE VANISHED

 

PIERMONT, N.Y. (AP) -- Authorities pulled a woman's body from the Hudson River on Saturday near the spot where a bride-to-be was hurled into the water, along with her fiance's best man, when a speedboat carrying six friends crashed into a construction barge near the Tappan Zee Bridge.

 

Officials were working to confirm that it was the body of 30-year-old Lindsey Stewart, who has been missing since the Friday night accident, but they said it appeared to fit her description. She had been set to get married in just two weeks.

 

The search for the missing best man, 30-year-old Mark Lennon, was continuing, said Rockland County undersheriff Robert VanCura.

 

The crash happened shortly after the boat, a 21-foot Stingray, left the village of Piermont for a short trip across the river to Tarrytown, about a half-hour's drive north of New York City, authorities said.

 

The groom-to-be, art teacher Brian Bond, was among the four injured. He and Lindsey Stewart were two weeks away from their planned Aug. 10 wedding.

 

Stewart's mother, Carol, said earlier Saturday that she was praying for a miracle.