Pope Francis made a visit to Via Condotti, a Rome shopping district lined with swank designer stores, where he greeted disabled faithful, children and shoppers and prayed aloud that people “never be left indifferent to the cries of the poor.” Maj. Marcelino “Butch” Soriano of San Diego, along with fellow Salvation Army bell-ringers James Brickson of Albert Lea, Minn., and Andre Thompson of Tyler, Texas, set a record by ringing their kettle bells continually for 105 hours, breaking the previous mark of 80 hours.
Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, said he and Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani have agreed to sign a cooperation accord intended to spur Afghan development and the regional peace process.
Aaron Freedman of Princeton, N.J., the former manager of the now-closed Art of the Past gallery in New York, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and criminal possession of stolen property for his role in an international scheme to sell pilfered Buddhist and Hindu sculptures worth $35 million.
Flavio Simao, a police inspector in the Sao Paulo, Brazil, suburb of Guarulhos, said a mother has filed a racial-discrimination complaint against the private Cidade Jardim Cumbica School after officials purportedly refused to re-enroll her 8-year-old son, Lucas Neiva, because of his Afro hairstyle.
Benjamin Bishop, a former contractor at U.S. Pacific Command headquarters who is accused of giving military secrets to his Chinese girlfriend and is awaiting trial, has been ordered to return to federal detention after his lawyers said he sent the woman a love letter against a judge’s orders.
Jeffrey Glossop, 58, of Pistol River, Ore., was cited for reckless driving and first-degree criminal mischief after police say he twice attempted to drive a 50-ton Chieftain tank up a steep grade, each time rolling back down across a busy highway and crashing through a guardrail.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/09/2013