A judge refused Monday to throw out the confession of a Gilbert youth minister accused in the sexual abuse and molestation of a 13-year-old deaf girl.

Their looming RVs lumber across the American frontiers, sometimes headed to rallies of Christian RVers. They’ll sing songs like “I’m Not Perfect, but I Can Say I Am Saved.”

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Pierre Gemayel, an anti-Syrian politician and scion of Lebanon's most prominent Christian family, was gunned down Tuesday in an assassination that heightened tensions amid a showdown between opponents and allies of Syria that threatens to topple the U.S.-backed government.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The highest court within the United Methodist Church defrocked a lesbian minister Monday for violating the denomination's ban on "self-avowed, practicing homosexual" clergy.

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro - Serbia's prime minister - who spearheaded the revolt that toppled former President Slobodan Milosevic in October 2000 - was assassinated Wednesday by gunmen who ambushed him outside government headquarters.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Hosseini has to be the front-runner for this year’s award for keeping a straight face while dishing out high-octane hypocrisy.

No, you’re not getting out of going to church on Sunday. Billboards around the West Valley are proclaiming that Saturday is Judgment Day — when Jesus’ believers will go to heaven — but Valley churches haven’t canceled Sunday’s services.

VIENNA, Austria - OPEC oil ministers agreed today to curb overproduction by more than 500,000 barrels a day, in a compromise meant to avoid new turmoil in crude markets while seeking to prevent prices from falling too far.

BANGKOK, Thailand - Embattled Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej called the political crisis in Thailand a shameful embarrassment for the country but vowed not to resign or dissolve Parliament, saying Thursday it was his job to protect democracy.

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert suffered another blow Thursday when a key rival for power in his political party suggested the embattled leader should be replaced because of a widening corruption investigation.

PRISTINA, Kosovo - Armed assailants trying to break into the home of Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci exchanged fire with guards, but the leader was away and his family was not hurt, police said Saturday.

Recently published Tribune stories about former First United Methodist Church of Gilbert volunteer James Ward Chapman, accused of molesting a 13-year-old girl, have referred to him as “volunteer minister.” Chapman was never ordained as a minister.

A Maricopa County jury on Thursday found a former Methodist youth minister from Gilbert guilty of molesting a 13-year-old girl who was the daughter of family friends.

BAGHDAD - Iraq's prime minister vowed Thursday to fight "until the end" against Shiite militias in Basra despite protests by tens of thousands of followers of a radical cleric in Baghdad and deadly clashes across the capital and the oil-rich south.

TOKYO - Parliament elected Yasuo Fukuda to be Japan's prime minister Tuesday, thrusting the moderate political insider into the job of taking on a resurgent opposition and rebuilding the scandal-scarred ruling party.

TOKYO - Nationalist Shinzo Abe, a proponent of a tight alliance with the United States and a more assertive military, won election as Japan's new prime minister Tuesday, scoring comfortable majorities in both houses.

BANGKOK, Thailand - The leaders of Thailand's military coup have chosen a former army commander and close adviser to the powerful king as interim prime minister, the auditor general said Thursday night.