Friday,  July 26, 2013 • Vol. 15--No. 12 • 20 of 26

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• Pope Francis tells pilgrims in Rio to shake up church, says he wants 'trouble in the dioceses'
• RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) -- Pope Francis has shown the world his rebellious side, urging young Catholics to shake up the church and make a "mess" in their dioceses by going out into the streets to spread the faith. It's a message he put into practice by visiting one of Rio's most violent slums and opening the church's World Youth Day on a rain-soaked Copacabana Beach.
• Francis was elected pope on a mandate to reform the church, and in four short months he has started doing just that: He has broken long-held Vatican rules on everything from where he lays his head at night to how saints are made. He has cast off his security detail to get close to his flock, and his first international foray as pope has shown the faithful appreciate the gesture.
• He's going further Friday, meeting with a small group of young convicts. He'll also hear confessions from some Catholic youth and then head back to Copacabana beach for a Stations of the Cross procession.
• Dubbed the "slum pope" for his work with the poor, Francis received a rapturous welcome in the Varginha shantytown on Thursday, part of a slum area of northern Rio so violent it's known as the Gaza Strip. The 76-year-old Argentine seemed entirely at home, wading into cheering crowds, kissing people young and old and telling them the Catholic Church is on their side.
• "No one can remain insensitive to the inequalities that persist in the world!" Francis told a crowd of thousands who braved a cold rain and stood in a muddy soccer field to welcome him. "No amount of peace-building will be able to last, nor will harmony and happiness be attained in a society that ignores, pushes to the margins or excludes a part of itself."
• ___

Defense to give closing arguments in Manning-WikiLeaks case; then military judge deliberates

• FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) -- The defense gets the chance Friday to sum up its case in the court-martial of Bradley Manning, the Army private who sent hundreds of thousands of U.S. government documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks.
• Manning's civilian defense attorney David Coombs was scheduled to give his closing argument in the eighth week of the trial at the Fort Meade Army base outside Baltimore. The case will then go to the judge for deliberations, who has said she could rule anytime in the next several days.

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