World datelines

Vatican: Sex abuse

ROME — Irish bishops one-by-one will give an accounting to Pope Benedict XVI of their views, actions or knowledge about decades of sexual abuse by clergy, a participant said Sunday, but resignations were not on the agenda for the Vatican's extraordinary summit over the scandal.

"A casualty of all this has been the truth," Clogher Bishop Joseph Duffy said on the eve of the two-day summit. "The fullness of the truth must come out; everything must be laid on the table."

Duffy, a spokesman for the Irish Bishops Conference, said the church was "admittedly slower than in needs to be" in grappling with a "culture of concealment."

Iraq: Candidates

BAGHDAD — Only one in five candidates accused of being loyalists to Saddam Hussein's regime successfully fought an order banning them from running in Iraq's national elections next month, officials said Sunday.

The Shiite official in charge of the vetting panel that is widely seen as targeting Sunnis also called on parliament to declare the already-outlawed Baath party a terrorist organization.

The ban, which aims to bar candidates with links to the Baath party, is threatening to disrupt the March 7 parliamentary elections and could throw the vote results in dispute if there is a broad perception that Sunnis have been politically sidelined.

Britain: Lawmaker fired

LONDON — A British lawmaker was fired from her job as her party's health spokeswoman after she said that there should be a probe into claims that Israeli relief workers were harvesting organs in Haiti.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said Jenny Tonge was dismissed from the role for her "unacceptable" comments.

West Bank: Scandal

RAMALLAH — A top Palestinian official mired in a sex tape scandal brushed aside allegations he traded his influence for sexual favors, saying Sunday he was the victim of entrapment and blackmail.

The high-ranking official, Rafiq Husseini, responded to the scandal hours after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suspended him from his duties as chief of staff. Abbas also ordered a three-member committee to investigate the affair and submit its findings within three weeks.

Gaza Strip: Arrest