News Briefs

L'Osservatore Romano hailed the new U.S.-Russia disarmament treaty on April 7 as a "significant and courageous step toward international security" and praised President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for opening a new era of relations and being willing to "turn the page definitively on the logic of the Cold War." • Kenyan religious leaders said they will reject the proposed new constitution during a referendum in June because it would legalize abortion and keep in place Islamic courts, opening the prospect that Islamic law would become part of the nation's laws. • Kansas bishops have urged Catholics to ask Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson to sign into law a bill that would require doctors who perform certain late-term abortions to stipulate why the procedure was medically necessary. • Newly released documents in a civil case settled last year show that more than a dozen priests associated with the Diocese of Memphis have been accused of sexual abuse involving more than 80 victims over the past four decades. • Tax credits, parish assessments and community partnerships were among the ieas presented at the annual National Catholic Educational Association convention in Minneapolis, an April 6-8 gathering of more than 50 Catholic school superintendents, education leaders and supporting organizations from 28 U.S. dioceses. • After exhausting "every possible alternative," the board of directors of St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers announced April 6 that it would close St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan and end all inpatient acute, rehab and behavioral health services there.