News Briefs

The U.S. Senate on June 16 approved a measure supported by Catholic and evangelical leaders that would prohibit the use of torture by any U.S. government agency as an interrogation technique. • The Philippine government on June 16 started the Catholic Church-backed process of decommissioning members of the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, a process bringing the Moro Islamic Liberation Front a step closer to its goal of self-determination after more than four decades of fighting. • In a 5-to-4 ruling announced on June 18, the U.S. Supreme Court said Kevan Brumfield, convicted in Baton Rouge, La., of the murder of a police officer, was entitled to have a claim heard that his low IQ and other evidence of mental disability should exempt him from the death penalty. • Jozef Wesolowski, the laicized former Vatican nuncio to the Dominican Republic, will stand trial on July 11 in a Vatican court on charges of the sexual abuse of minors and possession of child pornography. • A charity for youth established by Pope Francis suspended a donations agreement with a South American soccer federation on June 11, following the corruption scandal that erupted last month with the worldwide soccer federation, FIFA.