International news in brief

Guatemalan journalist ordered away from vice prez

GUATEMALA CITY (AP):

A Guatemalan journalist is filing a series of legal complaints against a judge's decision to grant the country's vice president a temporary restraining order against him.

Jose Zamora said last Thursday he filed six legal challenges against the decision and plans to file another six in the near future.

Zamora is director of the newspaper El Periodico and in recent months has published several articles critical of Vice President Roxana Baldetti, accusing her of corruption and nepotism.

A judge in December ordered Zamora to stay away from Baldetti and her family for six months after the official filed a harassment complaint against him.

Pope to visit Holy Land

VATICAN CITY (AP):

Pope Francis will travel to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan in May, his first visit to the Holy Land and one that comes amid a new US push for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Francis told thousands gathered in the rain for his weekly Sunday blessing that "in the climate of joy that is typical of the Christmas season," he was announcing a visit May 24-26 to Amman, Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

It is the only papal trip confirmed so far for 2014 and the second foreign trip of Francis' pontificate, following his 2013 visit to Brazil for World Youth Day.

Francis said his prime aim was to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the historic meeting in Jerusalem between Pope Paul VI and the then-spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Atengora. Catholics and Orthodox have been divided since the Great Schism of 1054, precipitated largely by disagreements over the primacy of the pope.

Francis will be joined in Jerusalem by the current ecumenical patriarch, Bartholomew. They will celebrate Mass together at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where the faithful believe Jesus was crucified and buried, Francis said.

Ex-preacher gets 25 years for child sexual abuse

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP):

A former preacher from North Carolina has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for sexually assaulting young girls during a 2009 mission trip to Haiti.

Larry Michael Bollinger was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty to two counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place. The victims were 11 and 12.

The 68-year-old Bollinger told US District Court Judge Bob Conrad that he is a sex addict who frequented adult book stores and prostitutes during 33 years as a minister. If he lives long enough to leave prison, Bollinger will serve the remainder of his life as a supervised sex offender.

Bollinger regularly travelled to Haiti as a mission coordinator for the Lazarus Project, a Christian charity that runs an orphanage for disabled children and a school.

Puerto Rican arrested in death of Ohio tourist

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP):

Authorities in Puerto Rico have arrested a man suspected in the fatal stabbing of a tourist from Ohio.

Police said last Saturday that they expected to soon charge 21-year-old Juan Carela Acevedo. Police originally had said he was 22.

He is suspected of breaking into the Arena y Mar apartments in the popular beach town of Rincon on December 30.

Police said that 41-year-old Brett Walquist of Beavercreek, Ohio, was stabbed at least three times when he apparently walked in on the suspect in the kitchen.