JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday invited Pope Francis to travel to the Middle East.

Opposition fighters who attacked Alawite villages near the Syrian city of Latakia, killing at least 190 civilians, committed "serious abuses" that may amount to crimes against humanity, rights group Human Rights Watch said Friday.

Pope Francis has called for mutual respect between religions in a message addressed to Muslims as they prepare to celebrate Eid al-Fitr next week, at the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

A Muslim Portlander, born on the Fourth of July, Ahmed-Shafi's career and community activism typified a love of country and a love of community even when the two at times seemed to be at odds with each other.

Security for Pope Francis' visit to Brazil has been raised after an incident involving his motorcade, a Brazilian federal official told CNN.

A bomb hidden in a Sunni mosque exploded while worshipers listened to a sermon Friday in northeastern Iraq, killing at least 18 people and injuring 56, police and health officials said.

LAMPEDUSA (CNN) -- On the first pastoral visit of his papacy, Pope Francis shunned protocol and politics on a visit to the tiny island of Lampedusa off the coast of Sicily to pray for refugees and migrants lost at sea.

A key religious text co-written by Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict, who stepped down earlier this year, was released by the Vatican on Friday.

Ariel Castro, the Ohio man accused of holding three women captive for about a decade, is competent to stand trial, a judge said at a hearing Wednesday.

(CNN) -- It was another December afternoon back in 2000, spent like hundreds of others combing the rocky hills of the Dikika region, when Ethiopian scientist Zeray Alemseged heard one of his assistants nearby calling him.