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And More on Funeral Masses, and Confessions ROME, NOV. 29, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University. Q: What would you consider an appropriate time during Advent to put up Christmas trees, ornaments, lights and other decorations in churches and Christian homes? -- B.O., Lewistown, Pennsylvania A: This question is simple only in appearance because customs surrounding the celebration of Christmas vary widely among different cultures. From a strictly liturgical standpoint the preparations for receiving the Christ Child intensify from Dec. 17 onward and this is probably a good time to...

A-Rod just stuck out swinging to give Detroit the series and a trip to the ALCS finals. Final score 3-2.

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Texas jurors have reached a quick verdict in the federal trial of a Cuban anti-communist militant considered ex-President Fidel Castro's nemesis. A court clerk in El Paso says jurors reached a verdict Friday after less than a day of deliberations. Eighty-three-year-old Luis Posada Carriles (loo-EES' poh-SAH'-duh cah-REE'-lehs) is an ex-CIA operative who opposed Castro and communist governments around Latin America — often with U.S. support. But he sneaked into the U.S. in 2005 and faces perjury, obstruction and immigration fraud charges.

One of today's more bizarre news stories has to do with a demonstration which the Code Pink ladies tried to stage in Miami's Little Havana, protesting the presence in the United States of Luis Posada Carriles. The locals, mostly Cubans who have fled Castro's island prison, became a bit angry and began to chase the ladies out of the area with some choice comments. Code Pink is, as everyone who reads the blogs knows, an organization of "peace ladies" led by Medea Benjamin, a far-Left activist who once described Castro's gulag as a "socialist paradise." The choice of little Havana...

MIAMI (AP) - Protesters demanding the arrest of Luis Posada Carriles called off a planned demonstration Little Havana after they were confronted by supporters of the anti-Castro Cuban militant. Women from an anti-war group known as Codepink had planned to discuss with reporters their campaign against Posada -- who is wanted by the Cuban and Venezuelan government on charges that he plotted the deadly 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner while in Caracas. About 15 Codepink activists were met in front of a Little Havana restaurant yesterday by some 200 supporters of Posada. Several of the Posada supporters charged at...

FORT LAUDERDALE, United States (AFP) - President George W. Bush slammed Cuba for being the only country in Latin America without democracy, but vowed that "the tide of freedom" would one day reach the communist island. "Only one country in this hemisphere sits outside this society of democratic nations, but one day the tide of freedom will reach Cuba's shores as well," Bush said in a speech before the Organization of American States' general assembly here. The United States has had an embargo against Cuba for more than 40 years, and the Bush administration has tightened sanctions on travel and...

Leftists accuse U.S. of harboring Cuban bomber By Anthony Boadle 45 minutes ago HAVANA (Reuters) - Left-wing politicians and intellectuals attending a conference on terrorism in Cuba accused the U.S. government on Thursday of harboring a Cuban exile blamed for the bombing of an airliner in 1976. They said the Bush administration had a double standard in its post-9/11 war on terror because it refused to extradite former CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela to stand trial for the downing of a Cuban plane that killed 73 people. The meeting, headed by Cuban President Fidel Castro at Havana's convention...

Court fight will hold Posada's fate Some Cuban exile militants living in the Miami area may be called to testify in deportation or asylum hearings for bombing suspect Luis Posada Carriles. BY OSCAR CORRAL AND ALFONSO CHARDY/Miami Herald May. 29, 2005 Some of the darkest moments in Miami and Cuban exile history, rife with bombings and political intrigue, may emerge in upcoming asylum and deportation hearings for Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles. Posada -- who has been accused but never convicted of blowing up a Cuban jetliner and masterminding a series of hotel bombings in Havana -- now sits...

U.S. immigration officials charged Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles on Thursday with entering the United States illegally, which could lead to his deportation to another country. Venezuela wants Posada in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials also said that Posada would be held without bond pending a hearing before an immigration judge scheduled for June 13. The precise location of that hearing was not specified. "At such a bond hearing, ICE would present its arguments for holding him without bond," said an ICE statement. Posada has acknowledged entering the United States...

WASHINGTON - A Cuban exile long regarded as a violent opponent of Cuban President Fidel Castro has applied for asylum in the United States, a government official said Monday. Luis Posada Carriles, a suspect in the bombing of a Cuban passenger plane in 1976, reportedly slipped into South Florida several weeks ago but the Bush administration says it cannot confirm his whereabouts. Posada, a former senior officer of the Venezuelan intelligence service, denies involvement in the bombing, which killed 73 people, including 24 members of Cuba's national fencing team. To be eligible for political asylum, Posada must prove that he...