Pope sets Oct. 21 to canonize Americans

Pope sets Oct. 21 to canonize Americans

VATICAN CITY

Pope Benedict XVI has set Oct. 21 as the date to make two U.S. saints: Kateri Tekakwitha, a Mohawk Indian who spent most of her life in what is now upstate New York, and Mother Marianne Cope, who began religious life in the same area but moved to Hawaii to care for leprosy patients.

Benedict already had approved miracles attributed to the two, the final step toward sainthood. At the end of a ceremony Saturday to make 22 new cardinals — including New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan — Benedict announced the date for canonization of the two women and five others.

ICE agent died in struggle for gun

LONG BEACH, Calif.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent accused of shooting a supervisor died after an “intense” struggle for his gun with a colleague who burst into the office after he heard shots fired, an official said Saturday. The shooting Thursday happened after Ezequiel Garcia had a discussion about his job performance with ICE’s second-in-command in the Los Angeles region, agency spokeswoman Virginia Kice said. Another agent who attended the meeting had just left the office and rushed back after the shots rang out to disarm Garcia.

Maine caucus done after snow delay

EAST MACHIAS, Maine

Ron Paul has gained 83 votes on Mitt Romney after a Republican presidential caucus in eastern Maine, where voting last week had been postponed due to bad weather. Romney still holds a 156-vote lead over Paul in statewide totals.

Paul received 163 votes in Saturday’s Washington County caucus, where Republicans from more than two dozen towns gathered to cast their votes. Romney received 80 votes. Rick Santorum got 57 votes, and Newt Gingrich received four votes.

Latvia votes on Russian language

RIGA, Latvia

Latvians turned out en masse Saturday to vote in a referendum on whether Russian should become the Baltic country’s second national language, a poll that is likely to fail and widen the rift in an already divided society.

Around two-thirds of registered voters participated in the referendum, the Central Election Commission announced after precincts closed late Saturday, considerably more than have taken part in previous elections and referendums.

About one-third of the Baltic country’s 2.1 million people consider Russian their mother tongue. Many of them say that according official status to the Russian language in the nation’s constitution will reverse what they claim has been 20 years of discrimination.

Associated Press