Pope Francis has suggested that the Vatican could support gay civil unions in the future, according to one of the church’s most senior cardinals. Cardinal Timothy Dolan said that the pontiff wants the Catholic Church to study same-sex unions, ‘rather than condemn them’. Cardinal Dolan told American television that Francis wants church leaders to 'look into it and see the reasons that have driven them.' SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Pope Francis - pictured holding his weekly general audience on March 5, 2014, in Vatican City -  wants the Catholic Church to study same-sex unions rather than condemn them Debate: Archbishop Dolan said his own view was that gay unions could 'water down' the symbolic meaning of traditional marriage

But
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Francis’ comments are the first time that a Pope has indicated even tentative acceptance of civil unions, according to Vatican watchers.


(CNN) -- In 2003, former newspaper editor Ali Reza Eshraghi made a mistake that cost him his freedom: he published a cartoon. The sketch in question, a drawing from 1937 depicting U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt's pressure on the U.S. Supreme Court, seemed an innocuous choice for the Iranian newspaper, Hayat No. But Iran's Special Court for the Clergy disagreed. According to Reporters Without Borders it ruled that that the cartoon's depiction of Roosevelt looked suspiciously like the Islamic Republic's founder Ayatollah Khomeini and was insulting to his memory. The court shut down Hayat No, and Eshraghi spent nearly two months in prison.

"Over the past ten years I've been working as a journalist both in Iran and out of
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Iran, and I've seen political cartoons have a very strong impact on political discussions and social discussions," he explained.


(CNN) -- Ayman al-Zawahiri emerged from a privileged upbringing in Egypt to become one of the world's most wanted terrorists and now, the leader of the most notorious terror group: al Qaeda. The bespectacled 59-year-old surgeon formally merged his group, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, with al Qaeda in 1998, becoming then-leader Osama bin Laden's personal physician and closest confidant. A month and a half after bin Laden's death in a U.S. raid on his compound in Pakistan, al-Zawahiri has been appointed the new leader of al Qaeda, according to a statement posted on several jihadist websites Thursday. Al-Zawahiri and al Qaeda has been blamed for numerous terrorist attacks worldwide, mainly on Western targets, including the attacks of September 11, 2001, on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people.

An hour later,
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U.S. forces launched cruise missiles in retaliation for the embassy bombings, but al-Zawahiri and bin Laden escaped.