STATE HOUSE — Unlike a sports team that loses some of its top players to free agency, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court can't take a year to regroup, make a few roster moves and get the team back into contention the following year, regardless of how many rookies will be pressed into the starting lineup.
So with the announcements in the last week that three of the highest court's judges — justices Robert Cordy, Francis Spina and Fernande Duffly — plan to retire after this judicial season, the SJC's player-manager is echoing the New England Patriots' "next man up" mantra.
VATICAN CITY/MOSCOW (Reuters) — A meeting between Pope Francis and Russia's Orthodox Patriarch Kirill on Friday could not happen without a green light from President Vladimir Putin, diplomats and analysts say, and he may be one the beneficiaries.
In a landmark step towards healing the 1,000-year-old rift between the Western and Eastern branches of Christianity, the two religious leaders will meet in Havana on the pope's way to Mexico.
