Gwinnett Daily Post

LONDON -- Conservative leader David Cameron became Britain's youngest prime minister in almost 200 years Tuesday after Gordon Brown stepped down and ended 13 years of Labour government.

Cameron said he aims to form a full coalition government with the third-place Liberal Democrats after his Conservative Party won the most seats but did not get a majority in Britain national election last week.

The 43-year-old leader said it would be ''hard and difficult work'' to govern as a coalition but added that Britain had serious economic issues to tackle. Cameron visited Buckingham Palace and was asked to form a government by Queen Elizabeth II less than an hour after Brown tendered his resignation to the monarch.

Iran sentences Newsweek journalist in absentia

CAIRO, Egypt -- An Iranian court has sentenced a Newsweek reporter in absentia to more than 13 years in prison and 74 lashes, raising concerns about a new government crackdown ahead of the anniversary of disputed presidential elections.

Maziar Bahari, a dual Canadian and Iranian citizen, was among scores of political activists and other figures detained amid a crackdown following disputed presidential elections last year.

Bahari spent nearly four months in jail but was released on bail of $300,000 and allowed to leave the country to join his British wife in London in October.

Pope: Church's own sins to blame in sex scandal

LISBON, Portugal -- In his most thorough admission of the church's guilt in the clerical sex abuse scandal, Pope Benedict XVI said Tuesday the greatest persecution of the institution ''is born from the sins within the church,'' and not from a campaign by outsiders.

The pontiff said the Catholic church has always been tormented by problems of its own making -- a tendency that is being witnessed today ''in a truly terrifying way.''

''The church needs to profoundly relearn penitence, accept purification, learn forgiveness but also justice,'' he said.

''Forgiveness cannot substitute justice,'' he said.

Benedict was responding to journalists' questions, submitted in advance, aboard the papal plane as he flew to Portugal for a four-day visit.