Convents

Carmelite nuns denied a report that they had moved out of a convent at the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz in Poland. The convent has caused conflict between Roman Catholics and Jews. Catholics have agreed to build a prayer center away from the camps to house the nuns, but a spokeswoman at the convent denied remarks by a World Jewish Congress official in New York on Friday that most of the nuns had already left. "There is no truth in the rumor that some of us have left," she said.

HOUSTON - On the morning of the first day of the National Rifle Assn. convention, before the doors opened, scores of visitors lined up outside the convention center, part of what organizers expect will be a record crowd. Among them was Tilman Hollifield, 63, a lifetime NRA member who drove 950 miles from Terre Haute, Ind., to support gun rights that he fears are more imperiled than ever since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. "There are so many people that are against guns," said Hollifield, who has worked in law enforcement, as an electrician and bricklayer.

The Vatican moved decisively Tuesday to improve strained relations between Roman Catholics and Jews, saying that a convent of Carmelite nuns at the Auschwitz death camp in Poland should indeed be relocated and offering to help pay the cost. Although there was no direct sign of it in a carefully worded statement issued by the Vatican press office, the action was tantamount to papal intervention in a dispute that had become an international embarrassment to the Vatican.

A committee of Los Angeles City Council members voted unanimously Monday to solicit a new round of bids for a private Convention Center operator, ensuring that Anschutz Entertainment Group will have a shot at the contract after being threatened with exclusion. City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana last week announced that AEG was "non-responsive" to the city's request for a contract proposal. The firm, which built and operates Staples Center and L.A. Live, the Convention Center's immediate neighbors, returned its application on time but failed to produce financial documents, Santana said.

A distinguished British Roman Catholic nun and theologian said Wednesday that she was leaving her religious order because of antagonism by the Vatican over a book she wrote on women's place within the church. Sister Lavinia Byrne, 52, a teacher at Cambridge Theological Federation and a regular contributor to religious broadcasts, will leave the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary after 35 years.

Police evicted 65 rebellious ex-nuns from a convent they illegally occupied for two years after defying a Vatican order to replace their charismatic leader. The former nuns walked out after a locksmith opened the gate to the walled compound and police in riot gear rushed in and arrested the mother superior, who has said she has religious visions.

Leaders of the Roman Catholic Carmelite order said Saturday that they support moving one of their convents from the former Auschwitz death camp in Poland as Jewish groups have demanded. Father Anthony Morello, general counselor of the Carmelite order, said he gave his order's assurances it supported moving the convent away from the Nazi death camp during a meeting with Sigmund Sternberg, head of the International Council of Christians and Jews.

A groundbreaking ceremony will be held next week for a religious center to replace a controversial convent on the grounds of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, the World Jewish Congress said in Washington. A joint announcement of the dedication ceremony will be made following a meeting Monday between Poland's Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Jewish Congress President Edgar M. Bronfman.

Poland has told Israel it will intervene to remove a Roman Catholic convent from the site of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said Friday. A major source of bitterness between Catholics and Jews, the issue came to a head last week when Polish workers attacked American Jews protesting against the Carmelite convent on a site where millions of prisoners, mainly Jews, were exterminated by the Germans during World War II.

Polish church officials honored a pledge to world Jewish leaders by laying the cornerstone of a convent to replace a controversial Carmelite nunnery at the Auschwitz death camp. The building, to be completed next year, is intended as a permanent home for the cloistered nuns whose convent under the walls of the Nazi death camp caused an uproar. If the nuns move in on schedule in October, 1992, they will ease a conflict that damaged Jewish-Catholic links worldwide.

Entertainment giant Anschutz Entertainment Group could be disqualified from competing to run the Los Angeles Convention Center after it failed to submit financial information, according to a report issued Tuesday. AEG, owned by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz, was one of only two companies that had been seeking to run the facility, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said. Executives with the company, which owns Staples Center and the entertainment complex LA Live, are now pressing city leaders to give them another chance.

LAS VEGAS -- Movie theater owners aren't known for being the most raucous crowd. But plop Brad Pitt in front of them and anything can happen. "I love you!" one woman shrieked from a balcony in the cavernous 4,100-seat Caesars Palace Colosseum, where hundreds of exhibitors from around the world had gathered Monday night for CinemaCon. At the annual convention, studios show off footage from their most hotly anticipated releases and fly in movie stars to help promote their films to those who book them in cinemas.

A Democrat elected Sunday to a leadership post in the California Democratic Party was asked last summer to leave the Democratic National Convention, where he was a delegate, after falsely claiming that he was a member of Congress and being threatened with arrest at the delegation's hotel. Sergio Carrillo, who currently works for Wendy Greuel's mayoral campaign, was elected as a regional director for Southern California in an uncontested race during the state party convention in Sacramento.

Los Angeles officials agreed Wednesday to pursue a parallel track for redeveloping the city's Convention Center in the event that Anschutz Entertainment Group and the National Football League fail to reach agreement on the Farmers Field stadium downtown. Jan Perry, chair of a special City Council committee overseeing the AEG deal, said she remains hopeful that the city can continue to work with the entertainment giant in both drawing an NFL franchise and building the stadium in the L.A. Live area.

In offices that once housed Google, four computer geeks pursue their quest for a killer mobile app. Their technology incubator, with its angular, modern furniture and shared kitchen and conference rooms, would be recognizable to any Silicon Valley entrepreneur. But this start-up space was found in Silicon Beach. The Santa Monica offices provided the backdrop for "Betas," one of 14 series pilots put into production by Amazon Studios, the production arm of Amazon.com. PHOTOS: Hollywood Backlot moments The show, which will also film at a house in Encino and other locations around L.A., is the latest in a wave of digital productions that have taken off in recent years, as YouTube, Yahoo, AOL, Hulu and others have invested millions of dollars in developing original programming for the Web. Most of the new digital shows are produced locally.

For months, the top two candidates in the Los Angeles mayoral campaign have bombarded the public with competing claims that each of them is best-suited to get City Hall's financial affairs in order. With a new round of labor talks awaiting the next mayor, a critical question for voters is this: which candidate would be best positioned to negotiate pay and benefit packages with city employees that the public can afford? City Councilman Eric Garcetti and City Controller Wendy Greuel are both Democrats with long histories of supporting organized labor.

The Roman Catholic Church on Thursday suspended a 1987 agreement to move nuns from a Carmelite convent on the edge of Auschwitz and blamed Jewish groups for creating an "atmosphere of aggressive demands." The World Jewish Congress, which coordinated a campaign to move the convent, called Cardinal Franciszek Macharski's announcement "a tragic blow" and urged the Vatican to overturn it.

Poland's Roman Catholic primate has accused Jews of violating the country's sovereignty and told them not to dictate impossible terms in a dispute over a Carmelite convent at the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz. Cardinal Jozef Glemp called on the Jewish media not to stoke anti-Polish feelings and to stop referring to seven American Jews attacked outside the convent in southern Poland as heroes, the official news agency PAP said Sunday.

SACRAMENTO - As California Republicans gathered here for their weekend convention, it was difficult to recall when the group that produced Ronald Reagan had slumped so low. The party hasn't elected a statewide candidate in seven years. It is awash in debt. GOP voter registration in the state is at less than 30% - a historic dip. GOP strategist Karl Rove had some blunt advice as the group debated how to claw its way back to political relevance. "My message is this: Get off your ass," Rove told nearly 500 delegates and guests at a sold-out convention luncheon in a hotel ballroom Saturday.