World Briefs

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea claimed it carried out a powerful underground nuclear test Monday — much larger than one conducted in 2006 — a major provocation in the escalating international standoff over its rogue nuclear and missile programs. The regime "successfully conducted one more underground nuclear test on May 25 as part of measures to bolster its nuclear deterrent for self-defense," the country's official Korean Central News Agency said.

DUBLIN – Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin slammed Irish Catholic orders Monday for concealing their culpability in decades of child abuse and said they needed to come up with much more money to compensate victims. The comments from Martin were the harshest yet by a Roman Catholic leader following last week's report.

AMRITSAR, India – Two protesters were killed in India on Monday as mobs went on the rampage after a guru was shot dead in fighting between rival Sikh communities in Austria, police said.

The two men were killed in separate incidents when police opened fire to disperse angry crowds who rioted in many cities and towns across the northern state of Punjab.

PARIS– The Church of Scientology and six of its French leaders went on trial on Monday on charges of organised fraud that could lead to an outright ban on the organisation in France. Known for its Hollywood celebrity followers Tom Cruise and John Travolta, the group is in the dock in Paris for the second time in six years, although French courts have prosecuted several individual Scientologists since 1978. The court is hearing a complaint from two women.

ROME – Premier Silvio Berlusconi has promised to further explain his relationship with an 18-year-old woman at the heart of a political and personal scandal. In an interview aired Monday with CNN, Berlusconi denied that he lied about his relationship with Noemi Letizia and said he merely tried to protect her and her family's privacy. Berlusconi's wife, Veronica Lario, cited the premier's presence at Letizia's 18th birthday party in Naples in announcing a few weeks ago that she would divorce the 72-year-old.

HERAKLION, Greece – Seventeen British men arrested after they dressed up as nuns and in lingerie on the Greek island of Crete were acquitted on Monday, a judicial source said.

The court in Crete's main city Heraklion found that residents were not shocked by the incident and threw out accusations against the tourists, all from Bristol and ranging in age from their 20s to their 50s, the source said.