MATAMOROS, Mexico (AP) — Just across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas, stands a dormitory-style shelter filled with people recently deported from the U.S. and other migrants waiting to cross the border. Armed men once showed up and took away 15 men, who were probably put to work as gunmen, lookouts or human mules hauling bales of marijuana into the United States. If Congress sends more resources to the border, the government will also need to account for shifting patterns in immigrant arrests. The cartel controls who crosses the border and profits from each immigrant by taxing human smugglers. Arizona is often singled out as the busiest border crossing for immigrants entering the U.S., but more and more migrants are being caught in the southernmost tip of Texas, in the Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley sector. The Border Patrol is responding by redirecting personnel, including sending most new graduates from its academy to the Rio Grande Valley, according to senior Border Patrol officials. Rep. Filemon Vela, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee whose district includes Brownsville, said the immigration-reform debate has so far left out discussion of the security and economic development in Mexico. At Solalinde's shelter in southern Mexico, threats from organized crime forced them to bring in four state police officers and four federal ones, who have lived at his shelter for the past year as protection.

In the Iraqi capital, nine car bombs went off, striking at bus stops, market places and in the streets of Shiite areas during the busy morning hours, killing 24 people and wounding 112, according to police officials. In the southern city of Basra, two car bombs — one near a restaurant and the other at a bus stop — killed at least 10 people and wounded 27, according to police officials in the oil-rich city. Wishing to rebuild the nation rather than revert to open warfare, they have largely restrained their militias over the past five years or so as Sunni extremist groups such as al-Qaida have targeted them with occasional large-scale attacks.

(AP) — Faded, darkened and broken glass obscured the beautiful stained glass windows in the nave of Trinity Episcopal Church in Bay City. Robert Lovas Sr. and his son, Frank Lovas, with Lovas Family Studio of Stained Glass from Cochrane, Wis., removed, repaired and replaced 23 window panels in the church. "The glass tells stories and now we can see the richness and brightness of the colors," said Robert Sabourin, organist and choir director. Most of the damage to the windows occurs because of solar heat causing expansion and contraction of the glass and lead. Technology for braces has changed with new materials and techniques to improve stability of the panels. The men also are installing laminated glass storm windows on the exterior of the stained glass for additional protection from weather and breakage.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A groundbreaking female rabbi has retired from her Indianapolis congregation. Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, who has written several children's books, will become the director of the new Religion, Spirituality and the Arts Initiative at Butler University's Center for Faith and Vocation in January.

(AP) — The Dalai Lama spoke to about 15,000 people at the KFC Yum Center as the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists began his visit to Louisville. The Nobel Peace Prize winner is considered the most visible symbol and spokesman for human rights and Tibetan autonomy. Afghan pilots learn air assault tactics from 101stBAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (AP) — With Afghan troops increasingly leading combat operations on the ground, the Afghan Air Force's fledgling helicopter fleet based in Kabul has learned new techniques to support them from the air. The U.S. Army's 101st Combat Aviation Brigade started a new training program at Bagram Air Field for Afghan helicopter pilots to learn how to perform air assault missions. Afghan National Army and police have been slowly taking the place of American infantry units in the ground fighting, but they were still relying heavily on American planes and helicopters to support them with medical evacuations and combat operations, said Col. Paul Bontrager, the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade commander. Traditional air assault techniques include rappelling and fast roping, sling loading cargo and providing transportation for infantry units. The Afghan helicopter crews are just now starting to put their air assault training to use in combat missions in eastern Afghanistan.

(AP) — The Dalai Lama spoke to about 15,000 people at the KFC Yum Center as the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists began his visit to Louisville. The Nobel Peace Prize winner is considered the most visible symbol and spokesman for human rights and Tibetan autonomy.

The Roman Catholic Diocese has signed a purchase-and-sale agreement with a company that owns an adjacent shopping center. Several parishioners have been gathering signatures in hopes of convincing the diocese to keep the church open.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is calling for renewal in the Catholic church as he wrapped up two days of mass gatherings in St. Peter's Square aimed at energizing the faithful. About 200,000 people turned out Sunday for Mass celebrated by Francis, about the same size crowd that came to a pep rally for Catholics that the pope led the night before in the square.

Cattle and chickens no longer are visible from aerial shots of the property, Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran said, but it appears a vegetable garden has sprung up. In November 2012, the Texas Attorney General's Office filed search and seizure paperwork in 51st District Court in Schleicher County, seeking to take over the 1,600-acre YFZ Ranch owned by the FLDS members. The attorney general alleged in a 91-page filing in November that ranch residents "engaged in, and/or acquired the property with the intent to commit, felony offenses upon the property and within the buildings and improvements of this property." The felonies alluded to in the filing include the child sex assault offenses that sent several of the sect members to prison in the past four years, harboring FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs when he was a federal fugitive, and money laundering. Beyond regular patrols of the area, the Sheriff's Office only has dealt with the ranch's residents when they assist the attorney general in serving civil process, Doran said. Doran described Nielsen, who was booked into the Schleicher County Jail after his conviction until his transport to prison, as a compliant inmate.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis lamented that investment losses by banks trigger more alarm in the economic crisis than the struggle of people to feed their families, as he led a huge rally Saturday to invigorate the church's moral conscience, hours after he held talks at the Vatican about the economic crisis with Germany's leader. Some 200,000 people, from Europe, Asia and the pope's native South America, filled St. Peter's Square and nearby streets to join Francis in hours of prayer, music and speeches aimed at encouraging Catholics to strengthen their faith and making morality play a greater role in everyday life. Francis, who is Argentine, has picked up on campaigns by the two previous popes, the Polish John Paul II and German Benedict XVI, to reinvigorate what the Catholic church sees as flagging religious enthusiasm on a continent with Christian roots, including dwindling number of churchgoers in much of Western Europe, and a decline in morality. Merkel's Christian Democrat party depends heavily on support from Protestant and Catholic voters in Germany, and the 45-minute chat and photo opportunity in the Apostolic Palace could be a welcome campaign boost for a leader largely identified by Europe's economically suffering citizens as a champion of debt reduction, including painful austerity across much of the continent. Merkel, asked by reporters about the pope's scathing criticism of the global financial system, said they had spoken about regulation of financial markets. According to a Vatican statement, Francis and Merkel also discussed safeguarding human rights, the persecutions faced by Christians and religious freedom.