Vatican leaks scandal growsThe Vatican’s new leaks scandal intensified today with a book detailing the mismanagement and internal resistance that is thwarting Pope Francis’ financial reform efforts. Citing confidential documents, it exposed millions of euros in lost rental revenue, the scandal of the Vatican’s saint-making machine, greedy monsignors and a professional-style break-in at the Vatican.“Merchants in the Temple,” by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, is due out Thursday but an advance copy was obtained today by The Associated Press. Its publication, and that of a second book, come days after the Vatican announced the arrests of two members of Francis’ financial reform commission in an investigation into leaked documents.The arrests mark a new chapter in the so-called “Vatileaks” scandal, which began in 2012 with an earlier Nuzzi expose, peaked with the conviction of Pope Benedict XVI’s butler on charges he supplied Nuzzi with stolen documents, and ended a year later when a clearly exhausted Benedict resigned, unable to carry on.Francis was elected to succeed Benedict with a mandate from his fellow cardinals to reform the Vatican bureaucracy and clean up its opaque finances.

Official says Chinese isles not a threatBEIJING — The U.S. Navy’s challenge last week to China’s sovereignty claims in the South China Sea was not designed as a military threat, the head of U.S. Pacific military forces said today in a mostly upbeat speech about prospects for preventing U.S.-China disputes from escalating to conflict.During a high-level meeting of military officials from the two nations later today in Beijing, a top Chinese general again expressed his country’s pique over the U.S. warship sailing past Chinese-built islands, while also expressing hope that the two sides could build further trust.Speaking at a university in the Chinese capital, Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr. said the decision to send the USS Lassen, a guided-missile destroyer, into the South China Sea last week near Subi Reef, within the 12-nautical-mile territorial limit claimed by China, was meant to demonstrate the principle of freedom of navigation.By The Associated Press