CHURCH BELLS COULD PUT BISHOP IN JAIL IN PHOENIX

The leader of a Valley church could go to jail for ringing church bells.
The bells, which chime every hour between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., were not music to the ears of four people who live by the Cathedral of Christ the King near 29th Ave. and Greenway.
Bishop Rick Painter was found guilty in Phoenix Municipal Court of violating noise ordinances.
"I am guilty of honoring God," said Bishop Painter. "I apologized on the stand that the people are disturbed."
The Bishop added that many neighbors have expressed support for the electronic church bells. The neighbors who complained testified that the bells affected their daily routine and held them captive at home.
"Any church in Phoenix that rings bells have got a problem."
Bishop Painter was convicted without any set standard or noise dosimeter readings, just testimony from the upset neighbors.
Sentencing is July 3.
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BOMB EXPLODES NAER A CHURCH IN CAIRO ( EGYPT )

CAIRO — A small bomb exploded near a revered church in the Egyptian capital but caused no casualties or damage, police officials said Monday.
The officials said late Sunday night's explosion was caused by primitive bomb planted under a parked car near Saint Mary Church in Cairo's Zeitoun district. The church is one of the holiest sites for Egypt's Coptic Christian minority because an apparition of the Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared there in 1968.
The bomb went off around 9 p.m. and the car burst into flames while a wedding was under way in the church, causing a panic among passers-by in the mainly Coptic neighborhood, witnesses said.
"Shop owners closed their stores, and most people ran in panic," said a pharmacist working in a near by drug store. She spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government harassment for speaking about the attack. Most shops in the neighborhood remained shut Monday.
A police official said the bomb appeared to be intended "to scare rather than to kill." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.
Egypt's Christians, estimated at 10 percent of Egypt's nearly 80 million people, often complain of discrimination at the hands of the Muslim majority. A government decision to slaughter all the pigs in the country in reaction to the swine flu scare angered some Christians, who argued that the order targeted their community, which is the only one that raises or eats pigs.