The Vatican is undergoing the biggest scandal of Pope Benedict's 7-year

pontificate

, and, one of its potentially most damaging scandals of modern times. For the first time, the official newspaper the Holy See, L’Osservatore Romano, has given its account of the theft in an interview with Archbishop Angelo Becciu, the No.3 of the Vatican. Publication of these letters was a criminal act than usual gravity, the archbishop said. The archbishop said he was sad that a

distorted

image of the Vatican had been put around by the media.

An earthquake in northern Italy has killed 16 people. The epicenter was near Modena, close to a similar quake nine days earlier. Factories and a

warehouse

collapsed, crushing employees. Several churches were wrecked. A parish priest was killed by a falling beam as he tried to rescue a statue of the Virgin Mary. Several hundred people were injured. Among them was a woman pulled out alive after being buried under rubble in her kitchen for more than 12 hours.

The Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has arrived in neighboring Thailand on her first foreign trip in 24 years. She'll meet Burmese migrant workers as well as government and business leaders before returning home and taking a longer trip to Europe next month. She refused to leave Burma until now for fear that the government wouldn't let her return.

World News from the BBC

Six retired Turkish generals, including the former heads of the army and air force, have been arrested in connection with a bloodless coup that toppled an Islamist government in 1997. It's the fifth wave of arrests in the last two months relating to the overthrow of former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan 15 years ago. Two of the generals are already in custody accused of plotting to overthrow the current government.