Pope Francis heads to South America while some are questioning his recent appointment to the Vatican bank – 6 get life terms in a case that made India face its problem with violence against women – And UK’s Prime Minister is warning internet companies to block access to objectionable material.

When Monday rolls around to Brazil, it will bring Pope Francis along for Catholic World Youth Day.  The world’s largest Roman Catholic country is the new pontiff’s destination for his first trip abroad, and he’s expected to focus on themes of Social Justice, at least in the abstract.  It’ll come just a couple of weeks after millions of Brazilians took to the streets to protest corruption and ill-focused national priorities that spend billions on hosting The FIFA World Cup at the expense of school, hospitals and infrastructure.

The Pope leaves a bubbling scandal behind him in Rome:  The man he just named to be his representative at the Vatican Bank apparently has a scandalous past.  The Italian news magazine L’Espresso claims Monsignor Battista Ricca lived openly with a male lover at a previous post in Uruguay, was once assaulted at a gay bar, and was rescued from a stalled elevator in which the other passenger was a rent boy.

At least 3 people are dead in an earthquake in China’s central Gansu Province.  The initial tremor was magnitude-6.6 and subsequent aftershocks included a magnitude-5.6.  But seismologists say it was shallow, which makes an earthquake potentially more destructive.

Wellington is mostly cleaned up after Sunday’s earthquake in the New Zealand capital.  The magnitude 6.9 temblor created a big mess of broken water mains, shattered windows, and things calling off of shelves, but no lives were lost.  It follows a 5.3 on 19 July and no doubt brought back unpleasant memories of the quake two years ago that killed 185 people.

India has sentenced six men to life imprisonment over the gang rape of a Swiss tourist in March this year.  It’s one of the cases that sparked widespread outrage across the subcontinent condemning a culture of violence against women.  Days after the Swiss tourist was raped, changes to the laws were passed, containing stricter punishments for rapists, including the death penalty.  The attack came months after a 23-year-old Indian woman died following a gang rape on a bus in Delhi, sparking protests across the country.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is warning Internet companies to block access to images of child sexual abuse, or face new regulation.  Cameron is expected to announce details of this push on Monday, including a “blacklist” of search terms to be compiled by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop).  Google is one of a number of firms that recently agreed to step up efforts to block access to abusive images.

Gunmen with rocket-propelled grenades launched attacks on Iraq’s Abu Ghraib and Taji jails, believed to be attempts to free high-ranking al Qaida prisoners within.  The attacks sparked riots inside the prisons.  So far, 13 people are killed.

Panamanian investigators found the two MiG-21 fighter jets that the Cuban government admitted it put on a North Korean freighter attempting to pass through to the Pacific Ocean side of the Panama Canal.  Havana says the cargo was being shipped to North Korea for repair.  Indeed, the MiG-21 is pretty old, produced in the Soviet Union from 1959 – 1985.  However, even that would qualify for a violation of the international arms embargo on the Hermit Kingdom.

And the most important story of the day:

Adorable Shih Tzu’s maternal instinct kicks in when she finds a homeless kitten.