0 Jorge Mario Bergoglio elected pope

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 76, from Argentina was elected as the Catholic Church's new pope Wednesday night. Thousands of Catholics gathered under umbrellas outside St. Peter's Basilica, eagerly listening to the church's 266th pontiff, who addressed the faithful from the balcony.

Dressed in white, Bergoglio, who is now the first pope from Latin America, recited the Lord's Prayer.

The new pope replaces Benedict XVI, whose surprise resignation last month prompted the 115 Roman Catholic cardinals to initiate a conclave, a Latin phrase meaning "with a key," to pick a new leader for the world's almost 2 billion Catholics.

Bergoglio, a Jesuit, is the first pope ever elected from Latin America, a region of the world with 480 million Catholics. He won the necessary two-thirds vote after only two days of the conclave. Bergoglio was archbishop of Buenos Aires, but stepped down last year.

Several other candidates were considered front runners, including Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, who would have become the first African pope in modern times.

The new church leader takes over an organization many say is in crisis, from damaging allegations of internal squabbling to the cover-up and abetting of sexual abuse, though the latter issue came to light before Benedict's papacy.

Some sources say the Catholic Church in the U.S. has paid out as much as $3 billion to settle sexual abuse claims, though others estimate a billion less. At least eight U.S. Catholic dioceses declared bankruptcy protection. Benedict said in a 1998 U.S. visit that he was ashamed of the sex abuse scandal, and assured that the church would not allow pedophiles to become priests.

The Pope Emeritus also faced criticism for his role in overseeing the church's reaction to the sexual abuse crisis, as well as revelations from the "Vatileaks" incident. The pope's butler was implicated in the leaking of documents that included what Italian media first characterized as evidence of blackmail and disarray among church leaders regarding how to address growing concerns about money laundering.

Though Benedict basically dismissed those allegations as exaggerated, he remarked that the leaks and results of the ensuing investigation he commissioned had saddened him. Church outsiders have speculated that the results of Benedict's investigation may have led to his decision to resign from the papacy, a move unprecedented in six centuries.

The new pope will also face pressure to modernize the church on issues from reforming the clergy to allowing contraception. It's unclear if the cardinals will pick a pope who will change the church or a conservative leader who will remain dedicated to its current principals.

0 Gay rights: How U.S. leads the way

People take part in a protest against same-sex marriage on January 13, 2013 in Paris.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• On January 13, half a million demonstrated against gay marriage in Paris
• Protests took place a week before Obama mentioned gay rights in inauguration speech
• French have pessimistic vision of marriage compared to Americans, says Philippe Coste
• French only consider assisted reproduction for treating infertility, says Coste

Philippe Coste is the staff New York correspondent for the weekly L'Express. He also writes a blog on "lexpress.fr." His book, recently published in France, is about populism and the American justice system: "Quand la justice dérape" (When Justice goes off track).

New York (CNN) -- A week before Barack Obama became the first U.S. president to mention gay rights in his inauguration speech, the French had already made history on that matter. Believe it or not, on January 13, there were half a million people on the streets of Paris, demonstrating against gay marriage.

READ: Protesters rally against same-sex marriage in France

The French Catholic church is supposed to be at its last gasp, but it seemed strong enough to mobilize parishes, religious school parents and the common conservative citizen against a project of "mariage pour tous" (marriage for everybody), that had long been part of the new Socialist President François Hollande's election platform. Now that the law is being debated in parliament, it will likely pass within a month, but the ruckus will have stripped it of provisions deemed essential to the gay community: the equal rights, even if they are married, to start a family and raise their children. It may also trigger off a new culture war.

Philippe Coste

READ: French ministers back draft bill on same-sex marriage

The Church would not have enjoyed that success alone, had it not found the most unexpected and efficient leader, in the person of Virginie Tellenne, alias "Frigide Barjot." The nom-de-scène of this enterprising entertainer, known for her long-time connection to the RPR, the party of Jacques Chirac, means "cookoo," and was a rallying cry for silly demonstrations, in the 80s, against cold weather in Paris, before she met God in 2004, and proclaimed herself "Jesus's PR person."

READ: Why Washington's National Cathedral will start hosting same sex weddings

I saw her recently on a French TV channel while, in her trademark miniskirt and fishnets, she was debating a lesbian activist named Caroline Fourest, who asked Barjot how she felt about "gathering hundred of thousand of people in a demonstration against the equal rights of another community." She answered that she "loved gays," reminding the audience she often "partied like crazy" at Bananas, a well known hangout of the hip Parisian LGBT crowd. Translation: gay was okay as long as it stayed in the "cage aux folles," in drag, in an entertaining margin, but certainly not in the mundane realities of everyday life, where it is way more complicated.

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READ: Hillary Clinton's global legacy on gay rights

Indeed. Frigide, just like a majority of the French, supported the civil union enacted in 1999, the so-called Pacs, designed mainly for same sex couples. It gives some rights, but doesn't legitimate partners as parents. Marriage would. And there is the rub: adoption, medically assisted procreation. "What about the bloodline? What about mother nature, and the right of kids raised that way to know their true origin?, shrieked Frigide, oblivious to the fact that children adopted or medically procreated with donated eggs by straight parents have the same problem. It all boiled down, at the minute of truth, to that question: "What about their right to be raised normally? she asked. By a mommy and a daddy?"

READ: Businesses band together to support gay marriage

Having witnessed the debate on same-sex marriage in the United States, that episode confirms one more difference between our cultures. Contrary to the Americans who, in spite of blunt evidence, still worship the act of marriage, with its fairy-tale rituals of proposing and funny kneeling, the French have a much more pessimistic, more realistic even, vision of the knot. But when it comes to families and raising kids, they seem to believe in the enchanted world of yore.

READ: Rick Warren on gay marriage

In America, the same-sex unions were often seen as the sinful problem, as the Christian banners, "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" proclaimed around the country. But children were nobody else's business for those willing to adopt, or procreate with the methods available to anyone able to pay for donated eggs, sperm or a surrogate mother.

READ: Voters approve same-sex marriage for the first time

France is another story. In a country where unrealistic conditions slacken usual adoption, gay prospective parents have had to act as any straight single person would, ask for an adoption authorization, and, to improve the chances ... get the child in another country. The law debated these days may grant their partner equal parental rights for adoption. As for medically assisted procreation, it is another problem: As of today, it is simply forbidden unless the couple is heterosexual and married or able to prove they has lived together for at least two years. Surrogate mothers are prohibited in France, plain and simple.

Hollande himself, though he promotes gay marriage as a progressive symbol, admitted he doesn't personally favor allowing medically assisted reproduction to homosexuals, and with the assent of many socialist party officials, had these corresponding measures postponed -- for parliament to decide -- as another law to a future debate, in March, or never.

READ: Where does Hollande stand on same-sex marriage?

One reason, besides the obvious fear of a culture war with the conservatives about sacred family values, maybe the fact that the government already pays four attempts of medically assisted procreation to heterosexual couples and doesn't wish to have to extend this costly favor to gays, nor, more importantly, does it want to change at any price the national moral doctrine.

Assisted reproduction is considered in France only as a way to treat the medical condition of infertility. Being gay is not an illness, neither is, for a woman, the fact that she has no man. As a consequence, French babies are born en masse from single and not-so-single mothers in nearby Belgium or Spain, where specialized services are legally available for a price. "These children already exist in France," concluded Caroline Fourest on the show."They were born from gay parents and they simply deserve to have it recognized."

0 Spain sees growing corruption scandals involving key institutions

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy arrives at Moncloa Palace in Madrid in August.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Latest scandal involves allegations of payments to Popular Party leaders
• December survey shows growing number of Spaniards see corruption as a key problem
• Another scandal is affecting Spain's royal household
• Parties named in the scandals have said they're innocent of the charges against them

Madrid (CNN) -- Just one day after a tense debate in Spanish parliament on how to stop political corruption, a leading newspaper published Thursday what it said were handwritten documents detailing 19 years of secretive payments to leaders of the ruling conservative Popular Party.

El Pais newspaper said the alleged payments through 2009 -- off the party's normal books -- went to Mariano Rajoy, a longtime party leader and Spain's prime minister since December 2010, and to numerous other current or former top party officials.

Spain in 2013: Is the worst over?

The party quickly issued a statement Thursday morning, denying any "hidden accounts" and insisting that all payments to party leaders have been "legal and in compliance with tax obligations."

Thursday evening, hundreds of protesters reacting to the report gathered near the ruling party's headquarters. They were kept back a distance from the building itself by riot police on two ends of a long street.

The protesters called for the prime minister to resign and sarcastically chanted, "Our taxes are your envelopes," a reference to the secretive cash payments reported to have occurred.

Spain's unemployment rate hits 26%

Spain's austerity characters suffer

Spain's unemployment rate hits 26%

The latest allegations -- making headlines across all Spanish media -- came as corruption scandals, affecting several political parties and even the royal household, have rocked the nation during its deep economic crisis, with a recession and an unemployment rate of 26%.

Corruption was seen as a key problem by 17% of Spaniards in the government's main "CIS" survey last December, nearly double the rate of the previous month and the highest rate by far since the term "corruption and fraud" was included in the poll 11 years ago.

Read more: Spanish duke subpoenaed in corruption case

El Pais reported that the money came into Popular Party coffers through secretive donations from construction firms and other businesses, and was used for various purposes, including tens of thousands of dollars in secretive payments to party officials.

El Pais reported that the individuals and companies cited in the alleged documents have denied giving or receiving party funds in an off-the-books manner.

Read more: How the indignados motivated Spain

A former Popular Party treasurer, Luis Barcenas, is under investigation for an alleged multimillion-dollar account in Switzerland. El Pais headlined its story Thursday: "The secret papers of Barcenas."

Another newspaper, ABC, headlined its story: "Luis Barcenas accuses the Popular Party leadership of having collected in B," the letter Spaniards typically mention when referring to secretive payments made in cash, with the aim of avoiding taxes.

Dolores de Cospedal, the Popular Party's secretary general, was critical of the reports on Rajoy. "The only aim of this alleged information is to hurt the Popular Party, its leaders, and certainly to hurt the prime minister," she said.

But opposition socialists said there is a quick way to clear up any doubts.

Said Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba of the Socialist Party: "I ask that the prime minister himself makes an appearance to answer two simple questions: Did he collect these payments or not; and if so, off the books or aboveboard?"

A separate scandal is affecting Spain's royal household, where King Juan Carlos' son-in-law has been a suspect in a fraud case since last year.

Read more: Court drops case against Spain's best-known judge

Inaki Urdangarin, who was granted the title of Duke of Palma when he married the king's youngest daughter, Princess Cristina, in 1997, is under investigation for allegedly diverting public funds that were earmarked for his foundation for private use.

A judge has ordered Urdangarin and a former business associate, Diego Torrres -- both of whom profess their innocence -- to deposit a joint bond of 8 million euros ($10.8 million) for potential civil damages. If not, the judge would move to embargo assets of the two men, a court spokeswoman said.

And this week, the secretary of Princess Cristina and her sister, Princess Elena, was named as a suspect in the same case. The secretary, Carlos Garcia Revenga, denies any wrongdoing and has been called to testify at a preliminary hearing in late February.

The Socialist Party in past years has been hit by corruption scandals involving large sums of money and top officials. Last week, the party forced out the director of a party foundation after allegations that he and his wife received payments for articles written under a pseudonym. The Socialists called on other parties to also come clean when hit by scandals.

The Catalan nationalist Convergence and Union coalition, or CiU, the ruling party in the northeastern region of Catalonia, also has seen recent allegations of corruption against current or former leaders, and some of their family members. All of these allegations have also been denied.

0 David Beckham to donate PSG wages to children's charity

David Beckham celebrated his second MLS Cup success with Los Angeles Galaxy in December 2012, and his next mission is a move to ambitious French club Paris Saint-Germain -- the final challenge of his distinguished career.

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• David Beckham signs short-term contract at Paris Saint-Germain
• Soccer icon says he will donate his wages to a Paris children's charity
• The 37-year-old ends speculation about his future after leaving L.A. Galaxy
• He had spent six years in U.S. but decided to end his contract early

(CNN) -- Brand Beckham is moving from the "City of Angels" to the "City of Light."

Soccer star David will take former popstar wife Victoria and their four children back to Europe, with big-spending French club Paris Saint-Germain confirming that the former England captain has passed a medical and signed a short-term deal ahead of Thursday's transfer deadline.

The 37-year-old was later unveiled at a press conference, ending speculation about his next destination following the end of his six-year spell with U.S. MLS team Los Angeles Galaxy in early December.

Beckham said he will donate the wages earned during his five-month contract to a children's charity in Paris.

"It's something exciting and something I'm not sure has been done before," he told reporters, and revealed that his family will be based in his hometown London.

Photos: David Beckham's last U.S. game

David Beckham's last U.S. game

End it like Beckham

He had been linked with a host of clubs around the world but, in the twilight of his career, has decided to join a team on the rise thanks to the injection of hundreds of millions of dollars by its Qatari owners.

Read: CNN's transfer deadline live blog

"It's simply a very nice piece of short-term brand alignment that will be mutually beneficial to both parties," sports business expert Simon Chadwick told CNN.

Beckham is one of the world's most recognisable names, both for his sporting prowess and numerous off-pitch endorsement deals, and his pulling power could provide a valuable income stream for PSG -- which must conform to European football's financial fair play rules that restrict over-spending by club owners.

"I think it's very difficult to quantify," Chadwick said. "He's been away from Europe for too long -- he's now really in his twilight years, we don't know what part he'll play in the team, we don't know how he'll be used for commercial purposes, we don't know how the French public will respond.

"And we don't know how international fans will engage with and consume the PSG/Beckham brand. We may see a spike in activity such as increases in ticket sales, but I am not entirely convinced that there'll be a significant sustainable stream of revenues."

Read: Did the Beckham project succeed in U.S.?

However, one leading football executive who had unsuccessfully tried to persuade Beckham to join his team said that the midfielder still had a strong role to play on and off the pitch.

"Not only were we looking for a playmaker in midfield but also a leader in the dressing room and someone to set the standards on and off the pitch. Beckham would have brought all that," the executive told CNN on condition of anonymity.

"Sure Beckham would have ensured exposure and possibly commercial opportunities, but without the quality as a player it wouldn't have been at all interesting."

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Beckham had the chance to join PSG in January 2012, but opted to stay in the U.S., ending his American mission with his second MLS Cup title before announcing that he would not fulfill the second year of his contract extension.

"I chose Paris because I can see what the club are trying to do. I can see who the club are trying to bring in," he said Thursday.

"It's an exciting city and now there's a club that's going to have a lot of success over the next 10, 20, 30 years. I'm very honored I've been picked to be part of the future of PSG."

One man who saw him up close in the U.S. believes the former Manchester United and Real Madrid star still has what it takes to perform on the big stage.

"At first it is like the marketing -- you bring in him more for the brand than the player," said former PSG defender Didier Domi, who played in the MLS for New England Revolution in 2011.

"But when I watched him in the MLS he still has the physical condition to play at the highest level. He likes to compete. On the pitch he can add a lot.

Read: Transfer window's risky business

"They are not signing him for his ability to sprint -- it's his technique and vision. He has that ability to elevate his game depending on the opposition. He can play a part for PSG in both Ligue 1 and Champions League."

"Les Parisiens" are seeking to win the French title for the first time since 1994, having been runner-up last season.

The club's owners, the Qatar Investment Authority, have splashed out on top players such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva, Javier Pastore and Lucas Moura since taking over in 2011.

Javier Pastore predicts PSG success

Paris St-Germain's ambitious president

Ancelotti eyes PSG success

Carlo Ancelotti's team tops the Ligue 1 table on goal difference after 22 of 38 rounds in the 2012-13 campaign, and will play in the knockout phase of Europe's top club competition in a two-legged tie against Spanish club Valencia on February 12 and March 6.

Former AC Milan coach Ancelotti managed Beckham during the former England captain's first loan spell with the Serie A club in 2009.

However, Beckham might be struggling to be fit for those matches, according to the manager of English club Arsenal -- who allowed the veteran to train with his squad this month.

"He told me that he doesn't look at all to be in shape. Beckham is super-ambitious," Arsene Wenger told reporters this week.

"If, in his mind, he wanted to play in the Premier League he would not have gone on holiday. He would have prepared and come in and tried to impress me. He told me he has done nothing at all."

Beckham admitted it might take "a few weeks" to get fully fit.

"It won't take long," he said.

He explained that he could not play for another club in England except Manchester United, where he won six Premier League titles and the Champions League before moving to Spain in 2003.

"It's the team I support and the team I dreamed of playing for," said Beckham, who to Manchester as a teenager and progressed through the club's academy.

"I'm very honored by the offers I had from other Premier League clubs but I didn't want to play there unless it was for Manchester United."

0 What's behind the bull market

Click for more market data.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

U.S. stocks are flirting with all-time highs, climbing to levels not seen since before the financial crisis.

The Dow Jones industrial average is hovering just below 14,000. The S&P 500 recently broke above 1,500 and is inching closer to a new record. Both indexes have risen to their highest levels since October 2007.

But stock prices cannot go up forever, and some analysts warn that the bull market is nearing an end, just as many individual investors are returning to the market.

"The market environment is likely to get tougher in February and March as investors wrestle with the impact of fiscal tightening on the economy," said Russ Koesterich, BlackRock's global chief investment strategist.

What's behind the rally

There are a number of factors at play, including signs of improvement in Europe and sustained growth in China. But analysts say the Federal Reserve's stimulus moves have been the main driver.

The current bull market dates back to March 2009, but the rally really gained momentum after the Fed launched its second round of quantitative easing, or QE2, in 2010.

The bond-buying strategy, now in its third iteration, has coincided with a broad improvement in economic data and record profits for U.S. corporations.

But the rally is as much about what did not happen as what did.

The U.S. economy did not fall off the fiscal cliff, and lawmakers have delayed a showdown over the debt ceiling until mid-May.

The eurozone did not collapse under the weight of its crushing debt, thanks largely to aggressive moves by the European Central Bank.

And the Chinese economy appears headed for a soft landing, easing worries about demand in the world's second largest economy.

"Together, these things basically assured a risk-on rally," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist with Prudential Financial.

Related: Buy, sell or hold? What do with some of the hottest and coldest stocks

Investors were also drawn back into the market by attractive valuations, which is a fancy way of saying stocks are cheap.

Since the market bottomed in 2009, many large investors have been scooping up shares of companies that were beaten down in 2008. Many bank stocks, for example, were trading well below book value, which is the theoretical price their assets are worth minus their liabilities.

Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) more than doubled in price last year as investors flocked to shares of companies in the financial services sector. JPMorgan Chase (JPM,Fortune 500), Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) and Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) also bounced back.

Is now the time for investors to jump in?

The good news is that stocks still seem relatively attractive. The stocks in the S&P 500 are trading at roughly 14 times expected earnings for this year, which is reasonable.

But the trends that have supported stocks up until now are changing, and investors should be prepared to play defense, said Doug Cote, chief market strategist at ING Investment Management.

Cote pointed to corporate earnings, the life blood of stock returns, which are not growing as much as they had been.

At the same time, the latest economic data have been mixed, including a disappointing report on fourth-quarter GDP released Wednesday.

In a counter-intuitive twist, the weak GDP report could end up boosting stocks in the short term, since many investors believe it will lead to more Fed stimulus, said Krosby.

Wednesday afternoon, the Fed confirmed that it will continue its bond buying program. Still, it remains to be seen how the market will fare once the central bank stops buying bonds.

Meanwhile, after shunning stocks for the past few years, individual investors have started stepping back in.

"People are panicking that they missed the bull market and they're going to get in come hell or high water," said Cote. "But this is not a good time, the party is starting to be over."

Cote said the increased participation by individual investors is "a good thing," since they had been underexposed. But he warned that the market could be headed for a pullback.

"I think this thing comes back to Earth a lot faster than it went up," he said.