VATICAN CITY – A top Vatican official strongly defended the church’s decision not to defrock a Wisconsin priest accused of molesting deaf boys, saying the lengthy trial process would have been “useless” because the priest was dying.

In an article posted on the Vatican‘s Web site Wednesday, Cardinal William Levada strongly criticized The New York Times, which first reported on internal documents in the case last week. He said the paper wrongly used the documents to find fault in Pope Benedict XVI‘s handling of abuse cases.

Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, hailed Benedict’s reforms in how the church handles abuse allegations against priests.

The Vatican’s handling of the case involving the Rev. Lawrence Murphy has fueled claims by victims of clerical abuse that the Vatican in general and Benedict in particular were more concerned about protecting the church than children.

Levada said he was writing to urge a “more balanced view” of Benedict.

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SEOUL, South Korea – A second day of bad weather and rough seas Thursday prevented divers from resuming searches for 46 sailors missing since a mysterious blast blew apart their South Korean navy ship last week, officials said.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said more than 100 military divers were on standby to go down to the wreckage of the Cheonan, but would hold off due to rain, strong winds, rough waves and low visibility. Parts of the ship remain submerged in the rough Yellow Sea near Baengnyeong Island, just south of the two Koreas’ maritime border.

A crane was expected to arrive at the accident site later Thursday to prepare for salvaging the vessel, Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae told reporters. Officials have said the salvage effort could last a month.

Authorities have said the cause of the blast likely won’t be known until the ship is retrieved; they have suggested several scenarios, including that a North Korean mine hit it.

Divers have managed to get down to the section where sailors are believed trapped but heard no signs of life inside, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. They attempted to get into a door in the stern Tuesday but made little headway, Rear Adm. Lee Ki-sik said.

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HANOI, Vietnam – Google Inc. accused Vietnam on Wednesday of stifling political dissent with cyberattacks, the latest complaint by the Internet giant against a communist regime following a public dispute with China over online censorship.

Like China, Vietnam tightly controls the flow of information and has said it reserves the right to take “appropriate action” against Web sites it deems harmful to national security.

The cyberattacks targeted “potentially tens of thousands,” a posting on Google’s online security blog said.

It said it was drawing attention to the Vietnam attacks because they underscored the need for the international community “to take cybersecurity seriously to help keep free opinion flowing.”

Google apparently stumbled onto a scheme targeting Vietnamese-speaking Internet users around the world while investigating the surveillance of e-mail accounts belonging to Chinese human rights activists, one analyst suggested.

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VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico – Dozens of gunmen tried to blockade two army garrisons in northern Mexico, touching off firefights that killed 18 attackers, the army said Wednesday in announcing what appeared to be a rare drug cartel offensive. Only one soldier was wounded.

While drug gunmen frequently shoot at soldiers on patrol, they seldom target army bases, and even more rarely attack in the force displayed during confrontations Tuesday in the border states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon.

Gunmen staged seven separate attacks on the army, including three blockades, Gen. Edgar Luis Villegas said. He said the attacks were “desperate reactions by criminal gangs to the progress being made by federal authorities” against Mexico’s drug cartels.

Villegas said gunmen parked trucks and SUVs outside a military base in the border city of Reynosa trying to block troops from leaving, sparking a gunbattle with soldiers. At the same time, gunmen blocked several streets leading to a garrison in the nearby border city of Matamoros.

Another gang of armed men opened fire from several vehicles on soldiers guarding a federal highway in General Bravo, in Nuevo Leon state.

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