WEST WARWICK, R.I. – Flooding on a scale rarely seen in New England forced hundreds of people from their homes Wednesday, overwhelmed sewage systems to the point that families were asked to stop flushing toilets, and washed out bridges and highways from Maine to Connecticut.

Hardest hit by three days of record-breaking rain was Rhode Island, where the worst flooding in 200 years could persist for several more days and permanently close businesses already struggling in the weak economy.

“I think we’re all done,” said Angelo Padula Jr., a West Warwick town councilman whose family owns a 100-year-old auto-restoration shop. The shop and 260 cars stood in 10 feet of water from the Pawtuxet River.

Padula said officials told him they believe his shop and about 40 surrounding businesses would have to be condemned, as will several blocks of nearby homes.

“We were wiped right out,” said Padula, whose 86-year-old father was hospitalized after having a heart attack during Tuesday night’s flooding. “You’re talking millions and millions of dollars in these businesses. Now I know how the people in New Orleans felt” after Hurricane Katrina.

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ST JOHN’S, Antigua – A judge ruled Wednesday that Antigua’s prime minister and two other lawmakers were improperly elected last year, a decision potentially threatening the governing party’s narrow hold on power in this Caribbean country.

In a packed courtroom, High Court Justice Louise Blenman ruled the March 2009 elections of Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer and two other United Progressive Party legislators were not valid, largely due to the late start of voting in their districts.

Spencer’s party quickly secured a stay until April 16 so it could appeal the ruling. “This matter will be squarely within the Court of Appeal” by then, party attorney Leon Symister said.

Unless it is overturned, the decision would seemingly pave the way for by-elections in those three districts or even fresh general elections. Losing three seats for now would leave the governing coalition tied with the opposition in Parliament.

Attorney General Justin Simon said the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda is not in a constitutional crisis. He said he advised Spencer and the two other lawmakers — Jacqui Quinn-Leandro and John Maginley — to report to work as usual.

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VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI sees the priestly sex scandal as a “test for him and the church,” his spokesman said Wednesday, as bishops around Europe used Holy Week‘s solemn call for penitence to announce new pledges of transparency in dealing with the abuse of children.

Swiss bishops urged victims to consider filing criminal complaints. German bishops opened a hot line for victims. Danish bishops launched an inquiry into decades-old claims. And Austria‘s senior cleric, Cardinal Christophe Schoenborn, admitted church guilt as he presided over a service for victims billed as a sign of repentance.

“Thank you for breaking your silence,” Schoenborn told the victims. “A lot has been broken open. There is less looking away. But there is still a lot to do.”

A week after Pope Benedict XVI excoriated Irish bishops for gross errors of judgment in handling cases of priests who rape children, European bishops one after another admitted to mistakes, reached out to victims and promised to act when they learn about abuse.

Their mea culpas and pledges to be more open and cooperative with police echoed American bishops’ initial responses when the U.S. priest-abuse scandal emerged in 2002. They come amid mounting public outrage over a new wave of abuse claims across Europe and what victims say has been a pattern of cover-up by bishops and the Vatican itself.

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