WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The regulator of the Vatican bank on Tuesday signed an information-sharing pact with the U.S. agency that tracks suspicious financial transactions, part of an effort by the scandal-ridden bank to improve its international image.

The bank, which manages money mostly for dioceses and religious institutions and is known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), has traditionally been isolated from the international regulatory system.

It has been rocked by three decades of scandals, including the 1982 incident in which Roberto Calvi, an Italian known as "God's Banker" because of his Vatican ties, was found hanged under London's Blackfriars Bridge.

More recently, Italian magistrates have been investigating the IOR for money laundering. The IOR has assets estimated between 6 and 7 billion Euros.

The Vatican has tried to burnish the bank's reputation, and in 2010 it created the Financial Intelligence Authority, the Vatican's equivalent of "financial intelligence units" set up by many governments to collect and exchange information on suspicious transactions.

The regulator became operational in April 2011 and on Tuesday solidified a partnership with the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a unit within the U.S. Treasury Department that tracks suspicious money flows.

In an official announcement about the new Memorandum of Understanding, the Vatican said the new agreement was meant to "foster bi-lateral cooperation in the exchange of financial information" between the United States and the Vatican.

The Vatican expects to share with FinCEN information about suspicious transactions that could relate to money laundering or the financing of terrorism, the announcement said.

A representative from FinCEN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rene Bruelhart, a Swiss lawyer appointed last year as chief of the Vatican's Financial Intelligence Authority, traveled to Washington to sign the new agreement with FinCEN.

Bruelhart said in an interview that the agreement represented a "clear commitment from the Vatican to strengthen" its financial regulatory system.

In its first year of operation, the Vatican bank watchdog only handled one "suspicious activity report", according to a report issued by a committee of Council of Europe experts.

However, since last autumn, the financial intelligence authority has generated several such reports which are now being investigated.

The kind of agreement which the Vatican regulator signed with FinCEN establishes the "rules of the road" for international information sharing that is vital to global efforts to combat money laundering and terror finance, said Alan Sorcher, a former senior advisor at FinCEN who is now a director with the anti-money laundering practice at Deloitte.

Peter Djinis, a former regulatory policy official at FinCEN who is now in private practice in Florida, said entities like the Vatican are vulnerable because they take in huge amounts of money and there is often little oversight as to how those funds are expended.

"It's a positive sign to see that there is a recognition that there need to be financial controls on even those kinds of donations, not because the money is being raised for malicious purposes, but rather because large amounts of money sometimes bring out the worst in people," Djinis said.

(Additional reporting by Brett Wolf; Editing by Karey Van Hall and Paul Simao)

The iconic hip-hop group has a deal with Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House Inc., for an illustrated oral history. The currently untitled book is scheduled for fall 2015. Spiegel & Grau says the book will track the band's rise from its high school years in New York City to its induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. The publisher says "world-famous writers and cultural figures" will be interviewed for the project.

The book will be organized by surviving band members Michael Diamond (Mike D) and Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock) with the help of hip-hop writer and editor Sacha Jenkins. Adam Yauch (MCA) died last year.

Sheridan helped Toulon to a 24-12 victory over Saracens in the competition's semi-finals at Twickenham on Sunday.

But the 33-year-old was quick to play down suggestions that he could now be in the running for a call-up when the Lions' squad is announced on Tuesday.

Sheridan, who won the last of his 40 England caps at the 2011 World Cup, is viewed as an outside bet to be included in the touring party, even though Toulon's Top 14 schedule counts against him.

"I wish everyone the best but those days are behind me," Sheridan told talkSPORT radio on Monday. "I'm very happy in the south of France.

"It was a great honour to play for the Lions in 2005 and 2009 and I wish them all the best but my ambitions lie in Toulon.

"Maybe some people will think that isn't being ambitious but I've had my time and I'm enjoying it in Toulon. There isn't much substance behind the suggestion I might be picked - it's just talk."

Bahrain did not see a repeat of the mass demonstrations that overshadowed last year's race - though young men armed with rocks did clash with police in outlying villages, as they have done regularly since unrest erupted in early 2011.

Protests in the Gulf Arab country, a Western ally that hosts the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, broke out two years ago, with the Shi'ite-led opposition drawing thousands of demonstrators demanding democratic reforms from the Sunni-led government.

Witnesses at the Sakhir desert race circuit, about 30 km (20 miles) southwest of the capital Manama, said there was no sign of unrest in the immediate vicinity but protesters blocked several roads in villages near the capital.

The opposition said the race was being used as a public relations stunt, but the government insisted it was a pure sporting event that should not be 'politicized'.

Security sweeps ahead of this year's contest "thwarted a number of terrorist plots that aimed to affect normal life ... harm the reputation of the nation and commit terrorist acts against policemen", Bahrain's chief of public security, Major-General Tariq Al-Hassan, said according to the BNA agency.

Security forces had found several weapon caches holding 1,000 petrol bombs, 19 mock bombs, bullets and homemade guns, he added.

Hassan said security forces had also handled several incidents of rioting, including "acts of chaos and destruction" inside an industrial secondary school by students who had also blocked nearby roads and attacked cars, pedestrians and policemen, according to BNA.

"Police at no point in time raided the school or attacked it," Hassan said.

Sayed Yousif al-Muhafdha of the Bahrain Centre for Human rights had said on Sunday police had fired teargas at a secondary school in the city where students had been demonstrating.

On Tuesday, Muhafdha added security forces had arrested up to 50 "pro-democracy activists" in the days preceding the race.

Amnesty International said human rights activists reported dozens of protesters were arrested ahead of the race and Human Rights Watch said on April 10 that 20 opposition activists had been arrested in towns near the circuit.

The government has denied those arrests have taken place. It has said several people accused of stealing and burning cars had been detailed.

Widespread unrest forced the cancellation of the 2011 Formula One race and although the event went ahead in 2012, it was overshadowed by violent protests in the country.

(This story is refiled to change the headline)

(Writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Sami Aboudi and Andrew Heavens)