At least 24 killed and 200 injured as Christians clash with Egyptian military in Cairo

At least 24 have died after fierce clashes erupted between Christians and the Egyptian military in Cairo yesterday.

A further 200 were injured in the rioting, sparked by a protest over a recent attack on a church in the South of the country.

Thousands gathered as the protest spread from outside the state television building along the Nile to nearby Tahrir Square.





Anger: Coptic Christians throw stones at a military vehicle.Victim: A protester is injured during the clashes with the military.Huge numbers: Thousands of Coptic Christians took part in the march.Before the clashes: The demonstrations began peacefully outside the state television station in central Cairo

Pope condemns organised crime in south Italy visit

Pope Benedict leads the Sunday mass during his one day pastoral visit to the Italian southern city of Lamezia Terme October 9, 2011.

Pope Benedict today condemned “ferocious” organised crime groups in the southern Calabria region, where lawlessness, corruption and underdevelopment have resulted in one of Italy’s highest unemployment rates.

The pope, in a homily for tens of thousands of people from all over the region that forms the “toe” of Italy, said the area seemed to be in a constant state of emergency and that he wanted to encourage the people’s efforts to improve their condition.

“This is an area .... where problems exist in acute and destabilising forms, where crime groups that are often ferocious tear at the social fabric, a land that seems to be in a constant state of emergency,” he said.

Calabria is home to the ‘Ndrangheta, considered among the most dangerous and powerful crime syndicates in western Europe.

Muslim girl, 19, 'stoned to death after taking part in beauty contest'

A teenage Muslim girl was stoned to death under 'Sharia law' after taking part in a beauty contest in Ukraine.

Katya Koren, 19, was found dead in a village in the Crimea region near her home.

Friends said she liked wearing fashionable clothes and had come seventh in a beauty contest.

Murdered: Katya Koren was attacked after taking part in a beauty contest which her friends said angered hardline Muslims

UK Catholics urged to shun meat on Fridays

Britain’s Catholics have been urged to make more effort to follow religious custom and abstain from eating meat on Fridays, potentially boosting sales of fish.

Church law has required Catholics over the centuries to comply with this abstinence as part of Friday penance, the day set aside for special prayer and fasting to mark the day Jesus died.

Traditionally Catholics have opted to eat fish instead, though a combination of new church guidance and changing eating habits has eroded this habit.

Huge crowd descends on Vatican for beatification

A priest uses a bookmark depicting the late Pope John Paul II for his book of the gospels.Pilgrims hold a prayer vigil at the ancient Circus Maximus arena in Rome April 30, 2011
Hundreds of thousands of people converged on St Peter’s Square in one of the biggest crowds ever seen at the Vatican on Sunday to participate in the beatification of Pope John Paul II.

Streams of people some 30 wide moved towards the Vatican area from all directions from before dawn to get a spot for the Mass where Pope Benedict was to move his predecessor a step closer to sainthood.

The crowd of devotees, many carrying national flags and singing songs, was the largest seen in the capital since millions turned out for his funeral six years ago.

Many camped out during the night. The entire Vatican area was sealed off as stewards marshalled the huge crowd in groups of 6,000 at a time towards St Peter’s Square, which was bedecked with posters and photos of the late pope.

Many were from the late pope’s native Poland. Dozens of red and white Polish flags bobbed above the crowd and a cheer went up when a group of Poles released a large banner reading “Thank You, God” held aloft by balloons.

Timeline: Life and times of Pope John Paul II

People pass by a photo of late Pope John Paul II at the Old town of Krakow.

The late Pope John Paul moved a major step closer to sainthood today at a ceremony that drew more than a million people, the largest crowd in Rome since his funeral six years ago.

Here is a timeline of the pontificate of John Paul.

French ban on full veil goes into force

The full-face veil that France is banning , triggering a call for civil disobedience.

France’s ban on full-face veils, a first in Europe, went into force today, exposing anyone who wears the Muslim niqab or burqa in public to fines of €150 (RM653).

A Muslim property dealer, who is urging women to keep wearing the veil if they want to, has urged supporters to go to Notre Dame cathedral in central Paris for a silent prayer during the day, and is also offering to help people pay the fines.

The five million Muslim minority in France is the largest in Western Europe, but fewer than 2,000 women are believed actually to wear a full-face veil.

Many Muslim leaders have said they support neither the veil nor the law banning it.

Pastor Terry Jones defiantly refuses to stop his campaign even if it means American soldiers will die

The controversial pastor who has sparked riots in Afghanistan which have left at least 20 dead has said he would rather die than stop preaching against Islam.

Reverend Terry Jones said his right to speak out was more important than the lives of those who had died during the unrest - or any American soldiers who might be killed in the future.

He said he would continue his campaign against Muslims even though every single one of his 30 parishioners had deserted him.

The 59-year-old did however admit that he now carries a gun everywhere he goes because he has received more than 300 death threats and has a $2.4million bounty put on his head by the Taliban.

Seven UN workers and at least 13 others in Afghanistan were killed over the weekend when an anti-Jones mob attacked their compound in Mazar-e Sharif, the largest city in the north of the country.

More than 150 others were injured in related protests that spread to the capital Kandahar over three days.

They were furious after Jones burned a copy of the Koran at his Dove Outreach Centre in Gainesville, Florida, on March 20.

Insist: Interview with Pastor Terry Jones in which he said he will not stop preaching against Islam even if it means innocent lives are at stake.Protest: A boy holds a copy of the Koran as he takes part in a rally against Terry Jones days before 20 people were killed, including seven UN workers.Reaction: Pakistani Christians burn an effigy depicting U.S. pastor Terry Jones in response to him burning the Koran outside his church in Gainesville, Florida.Defiant: Terry Jones said he is prepared to die for the cause and will not stop preaching against Islam even if it means more deaths

Pastor Terry Jones defiantly refuses to stop his campaign preaching against Islam even if it means American soldiers will die

Defiant: Terry Jones said he is prepared to die for the cause and will not stop preaching against Islam even if it means more deaths

2 UN staff beheaded in north Afghan city

Protests against the burning of the Quran by a US preacher took place throughout the country today.

At least eight foreign UN workers were killed, two of them beheaded, today in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif after a demonstration against the burning of Qurans by a US preacher, a regional police spokesman said.

“Eight foreigners were killed and two were beheaded,” said Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai, a police spokesman for the northern region.

Over a thousand protesters had flooded into the streets of the normally peaceful city after Friday prayers, and after two or three hours violence broke out.

A small group attacked the UN compound, throwing stones and climbing on blast barriers to try and enter.

Thirteen killed in Cairo after clashes between Christians and Muslims

Clashes that broke out when a Muslim mob attacked thousands of Christians protesting the burning of a Cairo church killed at least 13 people and wounded about 140, officials said yesterday.

The Muslims torched the church amid an escalation of tensions over a love affair between a Muslim and a Christian that set off a violent feud between the couple's families.

The officials said all 13 fatalities died of gunshot wounds.

In a separate incident, at least two people were wounded when rival crowds threw rocks at Cairo's central Tahrir Square.

Egyptians gather near armored vehicles after yesterday's incidents

Tanks emit smoke to disperse demonstrators in Tahrir Square

A medic treats a wounded man after yesterday's clashes in Cairo

Pope book says Jews not guilty of Jesus Christ’s death

Pope Benedict, in a new book, has personally exonerated Jews of allegations they were responsible for Jesus Christ’s death, repudiating the concept of collective guilt that has haunted Christian-Jewish relations for centuries.

Jewish groups applauded the move. The Anti-Defamation League called it “an important and historic moment” and hoped that it would help complicated theology “translate down to the pews” to improve grass roots inter-religious dialogue.

The pope makes his complex theological and biblical evaluation in a section of the second volume of his book “Jesus of Nazareth”, which will be published next week. The Vatican released brief excerpts yesterday.

The Roman Catholic Church officially repudiated the idea of collective Jewish guilt for Christ’s death in a major document by the Second Vatican Council in 1965.

Sarkozy’s Islam debate opens rift in ruling party

President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plans to hold a national debate on the role of Islam in French society has opened a rare rift in his centre-right party, damaging his credibility ahead of a presidential election next year.

Fears about the role of Islam in France’s secular society have become a key campaign theme in the wake of controversies – largely fed by the far-right – over Muslims praying in the street, halal-only fast-food restaurants and full-face veils (picture).

Pakistan charges killer in blasphemy case

Pakistani Christians place flowers at a portrait of the assassinated Governor of Punjab Salman Taseer after a Sunday service at the Cathedral Church of the Resurrection in Lahore on January 9, 2011

A Pakistani court charged a police guard today with the murder of a politician who opposed the country’s anti-blasphemy laws, a killing that exposed deep fissures in Pakistani society.

Mumtaz Qadri, who admitted to killing Punjab governor Salman Taseer on January 4, gained wide support, especially from Islamists who see liberal politicians such as Taseer as straying from Pakistan’s Islamist credentials.

“The charges have been framed against Qadri and the prosecution has been asked by the court to present evidence in the next hearing,” the prosecutor, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

Taseer, who was close to President Asif Ali Zardari, had championed the cause of a Christian woman sentenced to death under the blasphemy law.

Pope to hold peace summit with religious heads

Pope Benedict leads his first mass of the New Year in St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican today, January 1, 2011. Benedict will host a summit of world religious leaders in Assisi in October to discuss how they can promote world peace

Pope Benedict, worried over increasing inter-religious violence, will host a summit of world religious leaders in Assisi in October to discuss how they can better promote peace, he announced today.

Benedict told pilgrims and tourists in St Peter’s Square the aim of the meeting would be to “solemnly renew the commitment of believers of every religion to live their own religious faith in the service of the cause for peace”.

He made the announcement hours after a bomb killed at least 17 people in a church in Egypt in the latest attack on Christians in the Middle East and Africa.

The Assisi meeting will take place on the 25th anniversary of a similar encounter hosted by the late Pope John Paul in 1986 in the birthplace of St Francis.

Pope Speaks to the World's Catholics on Christmas Day

Dutch may introduce burqa ban as early as 2011

Photo of a woman wearing a niqab/burqa walking near the Eiffel Tower in Paris on June 24, 2009.

The Netherlands could ban the burqa, the full-body covering worn by some Muslim women, as soon as next year, Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders told Reuters in an interview yesterday.

Wilders’ populist Freedom Party is the third largest in parliament and provides crucial support to the minority ruling coalition in exchange for the government taking a tougher line on Islam and immigration from non-Western countries.

His party has grown in popularity largely because of his outspoken criticism of Islam, which he describes as “a violent ideology.”

“There are not too many people who are willing to fight for this cause. It’s a big responsibility. It’s not only a Dutch problem, it’s a problem of the West,” said Wilders.


He has been charged with inciting hatred against Muslims for comparing Islam to Nazism. The case is due to start over again following a request for new judges.

Australia’s first saint: Nun who exposed sexual abuse

Pope Benedict today gave Australia its first saint, a 19th century "whistleblower" nun who activists say should be the patron of victims of sexual abuse by priests because she was punished for exposing it.

At a solemn ceremony in St Peter's Square, the pope canonised Mother Mary MacKillop as well as five other church figures from Poland, Canada, Spain, and Italy who lived in the 15th to 20th centuries.

A boy holds a book showing new Australian Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop as Pope Benedict XVI leads a solemn mass for the canonisation of six new saints in Saint Peter's square at the Vatican October 17, 2010.

India court to rule on mosque row on Thursday

An Indian court will rule on Thursday whether Hindus or Muslims own land around a demolished mosque in northern India, a judgement haunted by memories of a 1992 riot, some of the country’s worst violence since the partition.

The verdict could add to the security worries of the government, which already has its hands full dealing with the preparations for the Commonwealth Games that are bedeviled by concerns over filthy accommodation, health and security.

A trader waits for customers as he sells photos of Hindu Gods in the Indian town of Ayodhya September 22, 2010. A court will rule this Thursday whether Hindus or Muslims own land around a demolished mosque in Ayodhya, a judgement haunted by memories of a 1992 riot.

London marchers confront pope in biggest protest

Pope Benedict faced the biggest protest of his 17 trips abroad today when more than 10,000 people marched in London attacking his treatment of the abuse scandal in the Church, women priests and homosexuality.

Some of the demonstrators were dressed in costumes, including black leather nuns’ habits and red cardinals’ robes. Posters bore the message: “Pope Go Home.”

Protesters hold banners during an anti-Pope protest near St Mary's University College in Twickenham ahead of the Pope's visit