The furor is the latest in Europe over religious sensitivities -- following cartoons of the prophet first published in a Danish newspaper and recent remarks by Pope Benedict XVI decrying holy war.

Kirsten Harms, director of Berlin's Deutsche Oper, announced "with great regret" that she had decided to cancel the three year old production after state security officials warned it could provoke dangerous reactions in the current politically charged climate.

Somali Christian sources report Ali Mustaf Maka`il, a 22-year-old college student and cloth merchant who converted from Islam to Christianity 11 months ago, was shot and killed in the Manabolyo quarter of Mogadishu.

According to a report from the Barnabas Fund, quoting a Christian source inside Somalia, the gunman was loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts, the Islamist organization that took power in Mogadishu in early June and now controls much of southern Somalia.

The report states the gunman shot Ali in the back Sept. 7 after he refused to join a crowd chanting Quran verses in honor of the lunar eclipse. Solar and lunar eclipses are significant in Islam and are accompanied by special congregational prayers. The Union of Islamic Courts confiscated Ali`s body for 24 hours before delivering it to the grieving family, the report said.

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida in Iraq warned Pope Benedict XVI yesterday that its war against Christianity and the West will go on until Islam takes over the world, and Iran's supreme leader called for more protests over the pontiff's remarks on Islam.

And, as a Vatican official said its ambassadors would seek to better explain the pope's statement, a Turkish man with a fake gun tried to storm a Protestant church in Turkey's capital, Ankara. He was arrested after worshippers trapped him in the church entryway.

Apart from the continuing anger at the pope's speech, in which he cited a medieval passage that called Islam "evil and inhuman," the debate yesterday seemed to turn on whether the pope had actually apologized.

I have come here expecting exactly this scene. The occasion is a seminar called “Love, Sex and Marriage,” being given by Joe Beam, a Southern preacher out of the old school, a self-described “book-chapter-and-verse guy,” who runs an outfit based in Franklin, Tenn., called Family Dynamics. So I’m anticipating condemnation of American culture — especially America’s sexual culture — that has made conservative Christians feel besieged.

But then Beam, a portly, silver-haired basso profundo dressed in khaki slacks, a sweater vest and brown tasseled loafers that make him look like a retired country-club golf pro, walks to the front of the room and proceeds to tell the men in the audience how to make their semen taste better.

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday said he was "deeply sorry" for the reaction to comments he made last week when he quoted from a 14th-century emperor regarding Muslims.

"These in fact were quotations from a medieval text, which do not in any way express my personal thought," the pope said in his regular Sunday blessing, the Angelus.

The pontiff spoke to a rain-soaked crowd at Castel Gandolfo, his summer residence outside Rome, in his first public comments since the controversy erupted last week. (Watch pope apologize as Muslims protest -- 2:02)

The Rev David Hart’s diocese renewed his licence this summer even though he had moved to India, changed his name to Ananda and daily blesses a congregation of Hindus with fire previously offered up to Nagar, the snake god. He also “recites Gayatri Mantram with the same devotion with which he celebrates the Eucharist”, according to The Hindu, India’s national newspaper.

Praveen Togadia was arrested at a rally in the city of Ajmer in April 2003 accused of inciting religious hatred.

He is a senior leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) which is closely linked to the BJP.

The duty of repairing the family's reputation is often delegated to a youth, believing they will get the minimum jail sentence, the World Service's Assignment programme has learned.

Women are the main victims of a practice which is at odds with the country's pursuit of many Western standards and values as it seeks EU membership.

Despite the recent reform of Turkey's penal code, honour killings have continued, mostly in the east of the country where ancient traditions are strong.