Members of the Pussy Riot girl band yesterday likened themselves to dissidents from the Soviet era yesterdat, saying their trial for performing an anti-Kremlin stunt in a church was unjust, but that nobody could take away their inner freedom.

Bishop John Buckley has said the declining number of priests is impacting more and more on his diocese as he announced plans to prioritise hospital chaplaincies and the pastoral care of the sick, dying, and bereaved.

A court has convicted a rebel abbot and 13 of his monks of obstructing the functioning of their 1,000-year-old monastery by refusing orders to leave it.

Police today set up roadblocks and launched helicopter searches for thieves who scaled a cliff and stole a 700-year-old religious icon from a monastery in southern Greece.