The bodies of two murdered women were found beneath a scrawled message demanding freedom for jailed members of Pussy Riot, Russian officials said today.

THERE’S nothing orthodox about John Johansson.

Three members of Pussy Riot have lodged an appeal over a court’s decision to jail them for two years for their “punk prayer” against Russian leader Vladimir Putin in a Moscow cathedral, their lawyer said yesterday.

Three members of the Pussy Riot punk band have lodge an appeal over a court’s decision to jail them for two years for their “punk prayer” against Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Two top clerics in the Russian Orthodox Church said today that it has forgiven the members of feminist punk band Pussy Riot who were convicted of hooliganism and sent to prison for briefly taking over a cathedral in a raucous prayer for deliverance from Vladimir Putin.

Russia's Orthodox Church have appealed to the country's authorities to "show mercy" on the three members of Pussy Riot who were yesterday given a two year jail sentence for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred".

Three members of the punk band Pussy Riot have each been sentenced to two years in prison on hooliganism charges following a trial that has drawn international outrage as an emblem of Russia’s intolerance of dissent.

A feminist punk rock group who staged a protest against Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s main cathedral went on trial today accused of hooliganism, facing up to seven years in prison.

Vladimir Putin took the oath as Russia’s president yesterday with a ringing appeal for unity at the start of a six-year term in which he faces growing dissent, economic problems, and bitter political rivalries.

EGYPT’S deputy prime minister has resigned over clashes that killed 25 people, mainly Coptic Christians, amid mounting anger at the ruling military and calls for the premier to quit.

EVERYONE curses the taxman, but Romanian witches angry about having to pay up for the first time yesterday were using cat excrement and dead dogs to cast spells on the president and government.

Everyone curses the taxman, but Romanian witches angry about having to pay up for the first time are planning to use cat excrement and dead dogs to cast spells on the president and government today.

Two Moscow art curators are facing prison after being accused of staging a show that allegedly mocked religion.

PRESIDENT Mary McAleese yesterday shed her footwear as a mark of respect on a visit to one of Turkey’s most sacred religious sites.

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.

A further 14 members of a Russian cult that has been holed up in a cave for months awaiting the end of the world have emerged this morning, an emergency official said.

NATO troops came under fire during Serb riots in the northern Kosovo flashpoint of Mitrovica yesterday, in the worst violence in the territory since the Albanian majority declared independence last month.

A Russian doomsday cult leader who sent his followers into a cave to wait for the end of the world went back on his word to try to persuade them to release their children today.

Several thousand faithful packed a square in central Vienna today as Pope Benedict XVI wrapped up a three-day visit to Austria with a Mass and a stop at a medieval abbey outside the capital.

A Romanian Orthodox Church leader today criticised television stations for manipulating viewers and “poisoning the souls of Romanians” with violent programmes.

A ROMANIAN priest who led a exorcism ritual for a young nun that ended with the woman’s death was sentenced yesterday to 14 years in prison.

MADONNA has shrugged off a storm of protest and accusations of blasphemy from the Catholic Church to stage a mock crucifixion in Rome.

The body of a Romanian nun who died in June during an exorcism ritual was exhumed today for forensic tests, the state news agency reported.

A court has freed a monk and four nuns who are charged with killing a nun last month during an exorcism ritual, authorities in Romania said today.

A monk and four nuns who have been charged with killing a nun during an exorcism ritual will remain in detention, a court ruled today.

THE arrest of a Romanian Orthodox priest after a 23-year-old nun was apparently chained to a cross, gagged with a towel and left for three days before she died, has caused uproar.

A ROMANIAN monk and four nuns have been charged with murder after a nun died during an exorcism ritual in which she was apparently crucified in a case which has sparked outrage and angry scenes in Romania in the last week.

A ROMANIAN Orthodox priest, facing charges for ordering the crucifixion of a young nun because she was “possessed by the devil”, was unrepentant as he celebrated a funeral ceremony for his alleged victim on Saturday.

Pope Benedict XVI today met with the leader of the World Council of Churches in another indication of his attempts to improve relations with other Christians and heal the 1,000-year-old rift with the Orthodox Church.

POPE Benedict XVI visited this eastern Italian port on his first papal trip yesterday and pledged to make healing the 1,000-year-old rift with the Orthodox church a “fundamental” commitment of his papacy.

Pope Benedict XVI pledged today to work to end the 1,000-year-old rift with the Orthodox church, sending a message of healing from a city with close ties to the Orthodox.

After extending a hand to other Christians, Jews and “nonbelievers,” Pope Benedict XVI made a meeting with religious leaders his first public appointment today.

OPPOSITION has now emerged to a German seen as a frontrunner to be the next pope, leaving Roman Catholic cardinals divided as they prepared for a conclave to elect the successor to Pope John Paul II.

NEARLY one million people prayed in a Polish field, North Americans slipped into pews before dawn and Asians gathered by the thousands at outdoor Masses in a global goodbye to Pope John Paul II yesterday.

The Pope alluded to his own difficulties with ageing today, saying in a Christmas address that each passing year brings a stronger need for help from God.

The Christian Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria was killed today when an army helicopter that was transporting him and his entourage to a monastic enclave in northern Greece crashed in the sea, government and church officials said.

POPE John Paul II said he hoped the return of a precious icon to the Russian Orthodox Church would hasten “mutual understanding and reconciliation” between the Roman Catholic Church and its eastern counterpart.

Pope John Paul II reached out to the embittered people of Bosnia-Herzegovina today, asking God’s forgiveness for “so much suffering and bloodshed” inflicted by Roman Catholics and others.

THE Government could face a constitutional challenge from Muslims, Methodists and other minority religious practitioners in Ireland unless it makes greater efforts to help set up multi-denominational schools.

A top Vatican official acknowledged today what many observers have long suspected: that Pope John Paul suffers from Parkinson’s disease. But he said the Pontiff’s prayers had helped him cope with the degenerative neurological disorder.

Church bells tolled across the northern Greek village of Makrohori today as funerals were held for 11 of the 22 teenagers killed in one of the country’s worst traffic accidents.

Romania’s Orthodox Church plans to suspend 10 Bucharest priests who were filmed while blessing brothels, sex shops and a weapons shop, church officials said today.

The Vatican acknowledged for the first time today that it may have to curtail papal travel because of Pope John Paul II’s feeble condition, suggesting that planned stops in Mexico and Guatemala in July could be dropped.

Two people have reportedly died in an explosion that flattened a Macedonian-owned hotel this morning in an area controlled by the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army.