Pope Francis has permanently removed a German bishop from his Limburg diocese after his €31m new residence complex caused an uproar among the faithful.

A German bishop removed from his diocese by the Vatican following a row over the spiralling cost of his new residence has retreated to a monastery in Bavaria.

HAS Pope Francis fudged his response to the first real test of his papacy? Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, Bishop of Limburg — dubbed the “Bishop of Bling” by the German media — appears to have got off lightly after splurging €31m on a luxurious new home.

Pope Francis has banished a German Catholic prelate known as the “Bling Bishop” from his diocese for spending €31m of Church funds on his residence at a time when the pontiff is stressing austerity.

The Pope has temporarily expelled a German bishop after a €30m scandal over the cost of a new residence, but he refused to remove him.

A German bishop under pressure to resign for spending around €31m on a luxurious residence said he had been heartened by a private audience with Pope Francis in Rome yesterday.

A German bishop under fire for heavy spending is in Rome for talks at the Vatican, placing his future in the hands of a Pope who has espoused a simple lifestyle.

A scandal around the byzantine ways of the Catholic Church in Germany makes the excesses of our own former Bishop Eamon Casey seem positively frugal.

What is being described as an ‘amazing’ photograph of Roger Casement surfaced in Limerick from a collection of war memorabilia.

Bradley Wiggins is already seeking further glory after yesterday celebrating the greatest achievement of his career as the first British winner of the Tour de France.

Suicide bombers tried to strike two oil facilities in Yemen with explosives-packed cars, but authorities foiled the attacks.

A court convicted 15 Yemeni militants today on terror charges including the 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker and plotting to kill the US ambassador.

The risk of terrorists seizing ships for a September 11-style attack is exaggerated, a British security expert said today.

Yemeni investigators today said they strongly suspect a man who gunned down four American missionaries had links to the al-Qaida terror network.

Three American doctors were shot dead today in the missionary hospital where they worked in Yemen, security officials said.

OPENING up a visible new front in the war on terror, US forces launched a pinpoint missile strike in Yemen, killing a top al-Qaida operative in his car in the first such overt attack outside of Afghanistan, a US official said.

Evidence mounted today that an explosion on a French tanker off Yemen was caused by terrorists, and experts suggested it could be the work of a freelance terror cell sympathetic to al-Qaida.

YEMEN and France launched a probe yesterday into a blast which gutted a French-flagged tanker in the Gulf of Aden amid speculation by the owners and French diplomats that the vessel was targeted by terrorists.

French investigators were arriving in Yemen today after a supertanker was gutted by an explosion and fire in a possible terrorist attack.

AN explosion set a French oil supertanker ablaze off the coast of Yemen yesterday, triggering conflicting explanations of an internal blast and a bomb attack from a small boat.