Pope death threats put Turkey on high alert
By Malcolm Moore in Rome, Sunday Telegraph
26/11/2006

An army of snipers, riot police, secret agents and bomb disposal experts has been mobilised for the Pope's four-day visit to Turkey. Naval units will patrol the Bosphorus armed with machine guns after warnings to police and security services that the life of Benedict XVI may be threatened by Islamic extremists after he arrives on Tuesday.

Celalettin Cerrah, the police chief in Istanbul, said that the city would have maximum security and warned that he would "call for reinforcements from nearby cities" if needed. Fears within the Vatican, which has been making preparations on the ground for the past month, were heightened when a man lunged at Archbishop Pierluigi Celata, the former papal ambassador to Turkey, who was on a advance scouting mission in his Catholic robes. the rest


Thousands in Turkey Protest Pope's Visit
Nov 26, 11:24 AM
By BRIAN MURPHY

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Tens of thousands of protesters chanted "No to the pope!" and waved anti-Vatican banners Sunday in a defiant display of the pro-Islamic anger that could await the pontiff on his first papal trip to a mostly Muslim nation.

About 25,000 people filled a square in a working-class district of Istanbul at a rally organized by an Islamist political party whose leaders have denounced the pope's remarks in September that linked violence and Islam. the rest