Eric Church truly surprised by CMA nominations

No one was more surprised by Eric Church's leading five Country Music Awards nominations than the rising star from North Carolina. He didn't even know they were happening.

"The funny part of the story is I've been on vacation the last week and I lost my phone in the Gulf of Mexico when I was swimming," Church said in a recorded statement. "And I had no clue that even the CMA nominations were today and just laying on an airplane and really unplugged from the world."

When Church landed Wednesday morning, he was whisked to his management office in Nashville, Tenn., where he learned the news that not only had he received the first major CMA nominations of his career, but that he'd also broken through in the prestigious album, male vocalist and song of the year categories.

He was followed by married couple Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton, who had four nominations apiece. Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney, Dierks Bentley and Little Big Town have three apiece.

"I think it's a testament to really fans that believed in the music and loved the music and told people about the music," Church said. "Otherwise we don't really have the track record to be the most nominated artist at this point in time in our career for the path we've taken. I think it's truly because of the fans and because they did something that's really going to be judged as pretty special and pretty unique to get this done."

Two-time winner Swift is up for another entertainer of the year award, the CMA's top honor. She's nominated along with previous winners Chesney and Brad Paisley and also Aldean and Shelton.

And Church wasn't the only surprised nominee. Luke Bryan was clearly taken aback when his name popped up among the nominees as he and good friend Aldean announced the first five categories Wednesday morning on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Previously, Church and Bryan received only best new artist nominations. Both made a splash — earning spots on the male vocalist and album of the year lists. They knocked longtime nominee and multiple winner Paisley off the list of male vocalist nominees, joining Aldean, Shelton and Keith Urban.

And they also shook up the album of the year list — Bryan for "Tailgates & Tanlines" and Church for "Chief." Other nominees in that category included Lambert's "Four the Record," Bentley's "Home" and Lady Antebellum's "Own the Night."

"Those are just really, really important categories and stuff that really anytime I get nominated and I look at the company that I'm in it's pretty amazing," Bryan said.

Kelly Clarkson broke through in the female vocalist category, joining previous nominees Swift, Lambert, Carrie Underwood and Martina McBride. It's Clarkson's first individual CMA nomination. She and Aldean won musical event last year for their duet "Don't You Wanna Stay."

Aldean said it was the surprise nomination of the day.

"I think that she kind of obviously opened up some eyes to some people and obviously they're taking notice of that and rewarding her for her contributions to country music over the last year, so I think it's great," Aldean said.

Lady Antebellum will go for their fourth straight vocal group of the year award against Zac Brown Band, The Band Perry, Little Big Town and Eli Young Band.

Church picked up two more nominations in the single and song of the year categories for his hit "Springsteen."

Vocal duo nominees include Sugarland, Big & Rich, Thompson Square and Love and Theft and The Civil Wars, which also scored a nomination with Swift for their "Safe & Sound" collaboration on "The Hunger Games" soundtrack.

New artist nominees are Lee Brice, Brantley Gilbert, Hunter Hayes, Love and Theft and Thompson Square.

The 46th annual CMA Awards will air live Nov. 1 on ABC from Nashville's Bridgestone Arena. Underwood and Paisley will host.

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AP writer Alicia Rancilio in New York contributed to this story.

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For the latest country music news from the Associated Press: http://twitter.com/AP_Country . Follow AP Music Writer Chris Talbott: http://twitter.com/Chris_Talbott.

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Plans for Gulf's biggest Catholic church stir backlash in troubled Bahrain

MANAMA, Bahrain - The building of the largest Roman Catholic church in the Gulf was supposed to be a chance for the tiny island kingdom of Bahrain to showcase its traditions of religious tolerance in a conservative Muslim region where churches largely operate under heavy limitations.

Instead, the planned church — intended to be the main centre for Catholics in the region — has turned into another point of tension in a country already being pulled apart by sectarian battles between its Sunni and Shiite Muslim communities.

Hardline Sunni clerics have strongly opposed the construction of the church complex, in a rare open challenge of the country's Sunni king. More than 70 clerics signed a petition last week saying it was forbidden to build churches in the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam.

One prominent cleric, Sheik Adel Hassan al-Hamad, proclaimed in a sermon during Friday prayers last month, that there was no justification for building further churches in Bahrain, adding, "anyone who believes that a church is a true place of worship is someone who has broken in their faith in God."

In response, the government ordered him transferred out of his mosque, located in the elite district of Riffa, where many members of the royal family live and the king has several palaces. But the transfer order touched off a wave of protests by the cleric's supporters on social media sites and by Sunni-led political blocs. Finally, the government was forced last week to cancel the order.

The uproar reflects the widening influence and confidence of hardline Sunni groups, who have been a key support for the monarchy as it faces a wave of protests led by Shiites demanding greater political rights. Shiites account for about 70 per cent of Bahrain's population of just over half a million people, but claim they face widespread discrimination and lack opportunities granted to the Sunni minority. The monarchy has also has relied heavily on help from ultraconservative Saudi Arabia, which last year sent troops to help crush protests.

More than 50 people have been killed and hundreds detained in nearly 19 months of unrest in the strategic island kingdom, which is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. Bahrain's rulers have promised some reforms and urged dialogue to ease the crisis.

Instead, positions on all sides have hardened.

Many among the majority Shiites claim the Sunni monarchy is not interested in reforms that would weaken its near monopoly on power. Bahrain's most senior Shiite cleric, Sheik Isa Qassim, has actively opposed the church plans, questioning why the government should donate land for a Christian site when Shiite mosques have been destroyed as part of the crackdowns.

A Bahrain-based political analyst, Ali Fakhro, questioned the timing of the church project at a time when the nation is still locked in its own upheavals.

"What Bahrain needs is to solve it is own internal issues rather than adding more new things that could be the source of troubles," he said. "The plate is already full."

So far the outcry has brought no change in plans to build the church complex, which has been backed by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa's monarchy. The complex will be the size of a large shopping centre — about 9,000 square meters (97,000 square foot) — in Awali, an area near Riffa, south of the capital, Manama. It is to be a base for the Vatican to the small Catholic communities in the northern Gulf, as well as a spiritual centre for other Christian denominations.

Work on the compound is still in its preliminary stages and no firm date has been given for its completion, leaving open the possibility of more complaints in the coming months.

The church project is part of last year's change by the Vatican to carve out a new apostolic district covering Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The administrative headquarters are expected to shift from Kuwait to Bahrain.

There are believed to be several million Christians in the overwhelmingly Muslim Gulf region, the vast majority of them expatriate workers who largely come from East and South Asia. Throughout the Gulf states, non-Muslim places of worship must work discreetly and cannot actively reach out for converts. In Saudi Arabia, churches are banned completely and any overt wearing of non-Muslim religious symbols is banned.

But Bahrain has a multi-religious tradition — and tolerance — that is unique in Gulf. The island nation has several Christian extended families which originally immigrated from Iraq, Iran or elsewhere in the early 20th Century and gained citizenship when Bahrain gained independence. Similarly, it has native Jewish and Hindu communities. The first Roman Catholic church in the Gulf was built in 1939 on land donated by Bahrain's emir.

The building of the church complex "is a sign of openness, important for Bahrain, and I hope it will serve as a model for other countries, too," the region's bishop, the Rev. Camillo Ballin, said in a statement.

Elsewhere in the Gulf, issues over Christian churches have flared in the past year.

In Kuwait, Islamist lawmakers have proposed bans on further construction of churches. Saudi Arabia's grand mufti, Abdel Aziz Al Sheik, reportedly urged for the destruction of all Christian churches on the Arabian peninsula, but it was quickly dismissed by nearly all Islamic leaders in the region.

"Bahrain is a country of tolerance among all religions, sects and races. This is well known about Bahrain's history," said the Rev. Hani Aziz of Bahrain's National Evangelical Church, who was among 19 non-Catholic Christian leaders who also met with Bahrain's king over the project. "The construction of a church falls in line with this image."

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Britons take workplace religion fight to Europe rights court

PARIS (Reuters) - British employers trample on religious freedoms by barring staff from wearing crosses at work, requiring them to provide sex advice to gays, or to preside at same-sex civil partnership ceremonies, four Christians told Europe's top rights court on Tuesday.

The cases provide a further test for the European court, which has in the past allowed member states considerable leeway concerning workplace tolerance of religious beliefs and symbols.

The plaintiffs, aged 51 to 61, told the European Court of Human Rights, based in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, that British law discriminated against them and failed to protect their religious freedom at the workplace.

A decision from the court, a body under the aegis of the Council of Europe, could take several months.

One plaintiff, Nadia Eweida, was sent home without pay from British Airways in 2006 for wearing a small silver cross around her neck that violated the company's dress code.

"Considering that we spend 80 percent of our time at work, what would be the value of a right that stops the minute one enters the workplace?" Eweida's lawyer, James Dingemans, argued.

Dingemans told the rights court his client worked alongside colleagues who were allowed to wear religious symbols such as the Sikh turban, the Muslim headscarf or the Jewish skullcap.

In a similar incident, nurse Shirley Chaplin was told by her employers to remove a crucifix around her neck as it could cause injury if a patient pulled at it.

Both of their cases were dismissed by British labor courts.

The European court was also asked to rule on two other cases focusing on the tasks employees were asked to carry out at work. Those claims had also been rejected by Britain's labor courts.

One plaintiff, Gary McFarlane, was dismissed from a national counseling service when his employers judged him unwilling to offer sex advice to homosexual couples. Another, Lilian Ladele, refused to officiate at civil partnership ceremonies for gay couples as part of her duties as a registrar.

A lawyer for the British government made a distinction between religious practices protected by the state and the display of personal convictions that can be regulated.

"The petitioners had the possibility of expressing their religious convictions outside of the professional sphere," lawyer James Eadie told the court.

The human rights court has in the past given considerable leeway to member states to regulate the wearing of religious dress and display religious symbols in public, especially in cases involving Islamic dress.

In one previous case, the court ruled that a French school could make its Muslim students remove their headscarves during sports classes for safety reasons. In another, it found that an Italian state school did not violate the rights to religious freedom or education by displaying crucifixes in classrooms.

Rulings by the human rights court cannot be appealed and signatories must comply or risk exclusion from the Council of Europe.

(Writing by Alexandria Sage; Editing by Jon Hemming)

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Moon's death threatens unity of Unification Church

The death of Sun Myung Moon robs his Unification Church of the glue that sustained its global following as a cohesive religious and financial force even as membership dwindled from its 1980s peak, analysts say.

A messianic movement built on the rubble of the Korean War and exported to countries such as the United States where it found favour with both conservatives and disaffected ex-hippies, the church now faces an uncertain future.

While it claims a worldwide following of three million, experts suggest the core membership is far smaller although it still carries a commercial clout that allows the church to punch way above its doctrinal weight.

The death of its charismatic founder on Monday at the age of 92 marks "an important turning point", according to Tark Ji-Il, professor of theology at Busan Presbyterian University.

Without Moon's unifying presence, Tark and others see potential for conflict between his sons who control the church's religious and business arms and who do not command the same loyalty as their father from overseas chapters.

"The brothers have their own followers, and you can't rule out the possibility that the church could end up divided depending on how they handle things," Tark said.

While the media-coined "Moonie" moniker was intended to belittle, the fact remains that it was very much Moon's church -- founded, driven and maintained by the sheer force of his personality and the business acumen of loyal members.

Founded in 1954 a year after the Korean War, the church, like all new religious movements, initially struggled to assert itself against the establishment.

Mainstream Christian groups were particularly hostile, denouncing as heretical Moon's claim to have been personally chosen by Jesus.

Moon's survival strategy, according to Kim Heung-Soo, professor of Korean Christianity at Mokwon University, was to avoid a doctrinal conflict and instead forge close ties with the military regime then ruling South Korea.

"One way he did this was by promoting anti-communism as one of the church's major creeds," Kim said.

"He used the same strategy when he moved to the US. He was a vocal proponent of the Vietnam War, hailing it as the war against communists, and publicly supported President Nixon during the Watergate scandal," he added.

The timing of the church's expansion to the United States -- Moon moved there in 1972 -- was fortuitous for its growth, according to David Bromley, professor of religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University

"The counter-culture was breaking up, the Vietnam War was winding down and there were people spilling out of a variety of movements and looking for new options," Bromley said.

Rapid recruitment saw the church's membership swell from an initial group of 100 missionaries to around 10,000 in just a few years.

However, Bromley believes the church's influence was exaggerated, partly as a result of Moon's high-profile courtship of senior US political figures and also the accusations of widespread brainwashing levelled by the church's opponents.

"The church claimed large numbers of members and opponents also came out with huge estimates because that made it seem more dangerous," Bromley said.

"At one point, people were convinced there was a Moonie under every blanket, which obviously wasn't the case," he added.

Where Moon's church had a real advantage was its cultivation of business-minded members -- particularly in the US and Japan -- who helped build it into a multi-billion dollar commercial empire.

"It quickly became a business organisation as much as a religious one," said Tark.

Towards the end of the 1980s, membership began to fall off as the result of various scandals and political and social changes in South Korea and elsewhere that clipped Moon's influence.

"I believe that what really sustains the church now is cash from the Japanese faithful," said Tark who, like numerous other experts, believes Moon's most enduring legacy will be commercial rather than religious.

"The problem with that, of course, is that the business doesn't need the church," said Bromley.

"Before, the glue holding the global movement together was Moon with all the national chapters owing him tributes.

"Now it's divided among his children. Will Japanese members continue to throw money to his sons, or will the national groups go their own way, or collapse, or split? We really don't know."

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Pope goes green with electric car

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI is now a bit greener.

The 85-year-old pontiff was presented with his first electric car Wednesday, a customized white Renault Kangoo for jaunts around the gardens of the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo.

Benedict has been dubbed the "green pope" for his environmental concerns, which have been a hallmark of his papacy. He has written of the need to protect God's creation in his encyclicals, and raised the issue on his foreign trips and in his annual peace messages.

Under his watch, the Vatican has installed photovoltaic cells on its main auditorium and joined a reforestation project to offset its carbon dioxide emissions.

But now the pope has his own ozone-preserving electric car, which he used on Wednesday to travel from the helipad at Castel Gandolfo through the gardens back to his palazzo. He was returning to his retreat in the Alban Hills south of Rome after presiding over his weekly general audience in the Vatican.

Earlier this year, Italian automaker NWG donated an electric car to the Vatican, but it was for the press office to use. Renault on Wednesday also turned over the keys to a blue version of the Kangoo for the Vatican gendarmes to tool around Vatican City.

Though Benedict's Renault is white and carries the papal seal on its doors, it isn't a popemobile. Mercedes-Benz, which makes the customized popemobile with bullet-proof windows for the pope to use on trips outside the Vatican, has been studying a hybrid, energy-saving model.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said the pope's Kangoo isn't customized with such security features since it's designed for use inside Vatican territory at Castel Gandolfo.

In Italy, prices for the boxy Kangoo start at €15,900 ($20,000), according to Renault's website.

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Young Iraqis face religious fashion crackdown

BAGHDAD (AP) — For much of Iraq's youth, sporting blingy makeup, slicked-up hair and skintight jeans is just part of living the teenage dream. But for their elders, it's a nightmare.

A new culture rift is emerging in Iraq, as young women replace shapeless cover-ups with ankle-baring skirts and tight blouses, while men strut around in revealing slacks and spiky haircuts. The relatively skimpy styles have prompted Islamic clerics in at least two Iraqi cities to mobilize local security guards as a "fashion police" in the name of protecting religious values.

"I see the way (older people) look at me — they don't like it," said Mayada Hamid, 32, wearing a pink leopard-print headscarf with jeans, a blue blouse and lots of sparkly eyeliner Sunday while shopping at the famous gold market in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Kazimiyah.

She rolled her eyes. "It's just suppression." So far, though, there are no reports of the police actually taking action.

This is a conflict playing out across the Arab world, where conservative Islamic societies grapple with the effects of Western influence, especially the most obvious — the way their young choose to dress.

The violations of old Iraqi norms have grown especially egregious, religious officials say, since the Aug. 20 end of Ramadan, Islam's holy month. In the last two weeks, posters and banners have been hanging along the streets of Kazimiyah, sternly reminding women to wear an abaya — a long, loose black cloak that covers the body from shoulders to feet.

A similar warning came from Diwaniyah, a Shiite city about 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of the capital, where some posters have painted a red X over pictures of women wearing pants. Other banners praise women who keep their hair fully covered beneath a headscarf.

Religious officials speculate young Iraqis got carried away in celebrating the end of Ramadan and now need to be reined in.

"We support personal freedoms, but there are places that have a special status," said Sheik Mazin Saadi, a Shiite cleric from Kazimiyah, home to the double gold-domed shrine that is one of Shiite Islam's holiest sites.

He said the area's residents lobbied Baghdad's local government to ban unveiled women from walking around the neighborhood, including its sprawling open-air market that attracts people from across Iraq.

"The women started to follow to this order," Saadi said.

Government leaders in Baghdad say they've issued no such ban and ordered some of the warning posters removed. The rule "is only for the female visitors who go inside the shrine itself," said Sabar al-Saadi, chairman of the Baghdad provincial council's legal committee. "We think that wearing a veil for women in Iraq is a personal decision."

Muslim women generally wear headscarves or veils in public out of modesty, and female worshippers are required to wear an abaya or other loose robes in shrines and mosques.

But over the last several years, following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein, Western styles have crept into Iraq's fashion palate. Form-fitting clothing, stylish shoes and men's edgy hairstyles are commonly seen on the street. Some younger women have even begun to forgo the hijab, or headscarf.

Their parents — and their parents' parents — fear Western influence will drown out Iraq's centuries of culture and respect for religion.

"We as Iraqis do not respect our traditions," said Fadhil Jawad, 65, a gold seller near the Kazimiyah shrine. He estimated his profits have dropped by 10 percent in the last two weeks since authorities posted warnings about improper dress codes at the entrance to the market. He called the financial loss worth the lesson being imposed.

"Legs can be seen, there are low-cut shirts," Jawad lamented. "And all, very, very tight. I think these Iraqis who are wearing these things have come back from Syria, Dubai and Egypt. They probably spent too much time in nightclubs. The families in Kazimiyah are conservative. These young people — nobody can control them. They should be given freedoms, but they should know their limits."

Several young adults strolling the Kazimiyah gold market on Sunday accused the religious class of trying to pull Iraq back to the dark ages, a sentiment that human rights activist Hana Adwar echoed.

"It is an aggression on the rights of not only religious minorities, but also on secular Muslim women who do not want to wear veils," said Adwar, head of the Baghdad-based Iraqi Hope Association.

Men, too, have been targeted in the fashion flap: Edgy haircuts, tattoos and body piercings have angered religious authorities. But Hassan Mahdi, 22, said he does not care.

"No, hell no, nobody can tell me what to do," said Mahdi, sporting a tight turquoise Adidas tracksuit and a trendy moptop hairdo at the Kazimiyah market.

So far, it appears, the fashion police have stopped short of taking any real steps. Guards at two security checkpoints in Kazimiyah said they have not been ordered to stop daring dressers from entering the market, and 17-year-old Ali Sayeed Abdullah said his slicked-up pompadour didn't prevent him from going into the shrine. "Nobody objected," he said. "But if there is a ban on this, I will change it," referring to his hairstyle.

But some women have been handed tissues at Kazimiyah checkpoints and told to wipe off their makeup before entering the market, said resident Hakima Mahdi, 59.

"This is very good," she said, smiling broadly, sheathed in a black cloak with an extra abaya covering her head. "It's respect to the imam, respect to this holy place."

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Associated Press Writers Sameer N. Yacoub, Bushra Juhi and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad and Alaa al-Marjani in Diwaniyah, Iraq, contributed to this report.

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Korean 'messiah' leaves behind religious and business empire

The Rev. Moon Sun-myung, who called himself the “messiah” and founded a global religious movement as well as far-flung business interests, died Monday at his Unification Church complex east of South Korea's capital Seoul surrounded by family members and well-wishers.

Famed globally for his cult following of “Moonies” dedicated to worshiping him as a savior of mankind, the Rev. Moon came to be known for presiding with his wife over mass weddings of couples whom he had united on the basis of photographs and brief life stories. He also built up a global commercial empire, founding the Washington Times 30 years ago along with newspapers in Seoul and Tokyo and numerous other enterprises in fields ranging from publishing to tourism to fishing.

A political rightist and a religious zealot who claimed to have been ordained by God to minister to the world, Moon defied simplistic analysis and type-casting. Despite his conservatism, he passionately espoused relations with North Korea. Obsessed with his self-image, he attracted followers with calls for tolerance embracing all people.

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Moon leaves behind a struggling and divided religious and business empire with tentacles spreading from Korea to Japan, the United States, South American, and Europe. The question now is whether the empire can overcome divisions among sons and daughters and regain the strength of its glory days in the 1960s and 1970s as a religious and commercial force.

A PROLIFIC MAN

Moon’s wife, Hak Ja-han, whom he married ten years after fleeing captivity in North Korea in the Korean War and walking 300 miles to the South Korean port of Pusan, was at his side along with many of their sons, daughters, and grandchildren when he passed away at the age of 92.

Moon liked to say that he and his wife, who often led cheering congregations in song, were the “true parents” of the world’s people. The Moons had seven sons and seven daughters. Moon also had another son by his first wife, whom he divorced shortly before marrying Hak Ja-han, and other children in extra-marital relationships.

Moon Kook-Jin, raised as “Justin” in the US, and youngest brother Moon Hyung-jin, known as “Sean,” have vowed as leaders of their father’s spiritual and commercial interests in Korea to perpetuate his controversial legacy. Justin Moon runs the Tongil Foundation, the group’s central business organization in Seoul, while Sean Moon is international leader of the church, which claims several million members.

Justin Moon’s foundation, however, has long been at odds with US-based business interests run by brother Moon Hyun-jin, that is, “Preston” Moon.

Their older sister, Moon In-jin, called “Tatiana,” commands her own organization in the US as president of the Unification Church USA. Two years ago she helped to rescue the Washington Times, which has lost more than $2 billion since Moon founded it in 1982, by purchasing it from Preston’s group for one dollar and reviving news and sports coverage.

A FARMER'S SON

The wheeling and dealing of Moon and his progeny were often shrouded in secrecy, but the deepest mystery was how he came to possess the drive and vision needed to lead a global network of churches and enterprises involved in an amazing range of activities.

Born to a Christian farming family in North Korea, educated for two years in World War II at Waseda, a prestigious university in Tokyo, he returned to North Korea after the war to spread his religious message. Imprisoned by the North’s communist regime in 1948 for his teachings, he escaped two years later after the outbreak of the Korean War when US planes bombed the prison, killing many but breaking down the walls.

“He is telling us to challenge us to reach levels that we had not imagined possible in order to find God in our personal life and accomplish great dreams for God and humanity,” says Robin Marsh, secretary-general in London of the Universal Peace Federation, one of the groupings through which Moon spread his teachings. “He invested so many hours and resources in raising, educating and training us, for which I am very grateful.”

After founding the Unification Church in Seoul soon after the Korean War ended in 1953, Moon opened congregations in South Korea, spread his teachings to Japan and finally, in 1972, left for the US. There he lectured widely – and even got to see President Richard M. Nixon after calling for Americans to “forgive, love and unite” during the Watergate scandal.

Moon built a global following even though, as he often boasted, he was imprisoned half a dozen times – first in North Korea, then South Korea, and finally in the US. Indicted in 1981 for tax evasion, he spent 13 months in the federal penitentiary in Danbury, Connecticut.

OUTREACH TO NORTH KOREA

Among the greatest contradictions of Moon’s career was his passion for reconciliation with North Korea even while he appeared anti-communist in the cold war and a loyal fan of Park Chung-hee, the general who seized power in South Korea in 1961 and ruled until his assassination by his intelligence chief in 1979.

Looking for business and influence inside the Soviet bloc and also in North Korea, Moon met Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990 and one year later saw the North Korean dictator Kim Il-sung in Pyongyang. He professed “a special relationship” with North Korea while his organization founded a motor vehicle plant for assembling vehicles from Fiat parts and designs in the port city of Nampo. The company, named Pyeongwha, for Peace, Motors, makes sedans for privileged North Koreans.

Moon’s vision extended from commerce to the media. He founded the Washington Times with the aid of a retired South Korean army officer and diplomat, Pak Bo-hi, who remained one of his right-hand men, as well as daily newspapers in Seoul and Tokyo and magazines in the US, Japan, Korea, and elsewhere.

One of his organizations in 2000 bought the remnants of United Press International, a once great news agency that had fallen on hard times. Among other interests, Moon companies have manufactured small components of military weapons in South Korea.

MASS WEDDINGS

Moon and his wife probably garnered their most publicity, however, through mass weddings over which they presided as “True Parents of Mankind.” The two saw themselves as empowered by God to join couples in holy matrimony through which their followers would be released from original sin.

Moon officiated as “the King of all Kings” while his wife blessed the women in white gowns, the men in dark suits and mostly red neckties. Venues ranged from Madison Square Garden in 1982 to Seoul’s Chamshil Stadium in 1992.

In the last such ceremony more than two years ago, at a spacious exhibition center near Seoul, 7,000 couples from Korea and 20 other countries said “I do” at “The True Parents’ Cosmic Blessing Ceremony.”

For many, Moon leaves behind a sense of puzzlement mingled with humor about the controversies he inspired and his uncanny way of weathering storms of criticism.

“I would say he got away with it over and over and over and yet over again,” says Tom Coyner, a business consultant in Seoul. “The world will simply be a bit less colorful place with the passing of the Korean Messiah.”

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Children to carry on Rev. Moon's religious movement, but feuding could endanger the empire

GAPYEONG, South Korea - Unification Church patriarch Sun Myung Moon leaves behind children who have been groomed to lead a religious movement famous for its mass weddings and business interests — if family feuds don't bring down the empire.

Moon, the charismatic and controversial founder of the church, died Monday at age 92 at a church-owned hospital near his home in Gapyeong County, northeast of Seoul, two weeks after being hospitalized with pneumonia, church officials said.

Flags flew at half-staff at a Unification Church in Seoul as followers trickled in, some wiping away tears, some wondering what would happen to a movement defined for decades by the man who founded it in 1954 and proclaimed himself a messiah.

The Rev. Moon and wife Hak Ja Han have 10 surviving children, and, in recent years, the aging Moon had been handing them power over the church's religious, charitable and business entities.

There have been reports of family rifts. One son sued his mother's missionary group in 2011, demanding the return of more than $22 million he claimed was sent without his consent from his company to her group. A court ruled that the money was a loan but ordered it returned, the church said.

The son, known as Preston, is still in charge of a church organization in the United States, but church officials said they have asked him to leave the job.

Moon's death could expose further rifts within the church, said Kim Heung-soo, who teaches the history of Christianity at Mokwon University in the central city of Daejeon.

"There is a high possibility that internal discord will deepen," Kim said.

The church has amassed dozens of businesses in the United States, South Korea and even North Korea, including hotels, a ski resort, sports teams, schools, universities and hospitals.

One expert said the church's business prospects appear brighter than its religious future. Tark Ji-il, a professor of religion at Busan Presbyterian University, described the church not as a religious organization but as a corporation made up of people with similar religious beliefs.

The church won't give details about how much its businesses are worth, other than to describe them as part of a "multibillion-dollar" empire.

Many new religious movements collapse after their founders die, but Tark said the Unification Church would likely survive. Its success as a religious entity, however, will depend on how smoothly it resolves any family feuds and how well Moon's offspring rise to fill their father's charismatic role, he said.

There has been tragedy in the family. One son committed suicide in 1999, jumping from the 17th floor of a Reno, Nevada, hotel, officials said. Two other sons reportedly also died early, one in a train wreck and another in a car accident.

Key to the church's religious future is the Rev. Hyung-jin Moon, the U.S.-born 33-year-old who was tapped to succeed his father several years ago as head of the church.

Known as "Sean" back at Harvard, where he studied, he is more fluent in English than Korean and has signs of his father's charisma — but with an American sensibility. His sermons, delivered in English, are designed to appeal to the next generation of "Unificationists," the name followers prefer over the moniker "Moonies."

He told The Associated Press in 2009 that he questioned Christianity when he was younger. But his father stood by him throughout the phase, and asked followers not to criticize him when he turned to Buddhism briefly after his brother's death in Nevada.

An older brother, Kook-jin Moon, a 42-year-old also known as Justin, runs the Tongil Group, the church's business arm.

The church has amassed dozens of business ventures over the years, including the New Yorker Hotel, a midtown Manhattan art deco landmark, and the Yongpyong ski resort in South Korea. It gave the University of Bridgeport $110 million over more than a decade to keep the Connecticut school operating. Moon also founded the Washington Times newspaper in 1982.

The church also owns a professional soccer team, schools and hospitals. It operates the Potonggang Hotel in Pyongyang and jointly operates the Pyeonghwa Motors automaker in North Korea.

"Unification of South Korea and North Korea was a long-cherished ambition of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon," church official Kim Kab-yong said in Seoul. "He invested a lot in this. We are so heartbroken that he could not accomplish this."

Sun Myung Moon, who was born in a rural part of what is now North Korea, founded the movement after migrating south during the Korean War. He wrote in his autobiography that as a teenager he received a personal calling from Jesus Christ to carry out his work on Earth.

The church's doctrine is a mixture of Christian, Confucian and traditional Korean values, emphasizing the importance of the family unit but also encouraging multicultural unions.

Moon conducted his first mass wedding in Seoul in the early 1960s, and the "blessing ceremonies" grew in scale over the years. He encouraged his followers to call him and his wife their "True Parents," and often paired up the newlyweds himself before the mass ceremonies.

Richard Panzer, president of the Unification Theological Seminary in Barrytown, New York, called Moon "a historical figure in the history of religion." He said Moon made an "enormous contribution to understanding of the suffering heart of God and a lot of contributions toward world peace."

The seminary, established by Moon in 1975, is an interfaith institution with Buddhist, Christian and Muslim professors, Panzer said.

The Unification Church claims 3 million followers, though ex-members and critics put the number at no more than 100,000.

Joo Seung-ja, 64, said news of Moon's death was hard to accept.

"I don't know how to express this feeling," she said. "Since he taught us true love, we will live our lives by preaching true love throughout the whole world till the end."

Church officials said Moon's funeral will take place Sept. 15 after a 13-day mourning period, with a massive new sports and cultural centre built recently on the church's sprawling campus accepting mourners starting Thursday.

___

Associated Press writers Kim Hyun-ah in Gapyeong and Hyung-jin Kim and Foster Klug in Seoul contributed to this report.

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TobyMac scores rare No. 1 Christian album on Billboard chart

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Christian singer TobyMac's "Eye on It" landed the top spot on the Billboard 200 Wednesday -- only the third time ever that a Christian album hit No.1 on the main U.S. album chart.

"Eye on It" was also the first Christian disc since 1997 to notch the top spot on the Billboard 200 after selling 69,000 copies in its first week, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan.

TobyMac, 47, who was one of the first Christian rappers, also debuted at No.1 on the Christian Albums chart.

Sales for "Eye On It", his fifth studio album, were powered by Christian retailers and bookstores, Nielsen SoundScan said.

TobyMac's success puts him in the company of country star LeAnn Rimes, whose inspirational record "You Light Up My Life", lit up the Billboard chart in 1997, and Bob Carlisle, who notched two weeks at No.1 in the same year with "Butterfly Kisses (Shades of Grace)".

Elsewhere the Billboard 200 was dominated by the usual mix of hip-hop, rock and pop music.

Hip-hop group Slaughterhouse debuted at No.2 with "Welcome to Our House" pushing rapper Trey Songz' "Chapter V" down to third place and the "Now 43" hits compilation to fourth place.

Canadian-born singer Alanis Morissette's new album "Havoc and Bright Lights" entered the chart in the No.5 spot with 33,000 sales.

On the digital songs chart, country-pop crossover artist Taylor Swift held on to the top spot for a third week with single "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together".

U.S. album sales so far for 2012 stand at 197.4 million units, down four percent from the same point in 2011.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant)

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Rowan Williams admits failings over church split

LONDON (AP) — Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has admitted he didn't do enough to prevent sharp divisions within the Anglican church over homosexuality.

Williams, who is stepping down in December, spent much of his decade as archbishop trying to hold the diverse Anglican Communion together after the ordination of the first openly homosexual Anglican bishop, American Gene Robinson, split traditionalists, such as African churches, and liberals.

"I don't think I've got it right over the last 10 years. It might have helped a lot if I'd gone sooner to the United States when things began to get difficult about the ordination of gay bishops, and engaged more directly," he told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper in an interview published Saturday. "I know that I've, at various points, disappointed both conservatives and liberals."

The archbishop reiterated the church's opposition to gay marriage but said it had been "wrong" in its past treatment of homosexuals.

"We've not exactly been on the forefront of pressing for civic equality for homosexual people, and we were wrong about that," he told the newspaper.

Williams, 62, also said the Anglican Church is drawing up plans to overhaul the global duties of the Archbishop of Canterbury and introduce the role of a "presidential" figure. That figure would ideally oversee the day-to-day running of the Anglican Communion so the archbishop can concentrate on leading the Church of England, he told the newspaper.

When he steps down, Williams will take up a new post as master of Magdalene College, Cambridge.

He was appointed in 2002 as archbishop of Canterbury, the senior official in the Church of England and the spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, which says it represents 85 million people worldwide.

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Pakistan frees Christian girl accused of burning pages of Islam's holy book

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - A Pakistani jail official says that a young Christian girl accused burning pages of the Islam's holy book has been freed from a jail near the capital.

The release comes a day after a judge granted her bail.

Mushtaq Awan says the girl left the prison in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near Islamabad, Saturday afternoon.

She has been held for a little over three weeks after neighbours accused her of violating the country's strict blasphemy law.

An Associated Press reporter on the scene says she was taken from the prison in an armoured vehicle and whisked to a waiting helicopter while covered with a sheet to protect her identity.

Her lawyers say they will now push to have the case against her thrown out entirely.

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Non-Muslims "in terror" in Pakistan, world churches say

GENEVA (Reuters) - Minority religious communities in Pakistan are living in "fear and terror" of Islamic fundamentalists amid abductions and forced conversions that the government is helpless to stop, the World Council of Churches (WCC) said on Wednesday.

A statement from the WCC's ruling Central Committee declared that Pakistan's small Hindu and Christian communities were increasingly subject to "persecution and discrimination", with mounting Islamisation of a formerly more secular nation.

"Today a significant number of young women of religious minorities ... face violence, including sexual assault, rape, threats and persecution," said the WCC - an influential global organization of all Christian faiths except Roman Catholics.

These women were "abducted, confined, converted to Islam and forced to marry Muslim men," while the authorities "seem to be powerless to stop the Islamist fundamentalist forces that are responsible...and are freely operating," the WCC said.

The minority communities, the Geneva-based group added, "are living in a state of fear and terror".

The statement said minority faith leaders had constantly tackled the Pakistani authorities over the situation but they had been ignored. "This lack of protection of religious minorities by the government of Pakistan is unacceptable."

There has been an international furor over the case of a young and reportedly mentally handicapped Christian girl arrested after a Pakistani imam asserted that she had "blasphemed" by burning pages of the Koran, Islam's holy book.

The imam's action was followed by anti-Christian riots in the village where she lived, leading thousands of Christians to flee the area.

After outside protests over the case, including from some governments, the imam was detained at the weekend after an aide reportedly said he had planted scorched Koran pages on the girl to provide a pretext to drive out Christians.

But supporters of the imam say he is innocent and that Christians should be burned. The girl herself remains in what police say is protective custody.

The affair has focused attention on the controversial blasphemy law in Pakistan. The WCC will hold a meeting on the law in Geneva later this month to coincide with a session of the U.N. Human Rights Council.

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Pakistan's Christian minority outraged by arrest

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's embattled Christian minority is outraged by the arrest of a young, mentally challenged girl accused of insulting Islam.

The case has shown a spotlight on Pakistan's harsh blasphemy laws, which rights activists say are regularly used to persecute Christians and other minorities.

Christians are believed to make up two to three percent of Pakistan's population of 190 million people, and many face daily discrimination and hold low-level jobs, such as street sweeping. They often live in slums and celebrate their religion in humble, makeshift churches.

Life has become even more precarious with the rise of Islamist extremism in Pakistan in recent years. Roughly 95 percent of the country's population is Muslim.

Muslim neighbors accused the young Christian girl arrested three weeks ago of burning pages of Islam's holy book, the Quran, which is punishable by life in prison. The lawyer for the girl, who is reported to be 14 years-old and suffer from some form of mental impairment, has denied the accusation.

Many Christians who were living in the girl's neighborhood in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad fled after her arrest for fear of violent retribution.

In a twist to the case, however, police arrested a Muslim cleric from the girl's neighborhood after a member of his mosque accused him of stashing pages of a Quran in her bag to make it seem like she burnt them. He allegedly planted the evidence to push Christians out of the neighborhood. He has denied the allegation.

Now the cleric could face blasphemy charges. Activists and Christians are calling for the release of the girl, who remains in prison. She has a bail hearing Friday where her lawyers hope she will be freed. Rights activists have hailed the cleric's arrest as a rare victory for Christians and other groups in Pakistan who have faced questionable blasphemy charges.

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Late cardinal represented Catholic Church that might have been

PARIS (Reuters) - Carlo Maria Martini, the Italian cardinal due to be buried in Milan late on Monday, represented for many Roman Catholics a vision of a Church that might have been and a papacy that never was.

For progressives, he was the "eternal pope in waiting," as the Irish Times called him, the wise and understanding pastor who symbolized the fading dream of reviving the open reformist spirit of 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council.

Staunch conservatives saw him as the nightmare Rome had done well to avoid. Without naming him, a leading traditionalist blog said the Church was better off without those it said worked to "infuse the hierarchy with pure evil and relativistic rot."

Martini's frank posthumous interview, published in the Milan daily Corriere della Sera on Saturday following his death the previous day aged 85, showed why he could be so divisive.

"The Church is 200 years out of date," he declared to the interviewer, a fellow Jesuit priest, last month. "Our churches are big, our religious houses empty, the Church bureaucracy is growing and our rites and vestments are pompous.

"The Church must admit its mistakes and begin a radical change, starting from the pope and the bishops," said Martini, one of the last outspoken progressive prelates left among a Church leadership that has turned increasingly traditional.

But the renowned Biblical scholar was also a loyal and respected son of the Church to the end. Tributes poured in for him from Pope Benedict and the Roman hierarchy, despite his calls over the years for them to be more open and audacious.

Tens of thousands of the faithful paid him their last respects over the weekend as he lay in state in the cathedral of Milan, where he was archbishop from 1980 to 2002.

NO ENFANT TERRIBLE

Catholic media across Europe stressed Martini's role as a respected cardinal who dared tackle sensitive issues with an openmindedness rarely found in the Vatican's corridors of power.

"He was undoubtedly more open ... but it wasn't his role to mount the barricades," said the Belgian Catholic weekly Tertio.

"Many would like to see Martini as the 'enfant terrible' of the Catholic Church, a man who wandered on the outskirts of doctrine, and possibly even beyond doctrine, touching on heresy," wrote the Polish Catholic weekly Tygodnik Powszechny.

"There were even those who searched for this in his words and thoughts," it said. But he "rather tried to formulate within the Church the questions that he was asked outside of it."

This led him to say condoms could help fight AIDS, women should be ordained deacons and civil unions for homosexual couples could be accepted. He also said the growing number of divorced and remarried Catholics should not longer be excluded from receiving the Eucharist.

Like Benedict, Martini was born in 1927 and made a career in academic research and teaching before being promoted to head a major archdiocese. Both initially supported the 1960s reforms.

The future pope spent only five years in Munich before moving to Rome in 1982 as the Vatican's doctrinal chief, a post he used to reassert conservative positions against the liberal experimentation that followed Vatican II.

Martini ran Milan for 22 years, building a wide following in Italy and abroad as the leading voice of a progressive loyal opposition to the return to more orthodoxy stated by John Paul and accelerated by Benedict.

NO THIRD VATICAN COUNCIL

At a Synod of Bishops in 1999, he even made a veiled call for a Third Vatican Council to give local bishops more leeway and "to loosen doctrinal and disciplinary knots that reappear periodically as sore points in the Church."

But the conservative prelates promoted by John Paul, especially the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, were more concerned with undoing some of the previous council's reforms than creating new ones with a third Church world summit.

So when it came to elect a successor to John Paul in 2005, Martini entered the conclave as the sentimental favorite of a minority wing that had little hope of besting Ratzinger, who was elected after only two days of voting.

By that time, he was also too ill with Parkinson's disease to be a credible candidate, a fact made clear when he showed up for the vote in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel using a cane.

Martini was so popular in Italy that Corriere della Sera urged Benedict to come to Milan to lead his funeral as a gesture "for the unity of Catholics." It would have been a bold step, especially after Martini's interview in the same newspaper.

But popes rarely make such grand gestures and the Vatican announced that a senior cardinal would represent Benedict there.

(Reporting By Tom Heneghan; Editing by Jon Boyle)

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A fake religious camp and 5 other summer scams

2012's most sweltering months are largely behind us — which may be good news for Americans swindled by unethical air-conditioner repairmen and travel agents "Welcome to Camp Crook!" says Christina Carrega at The New York Post. Several families in New York and New Jersey were out $1,000 each when they found out that a summer camp they had enrolled their kids in was bogus. The alleged con man, Dejean Gathers of Atlanta, Ga., listed seven locations for his Camp Vision Now, but families showed up at six of the locations to find "no sign of any organized activity, just other irate parents and their kids." (The seventh, in Brooklyn, had a makeshift group of three camp counselors.) The kicker? Gathers claimed on the camp's website to be a pastor. Unfortunately, fake day camps are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to summer schemes. Here, five other scams that have cropped up during the last few months:

1. The unnecessary AC repair job 
Thanks to "the extreme summer heat," we really count on our air conditioners, and scam artists know it, says Tennessee's The Mountain Press in an editorial. So beware shady operators "charging for unnecessary repair work." Some offer "free cleanings or tune-ups," hoping that they can subsequently pressure you to unnecessarily replace your whole AC unit, or at least replace a bunch of parts that they'll overcharge you for. That's why you should always ask for written statements, and get quotes from more than one repair company.

2. The electricity bill ruse 
"This appears to be the summer of ne'er-do-wells trying to take advantage of utility customers," says Thomas Content at The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. To wit: Some alleged scammers in the Green Bay, Wis., area have pretended to be representatives of the utility company, and told air-conditioner-reliant customers that their electricity would be cut off if they didn't pay their bills upfront to these bogus collectors.

3. The vacation rental scam 
Scammers have used the popular classifieds site Craigslist to dupe would-be vacationers into renting vacation homes that are not actually available. At least two victims in Massachusetts' Martha's Vineyard say "they paid an online advertiser thousands of dollars to rent" a couple's home, only to find out from the couple that the house has never been for rent, says Sreven Myrick at The Martha's Vineyard Times. Now, some residents are anxiously wondering if "they may find visitors showing up at their door… expecting to move in for a week or two." 

SEE ALSO: BIC pens 'for her': A roundup of hilariously sarcastic reviews

4. The airline ticket fraud
"Holiday-makers are being duped into buying trips to fictitious locations, fake airline tickets, and cheap deals that cannot be honored," says Britain's This Is Money. The schemes typically involve websites "claiming to be authorized agents" that supposedly buy tickets on behalf of customers, "then claim the trip has been canceled and refuse to return their money." According to a Get Safe Online survey, about one in three travel customers fail to confirm the "authenticity of travel providers before handing over payment." 

5. The "mugged grandkid" trick
"Here's the scenario," says Barbara Diggs at Fox Business: "Grandpa gets an email from his grandkid, who claims to have been mugged while on vacation and desperately needs money." Gramps wires the money, but it ends up in the pocket of a scammer, who "hacked the grandkid's email account and lifted facts about the kid's life" to make the email's vacation details more believable. And it's not only older people who are targeted: You should probably talk to your supposedly stranded friend/relative before sending the money over.

Sources: Fox Business, The Martha's Vineyard Times, The Milwaukee Sentinel Journal, The Mountain Press, The New York Post, This Is Money

SEE ALSO: Saltbox-style homes: A slideshow

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Pakistani judge grants bail to Christian girl

ISLAMABAD (AP) — In a rare move, a Pakistani judge granted bail of $10,500 Friday to a young, mentally challenged Christian girl accused of insulting Islam by burning pages of the religion's holy book.

The case has focused attention on Pakistan's harsh blasphemy laws, which activists claim are used to persecute minorities and settle personal vendettas.

The girl, who medical officials say is 14 years old, was arrested after an angry mob surrounded her house in the capital, Islamabad, and accused her of burning pages from the Quran, an act punishable by life in prison. Her lawyer has denied the allegation.

Bail is rarely granted in blasphemy cases, which carry a stiff penalty of life in prison or death. The bail decision came after a cleric was accused of planting evidence to incriminate the girl and could signal that the case will be thrown out entirely.

Rights activists, who have been calling for the girl's release, welcomed the decision.

Judge Mohammed Azam Khan set bail at 1 million Pakistani rupees, or about $10,500, a significant sum in a country where many families live on only a few dollars a day. A Pakistani group that represents minorities said it would pay the bail.

"We feel that this is the real victory of truth and law," said Robinson Asghar, an aide to the Pakistani minister for national harmony who has been closely following the case.

Tahir Naveed Chaudhry, a lawyer representing the girl, said the bail would be paid Saturday, then she would be freed. The girl, who is being held in a prison in Rawalpindi, near the capital, Islamabad, has Down Syndrome, according to her lawyers.

Chaudhry said the defense team would next move to have the entire case dismissed.

In an unusual twist, police arrested a Muslim cleric from her neighborhood a week ago after a follower from his mosque accused him of stashing pages of a Quran in the girl's bag to make it seem as if she burned them. He allegedly planted the evidence to push Christians out of the neighborhood and is now being investigated for blasphemy himself. He has denied the allegation.

The judge gave no reason for granting bail. During the lengthy hearing in an Islamabad courtroom, attorneys for the young girl argued that the accusations against the cleric had raised reasonable doubt about her culpability in the case.

"No evidence has been brought up against her for willfully committing this crime," said one of her lawyers, Pervez Khan.

Khan said people in the neighborhood where she lived wanted to evict the Christians.

"To achieve this nefarious design, they have framed a minor girl in this case," he said.

A lawyer for Malik Ammad, the man who brought the complaint against the girl, said the judge felt she was better able to defend herself outside prison but cautioned that the case would continue.

"This doesn't mean the allegations against her were wrong," Rao Abdur Raheem said.

The Associated Press does not generally identify juveniles under 18 who are accused of crimes and is withholding her name.

While Friday's hearing was only to determine whether the girl should get bail, the judge's decision signaled a degree of sympathy for the girl.

Previous blasphemy cases have inspired widespread condemnation of the defendants by a Pakistani public that generally supports the laws. But few Muslim clerics or political leaders are pushing for her prosecution, likely due to the girl's age and mental state. In fact, a Pakistani association of Muslim clerics have been advocating on her behalf.

The head of Human Rights Watch in Pakistan, Ali Dayan Hasan, praised the judge's decision to grant the young girl bail.

"All charges against her should be dropped," Hasan said. "Human Rights Watch hopes that the blatant abuse that has come to light in this case will lead to a considered re-examination of the law, and all stakeholders in Pakistan will actively seek to end frequent abuses perpetrated under cover of blasphemy allegations."

Whether the case will lead to any changes in the blasphemy laws remains to be seen.

One of the key questions is whether she and her family will be safe once the girl is out from behind bars. People accused of blasphemy have often been victims of vigilante justice by angry mobs.

Last year two prominent politicians were gunned down in Pakistan for suggesting that the blasphemy laws should be amended so that they cannot be misused. The killer of one of the politicians was later lauded by supporters who threw rose petals whenever he appeared at court.

One of the girl's lawyers, speaking before the bail decision was announced, said it would be the responsibility of the government to protect her and her family if she's released but that he was confident they would be able to do it.

"We are really worried about her security," said Raja Ikram Ameen Minhas.

__

Rebecca Santana can be reached at http://twitter.com/@ruskygal

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Unification Church head Sun Myung Moon dies at 92

GAPYEONG, South Korea (Reuters) - Sun Myung Moon, a self-declared messiah who founded the controversial Unification Church which has millions of followers around the globe, died on Monday leaving a vast business empire and a legacy of mass weddings.

Church officials said Moon, 92, who had suffered complications from pneumonia, was taken to hospital in Seoul in mid-August and was moved to a hospital in a rural retreat last week when his family believed there was little chance of recovery.

His body was lying in a vast building resembling the White House at the retreat in rugged hills about an hour outside the South Korean capital of Seoul. The funeral will be on September 15, after which he will be buried at the retreat.

Moon had led an active public life until recently, officiating a mass wedding for 2,500 in March and leading a service of more than 15,000 followers in July.

Critics have for years vilified the church as a heretical and dangerous cult and questioned its murky finances and how it indoctrinates followers, described in derogatory terms as "Moonies."

Moon is survived by his wife - the pair are called "true parents" by followers - and 10 of their 13 children.

Religious experts say Moon will remain at the centre of the church, keeping it together despite signs of previously unimaginable fissure among his sons, according to a creed that had been prepared since a helicopter crash four years ago that nearly killed Moon and his wife.

Born in what is now North Korea in 1920, Moon founded the church soon after the Korean War that ended in 1953, rapidly expanding the ministry internationally and building a business at the same time that served as the backbone of the empire.

The Unification Church runs the Segye Times newspaper in South Korea and more than a dozen other firms along with overseas businesses, including the conservative Washington Times.

"The Unification Church will continue to be in good shape even after Sun Myung Moon's death," said Tark Ji-il, who teaches church history at the Busan Presbyterian University.

"The Unification Church is not simply a religious organisation, but is a commercial organisation built on religious conviction."

MOON "MET JESUS"

Moon's farming parents followed the Presbyterian Church, a branch of Protestant Christianity. When he was 15, he said, he met Jesus, who appeared to him as he prayed in the hills and asked him to take on the work of building God's kingdom on Earth.

Moon refused twice, according to a biography by Mike Breen, former journalist for the Washington Times.

"Jesus asked him a third time. 'There is no one else who can do this work.' ... From the comfort of his youthful ideals, he peered over the abyss of the difficulties that would lie ahead and decided. 'I will do it,' he promised."

Moon led an active public life until recently, officiating with his wife at a mass wedding for 2,500 people from around the world in March and in July leading a massive service of more than 15,000 followers.

Moon had handed over day-to-day operations of the church, which has its headquarters in Seoul, to one of his sons and the management of the Tongil Group with interests in construction, resorts, travel agencies and the newspaper to another son.

Church officials and followers alike rejected the idea that the man who proclaimed himself a messiah would be reincarnated.

"The church teaches us, dust to dust, and it's the soul that goes to heaven, and so is the law, the truth and order of things, which is why all humans come and go," said Lee Sang-bo, a life-long follower of the church who said he was married at a mass wedding in 1982.

"And a messiah is no exception."

Moon was known as a strident anti-communist and visited North Korea in 1991 to meet the reclusive state's founder, Kim Il-sung, to discuss business ventures and unification, a visit condemned by South Korea which remains technically at war with the North.

He also courted controversy in his business life and served prison term in New York after a 1982 conviction on tax evasion charges.

(Additional reporting by Jack Kim and Sung-won Shim; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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Police: Man grew marijuana on Pa. church property

GROVE CITY, Pa. (AP) — Police say a western Pennsylvania man has been arrested and charged with growing marijuana on a church's property.

State police arrested 28-year-old Jason Como on Saturday after the Beloved Disciples Church reported that two suspected marijuana plants were growing on their property in Grove City, about 60 miles north of Pittsburgh.

Authorities found a small path that led from the plants to the backyard of a nearby home. They contacted Como and say he confessed to growing the plants.

Como was charged with manufacturing and cultivating a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Court papers don't list an attorney for Como, and a phone number for him couldn't immediately be located.

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