Excerpt:
A large mosque in the German city of Cologne, famous for the soaring spires of its Gothic cathedral, is to be built after the city council finally gave it the go-ahead.
The mosque, which will hold up to 2,000 people, will be one of the largest in Europe and is to feature minarets 180 feet high, a third as tall as the nearby cathedral.
Building work was due to get underway last autumn despite a vigorous protest movement, which has featured both Jewish intellectuals and the political far-right.