ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey's ruling Islamic-rooted party joined a wave of criticism of Pope Benedict XVI today, accusing him of trying to revive the spirit of the Crusades with remarks he made about Islam.

The Vatican said the pope did not intend the remarks — made in Germany on Tuesday during an address at a university — to be offensive.

The pope quoted from a book recounting a conversation between 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and a Persian scholar on the truths of Christianity and Islam.

"The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," the pope said.

"He said, I quote, 'Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached,"' he quoted the emperor as saying. He did not explicitly agree with them nor repudiate them.

SAN`A, Yemen — Suicide bombers tried to strike two oil facilities in Yemen with explosives-packed cars, but authorities foiled the attacks and four bombers and a security guard were killed, the government said today.In the first attack, two suicide bombers drove "at great speed" toward the Dubba Port at 5:15 a.m. in an attempt to blow up storage tanks containing a "huge amount" of oil, the ministry said.Guards "managed to blow up the rigged cars before they reached their targets."At 5:50 a.m., security guards at a refinery in Mareb blew up two white cars loaded with explosives.The two attackers were killed and no one else was hurt.

MONTREAL — A 25-year-old man who mounted a deadly shooting rampage at a downtown Montreal college had posted pictures of himself on the Internet with a rifle and said he was feeling "crazy" and "postal" and was drinking whiskey hours before the attack.Kimveer Gill also said on a blog that he liked to play a role-playing Internet game about the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado and wanted to die "in a hail of gunfire."Gill put his gun to his head and pulled the trigger during a shootout with officers at Dawson College on Wednesday.Gill had already wounded 20 others by the time he took his own life. One of his victims, an 18-year-old woman, later died.