CAIRO — The Irish Nobel Peace Prize laureate on an aid ship heading to Gaza says the activists on board will not resist Israeli soldiers if they board the vessel.

Mairead McGuire said today the 1,200-ton Rachel Corrie is 134 miles off the Gaza coast and is expected to reach Israel's 20-mile exclusion zone Saturday morning.

She said the mission aims to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, which is under a three-year-old Israeli blockade. Israel has vowed the ship will not reach land.

McGuire said the activists are prepared to be arrested and taken to Israel if Israeli soldiers board the boat.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI departed today on a sensitive three-day trip to Cyprus, a visit likely to be overshadowed by shock over the killing in Turkey of a bishop who had been scheduled to meet with the pontiff.Cyprus, an island divided between ethnic Turks and Greeks, is viewed by the Vatican as a bridge between Europe and the Middle East. The pope's visit is expected to be a key test of whether the pope has found his diplomatic feet after his linking of Islam to violence during a speech in Germany led to outrage in the Muslim world — and nearly forced the cancellation of a trip to Turkey in 2006.Benedict's meeting with church officials could, however, be overshadowed by the death of Bishop Luigi Padovese, the church apostolic vicar in Anatolia, who was killed Thursday. Officials have identified the killer as the bishop's driver and say it was not politically motivated. Today, a Turkish court said the driver was charged with murder and jailed pending trial.The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Padovese's killing shows the "difficult conditions" the Catholic community faces in the Middle East.