Six people have been arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred after footage appeared on the internet apparently showing Korans being burnt.

The pastor who threatened to burn copies of the Koran on the ninth anniversary of 9/11 has been hit with a bill for more than $180,000 (£115,000) by the city of Gainesville, Florida, for the disruption his stunt caused.

The long-troubled state of Kashmir suffered one of its bloodiest days when at least 18 people were killed and more than a hundred injured as security forces opened fire on protesters in confrontations across the valley.

Two protesters were killed and several more injured as for a third straight day violent demonstrations swept Afghanistan yesterday in response to the threats made by a US church to burn copies of the Koran.

It is a measure of the interconnected nature of the world that a decision by a small-time Florida pastor could be met with relief around the globe. Terry Jones suspended his plan for a Koran-burning to mark today's anniversary of the attacks of 9/11 in response to a report, not subsequently confirmed, that the controversial Islamic Centre would be moved from its intended site near Ground Zero.

A protester was shot dead and at least 11 others were injured in Afghanistan yesterday as rallies against the plan by a Florida pastor to burn copies of the Koran – apparently now abandoned – turned violent.

For a chap who probably doesn't exist, a man-invented metaphysical construct, God has been everywhere this week. He's been more in the news than Wayne Rooney's "well-brought-up" hooker. First Professor Stephen Hawking informed us that you didn't need God to kick-start the universe, and that it had created itself out of nothing, a bit like Piers Morgan. Then Baroness Greenfield, professor of "synaptic pharmacology" at Oxford, confronted the professor and said it would be a shame if young people thought that, to be a scientist, you had to be an atheist.

In the end, Terry Jones saw reason. But just a few hours earlier, his mind had been very far from magnanimous gestures of conciliation.

The pastor who planned an "International Burn-a-Koran Day" on September 11 called off the protest tonight after his plans were widely condemned.

US President Barack Obama today condemned a preacher's plan to stage a burning of the Koran saying it would be "a recruitment bonanza for al-Qa'ida."