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Pope John Paul II passes away

     Vatican City: Pope John Paul II passed away on Saturday night at his residence after protracted illness. He was 84. He had been suffering from malfunctioning of the heart and the lungs and various infections for the last two months and had been to hospital off and on. US President George Bush said, "the Catholic church has lost its shepherd, the world has lost a champion of human freedom, and a good and faithful servant of God has been called home." Earlier, Roman Catholics around the world, numbering about 1.1 billion, continued to wait anxiously for the latest news on the Pope's deteriorating health, which eventually brought to a close a 26-year-long reign that has been significant in more ways than one. Catholics from all walks of life across the globe, be it India, Britain, the United States or Poland (the Pope's home country) were flocking to churches well past midnight Friday to light candles and pray for the man who took over the papacy in 1978, visited 129 countries and territories in 104 trips outside Italy to promote his vision of Christianity.

      In the medical bulletin that was issued from the Vatican on Friday evening, it was stated that John Paul II's heart and kidneys were weakening and that his blood pressure had sunk to a very low and dangerous level. Reports from Warsaw said that churches stayed open all night as Poles prayed in the streets for him to step back from the brink of death that would see the end of the third longest papal reign in history. The Archbishop of Krakow, Franciszek Macharski, a long-time friend of the Pope,- told his audience: "Do not feel shame at showing your emotion and at shedding tears."

      In New York City at Saint Patrick's Cathedral, church-goers wept at services led by Cardinal Edward Egan. In Washington, D.C. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick spoke to his congregation at Saint Matthew's Cathedral with hope. A special Mass was held in Rome on Friday as thousands of people held an evening vigil in St Peter's Square. Up to 70,000 attended past midnight, but numbers had dwindled to just a few hundred by the early hours of Saturday. Many in the crowd chanted and cried uncontrollably. More than 20,000 Brazilians gathered for a mass in Sao Paulo.

      The Vatican made three statements on Friday, seemingly to prepare Catholics to expect the worst. Cardinals - who will elect a new pope after John Paul dies - are arriving in Rome from all over the world, Italian media reported. The Pope's vicar general of Rome, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, said the pontiff was already "at one" with Jesus Christ. Another senior clergyman, Angelo Comastri, told about 30,000 people gathered in St Peter's Square: "This evening or this night, Christ opens the door to the Pope." Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said on Friday evening that the Pope's overall condition had been "notably compromised". The Pope's condition deteriorated on Thursday after he developed a urinary tract infection that later brought on "septic shock and a cardio-circulatory collapse". He was given the Catholic sacrament for the sick and dying - called the Anointing of the Sick. But the Pope decided not to return to Rome's Gemelli hospital. He was being treated in his apartment by a team of four top consultants and his private doctor Renato Buzzonetti.

     More than 100 cardinals from around the world will be called to Rome to choose a successor at a conclave that normally starts in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel 15 to 20 days after the death. There is no favourite candidate to take over as head of the Church, but some churchmen believe the developing world should provide the next pope as that is where the religion is most vibrant. Nearly half of all Catholics are in Latin America.

Former Clinton aide admits to taking documents (Go To Top)

     Washington: Former US National Security Adviser Samuel Berger has pleaded guilty to removing copies of a classified memo before his testimony before the 9/11 Commission. Appearing before a court in Washington DC, Berger acknowledged that he destroyed three copies of a document that dealt with terrorist plots to disrupt the millennium celebrations. The offence carries a maximum one-year prison sentence and a fine of 100,000 dollars. Berger has agreed to give up his security clearance and co- operate with the investigation. He will be sentenced in July, a foreign news agency said in a report. Berger said that as Clinton's national security adviser, he reviewed thousands of pages of classified terrorism and security documents in a secure reading room at the National Archives in Washington. It was during this review that he and his lawyers removed the notes that he (Berger) had made about the anti-terror papers he consulted. Berger served as President Clinton's national security adviser from 1997 to 2001. The Commission published its report in July last year.

Crude oil price hits alarming level (Go To Top)

     Washington: Alarm bells have started ringing across the globe after crude oil prices touched record high levels on Friday, prompting Goldman Sachs, the world's leading investment bank, into issuing a warning that the cost of a barrel of oil could eventually cost more than a 100 dollars. Goldman Sachs said that oil prices could touch a high of 105 dollars a barrel, and this turn could inflate prices of other essential commodities as well. Prices of light crude in the United States rose by as much as 2.40 dollars to 57.70 dollars a barrel, but by the close, the price had slipped back to 57.27 dollars a barrel. The previous high was 57.60 dollars on March 17. In London, the benchmark contract of Brent crude was priced at 56.51 dollars a barrel, a jump of over four percent.

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