![]()
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe celebrated his election victory on Saturday by saying that he intends to stay in power until his 100th birthday. His opponents were left hoping that he must be half joking. The exultant president also boasted that his victory sent a message to British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
A multitude of names, spanning the entire religious and political spectrum, are now being touted as the next pope. But predicting who will become the spiritual head of the Catholic Church is a notoriously difficult exercise. History shows that the church has a tendency to overlook the favourite candidates.
”A few moments before he died, the pope raised his right hand, moving it in an obvious, if only faint, gesture of blessing, as if he were aware of the crowd … in the square who were following the saying of the rosary. As soon as the prayer was over, the pope made a very great effort and said the word ‘Amen’. A moment later, he was dead.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, United States President George Bush, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, French President Jacques Chirac and many others all paid tribute to Pope John Paul II after the pope’s death on Saturday.
Frank Arnesen’s office is neatly arranged. Shelves lining the room display dozens of football reference books and scouting videos. A map of Great Britain is marked with little red flags denoting the location of each Premiership club. The Dane charged with restoring greatness to Tottenham has meticulousness in his method.
On the death of a pope, his successor is elected by a college of cardinals meeting in conclave in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The system of election has been changed several times over the 2 000 years of the papacy’s existence, with Pope John Paul II having himself introduced a new set of rules in 1996.
Since the foundation of the Christian religion nearly 2 000 years ago, about 264 popes have presided over the church’s fortunes, from Simon Peter of Galilee to the former Karol Wojtyla of Poland, better known as Pope John Paul II, who died on Saturday evening.
John Paul II revolutionised the papacy with his formidable energy and intellectual abilities but his most lasting memorial was to be achieved in the field of politics: the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. The pope, who died on Saturday aged 84, gave the papacy a higher profile than it had ever had before.
Pope John Paul II, spiritual leader of the world’s 1,1-billion Roman Catholics, died on Saturday at 9.37pm, the Vatican announced. The 84-year-old pontiff died two days after suffering heart failure brought on by two months of acute breathing problems and other infections. Tens of thousands packed St Peter’s Square on Saturday.
![]()
The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) has called for investigations into allegations of fraud during Zimbabwe’s parliamentary elections. The union body — which staged a demonstration of solidarity with Zimbabwean workers — said it believed the elections took place in ”a flawed political and legal context”.