Pope appears despite condition
Vatican City Looking gaunt, Pope John Paul II appeared at his studio window Wednesday before thousands of pilgrims and tourists in St. Peter’s Square, raising his hand in blessing a few times but remaining silent.
John Paul’s appearance was anxiously awaited by the faithful after Italian news reports that the 84-year-old leader of the Roman Catholic Church was not responding well to medication.
An announcement on Tuesday that the Wednesday audience so popular with pilgrims from around the world would not be held was widely seen as a sign that he was recovering more slowly than expected from throat surgery on Feb. 24 aimed at easing a breathing crisis.
The chief of the pope’s medical team, reacting to suggestions in the Italian media that the pope’s health had deteriorated suddenly, ruled out that John Paul might be sent back to the hospital after his discharge 10 days ago.
Kyrgyz police quiet election-fraud ralliers
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan Riot police broke up a small opposition rally in the center of the Kyrgyz capital on Wednesday, signaling the government’s determination to keep the protests over alleged election fraud, which have thrown much of the south under opposition control, from spreading north.
The show of force came hours after President Askar Akayev fired the interior minister and chief prosecutor over the unrest in southern Kyrgyzstan, where opposition protesters have seized control of several key government buildings and kept pressure on the president to resign.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nikolai Tanayev was planning to visit the southern city of Osh to seek negotiations, Akayev spokesman Abdil Seghizbayev said, but he stressed there would be no talks with “criminal groups that are controlling the situation there.”
In the capital, Bishkek, some 200 riot police encircled groups of protesters who were calling for Akayev’s ouster, scuffling with those who resisted and locking elbows to force roughly 100 demonstrators out of the square.
Bobby Fischer granted Icelandic citizenship
Ushiku, Japan Chess legend Bobby Fischer was freed today after nearly nine months in a Japanese detention center and immediately headed for the airport to board a flight to his new home, Iceland.
Fischer was accompanied by his fiancee, Miyoko Watai, the head of Japan’s chess association, and an official from the Icelandic Embassy. They were headed for the airport to try and catch an afternoon flight to Iceland.
The eccentric chess icon was taken into custody by Japanese immigration officials in July when he tried to leave the country using an invalid U.S. passport.
Fischer, who has been held in detention since his arrest, claims the passport was revoked illegally and sued to block a deportation order to the United States, where he is wanted for violating sanctions imposed on the former Yugoslavia by playing an exhibition match against Russian Boris Spassky in 1992.
This week, Iceland’s Parliament stepped in to break the standoff, awarding citizenship to Fischer. Iceland is where Fischer won the world championship in 1972, defeating Spassky in a classic Cold War showdown that propelled Fischer to international stardom.
Fischer could still face extradition to the United States; Iceland, like Japan, has an extradition treaty with Washington.