John Paul misses post-Easter event

Vatican City Pope John Paul II skipped another tradition Monday – a post-Easter blessing from his window – ending the Easter holiday as silently as he had begun it.

A few hundred people gathered in St. Peter’s Square in hopes that the pope would appear as he has on each Easter Monday of his 26-year pontificate. Cameras zoomed in on his window, but the curtains stayed closed.

The pope, 84, is recovering from Feb. 24 surgery.

Australian musician found hanged in park

Sydney, Australia The drummer from the 1980s Australian rock band Crowded House hanged himself in a park in southern Australia, authorities said Monday.

Paul Hester, 46, was reported missing Friday. His body was found Saturday in a park near his home in Melbourne, officials said.

Hester joined the New Zealand group Split Enz in 1983.

He helped form Crowded House in 1985.

Syria orders 2,000 troops from Lebanon

Beirut, Lebanon Syria cut back its troops in Lebanon to the lowest level in three decades as 2,000 more soldiers have returned home in recent days, the Lebanese military said Monday.

The move put Damascus on track to have all its forces out of Lebanon before parliamentary elections in May.

Despite the withdrawal, pressure mounted on Syria and the allied Lebanese government to complete the pullout quickly, hold elections on time and cooperate with an international inquiry into former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination on Feb. 14.

Lebanon’s acting Foreign Ministry chief, Butros Asaker, flew to New York for a United Nations Security Council session aimed at forming an international inquiry into Hariri’s killing.