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VATICAN CITY (AFP) - Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II went some way towards reassuring worried Catholics that his health had improved, during a regular Sunday Angelus appearance from his window overlooking St Peter's Square only a few days after being discharged from hospital. The 84-year-old pontiff recited the few words of his weekly blessing in a tired but clear voice, though -- as has become the norm in recent weeks -- he left the longer Angelus prayer as well as his weekly message to an aide to read. John Paul II made no direct mention of his...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope John Paul's private secretary played down concerns about the pontiff's health on Thursday and said recent comments by a senior cardinal about the pope's condition had been taken out of context. Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the pope's long-term personal secretary, said Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a senior German prelate, had broken down in tears when he discovered that comments he made in the street had been reported in a magazine. "Cardinal Ratzinger was crying yesterday," Dziwisz told reporters attending a meeting between the pope and the president of Lithuania at the Vatican. "He didn't give anyone an...

Linux shouldn't work. It's an operating system designed by hackers, the kind of people who can give you detailed plot synopses of every "Star Trek" episode. The "official" releases of the OS are really just releases of the kernel, the basic core of the system. Other companies and groups assemble drivers, programs, interfaces, etc., and package them all together in distributions, which are free to the public. You can view and modify the Linux source code, if you're into that kinky stuff. Microsoft would spend a zillion dollars in court before it let anyone look at the code for Windows....

TORONTO - Calling it a source of "sadness and shame", Pope John Paul II publicly acknowledged the Roman Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal to hundreds of thousands gathered near Toronto for an open air mass. The 82-year-old Pope arrived late as the military helicopter carefully navigated the dark, rain-filled skies, touching down to the sounds of the Hallelujah Chorus. The crowd, estimated at 800,000, cheered and waved to the pontiff as the "Popemobile" snaked through the crowd. John Paul waved to the crowds, visible under a sea of umbrellas, tarpaulins and plastic sheets. Security was tight as guards pressed back...