Pope gives final Sunday blessing before thursday’s retirement
Pope Benedict XVI delivered his final Sunday blessing at St. Peter’s Square before he steps down on Thursday. An estimated 100,000 people gathered at noon to see his next-to-last public appointment of his nearly eight-year papacy, according to The Associated Press. From his studio window overlooking the square, Benedict told the assembled crowd he would dedicate himself “more to prayer and meditation.”
Benedict will do this in a secluded monastery that’s behind Vatican City’s ancient walls. The monastery is undergoing renovations and while it finishes, Benedict will reside at the Vatican summer residence outside Rome. According to AP, flags from many nations were seen in the crowd, especially from Brazil. Also, a person campaigned with a banner mentioning the names of two Italian cardinals said to be potential contenders in the selection of the next pope.
Guam airdropping poisoned mice on invasive snake population
Approximately 2,000 poisoned baby mice will be dropped by helicopter over Guamanian jungle areas in an effort to reduce the brown tree snake population in the island, according to Reuters. The species of snake is believed to have been carried to the island at the end of World War II aboard U.S. military vessels, and are blamed for wiping out native bird populations in Guam. The snakes have no natural predators in Guam and wildfire officials worry they’ll one day reach other Pacific islands, such as Hawaii, as stowaways in aircrafts, wreaking environmental havoc.
The project is set to begin in March or April. According to Reuters, each mouse will be stuffed with acetaminophen in the mouth, which is poisonous to snakes and “not a lot of other animals,” wildlife biologist at the U.S. Agriculture Department’s National Wildlife Research Center in Hawaii William Pitt said. Pitt says, the goal of the assault is to control the snake population, not to eliminate it.
Topless activists attack Italian candidate at polling station
Three topless members of Ukrainian feminist movement Femen tried to attack three-time former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at a polling station. The leader of the center-right coalition was casting his vote for Sunday’s parliamentary elections for which he is a candidate. Shouting “Basta Berlusconi” (“Enough With Berlusconi”) the same slogan they painted on their bare upper bodies, the activists broke through a line of journalists in an attempt to reach Berlusconi, but were immediately stopped by bodyguards. Video shows the activists jumping and kicking as they are pushed, carried and dragged outside the polling station by bodyguards. They were later detained by police. According to Reuters, Berlusconi is on trial for charges of having sex with an underaged prostitute–charges which he denies. He has previously been involved in fraud and sex scandals and has a record of criminal allegations, including mafia collusion, false accounting, tax fraud, corruption and bribery.
Femen activists have conducted protests during numerous international public events. Its last protest was in early February to mark the Pope’s resignation, when some of their body paint read “Pope no more.”
