The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Berlin - Pope John Paul is in poor health and the faithful should pray for him, one of his closest advisers was quoted as saying in a German magazine interview published Tuesday. "He is in a bad way," Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger of Germany told the weekly Bunte. "We should pray for the Pope." The Polish-born pontiff, who was elected as Pope in 1978, is 83 and suffers from Parkinson's disease. On Sunday, he spoke with great difficulty and stopped to catch his breath several times as he announced the appointment of 31 new cardinals from his studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square. The elevation of the new cardinals was moved up by months - raising speculation that it was because of the pontiff's health. Jerusalem - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants the next stage of Israel's security fence to swing around several Jewish settlements deep in the West Bank, and hopes to defuse U.S. objections by leaving large gaps in the barrier for now, an adviser and settler officials said Tuesday. Israel's security cabinet takes up the plan on Wednesday and is likely to approve it. Palestinians have denounced the project as an Israeli land grab. Baghdad - Iraqis are unlikely to adopt a new constitution within six months, as proposed by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, a spokesman for the president of the Iraqi Governing Council said Tuesday.1/10/03
