Rome

Pope leaves hospital

To cries of “Long live the pope!” John Paul II left the hospital and returned to the Vatican on Sunday, two and a half weeks after undergoing throat surgery to ease his breathing.

Vatican officials said the 84-year-old pope would continue his convalescence at his residence after his second hospitalization this year.

Earlier in the day, John Paul gave a short, live address to the Roman Catholic faithful for the first time since Feb. 24, when he underwent a tracheotomy to insert a breathing tube in his windpipe after a bout of flu constricted his breathing.

“Dear brothers and sisters, thank you for your visit,” he said in Italian to well-wishers who had gathered beneath his 10th floor hospital window. He then switched to Polish and welcomed a group of pilgrims from his birthplace, the town of Wadowice in southern Poland.

Though the pope’s voice was raspy and he labored to catch his breath between sentences, the words were clear. “Greetings in Christ. To everyone, have a good Sunday and a good week,” he concluded in Italian.

Lebanon

Syrian forces poised to leave before elections

Syria has withdrawn nearly a third of its 14,000 troops from Lebanon, a senior Lebanese army officer said Sunday, while a Syrian Cabinet minister said all the troops would be gone before Lebanese parliamentary elections slated to begin next month.

Since Tuesday some 4,000 Syrian soldiers have crossed into Syria, the Lebanese official said on condition of anonymity, and the 10,000 troops still in the country have mainly pulled back to the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, near the Syrian border. However, 1,000 intelligence officers remain in the country, mainly in the north around Tripoli and Akkar and on the southern edge of Beirut.

President Bush has demanded that all Syrian troops be gone by the elections. The Cabinet minister, Bouthaina Shaaban, told CNN: “The elections will take place and I think the troops will move out of Lebanon probably before then.”

In southern Lebanon, meanwhile, at least 100,000 pro-Syrian demonstrators turned out in the market town of Nabatiyeh, where protesters burned Israeli flags and waved posters of Assad, his late father, President Hafez Assad, and pro-Syrian Lebanese President Emile Lahoud. It was the second big protest organized by the militant Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah in a week.

Jerusalem

Israel pledges to remove settlements

Israel’s Cabinet on Sunday affirmed it would dismantle 24 illegal West Bank settlement outposts but did not say when they will be removed and evaded a decision on the fate of 81 other such enclaves.

The decision fell short of U.S. and Palestinian demands for a speedy dismantling of all outposts, but Cabinet ministers said their removal must wait until after a planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip this summer.

In their weekly meeting, the ministers discussed a highly critical report that blamed the government for helping to set up and expand a total of 105 such outposts in the past decade.

According to the U.S.-backed “road map” peace plan, Israel must remove all the outposts created since March 2001 — 24 according to the outpost report. Seventy-one outposts were built before that date, and in 10 cases it was not clear when they were set up.

China

Parliament passes anti-secession law

China’s national legislature today overwhelmingly approved a law authorizing a military attack to stop Taiwan from pursuing formal independence, a day after President Hu Jintao told the 2.5 million-member People’s Liberation Army to be prepared for war.

The measure was approved by a vote of 2,896 to zero, with two abstentions on the last day of the figurehead National People’s Congress’ annual session.

“We shall step up preparations for possible military struggle and enhance our capabilities to cope with crises, safeguard peace, prevent wars and win the wars if any,” the official Xinhua News Agency quoted Hu as saying Sunday.

Hu’s comments, made to military delegates at the national legislature, appeared aimed at underlining Beijing’s determination to unify with democratically ruled Taiwan, which split from the Chinese mainland in 1949.

Beijing insists Taiwan is part of the communist mainland, and has long threatened to invade if Taipei takes formal steps toward independence.