Vatican The embalmed body of Pope John Paul II was to go on public view in the Vatican, giving hundreds of thousands of people a chance to pay a final farewell to their beloved pontiff before his funeral later this week. Vatican The death of Pope John Paul II's set in motion a chain of events laid down by centuries of papal tradition, but the face of the next pontiff is a guess no one dares to hazard. Vatican From Catholic bastions in Latin America, Europe and Africa, to Hindu-majority India, Orthodox Greece and mainly Muslim Indonesia, the world united to mourn the passing of Pope John Paul II, eulogizing him as a towering figure and a messenger of peace and mutual tolerance. Vatican As eulogies poured in memory of Pope John Paul II, the first sounds of discord emerged from critics of his conservative views with some accusing him of befriending dictatorships and others criticizing his stance on homosexuals, celibacy and contraception. Iraq Iraq's new parliament elected a Sunni Muslim speaker, ending two months of bitter sectarian wrangling, as an insurgent assault on a US-run jail wounded 44 US soldiers and 12 detainees. Lebanon-Syria Syria has pledged to complete its troop withdrawal from Lebanon by the end of this month, bringing to a close almost 30 years of military presence in the country, UN special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said. Russia-Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan's ousted leader Askar Akayev announced that he had agreed to resign, ending weeks of political uncertainty that followed the toppling of his Soviet-era regime in the key Central Asian nation. Sudan-Egypt Leaders from Chad, Egypt, Libya, Nigeria and Sudan are to meet for a summit on April 20 in Egypt to discuss the troubled Sudanese region of Darfur, the Egyptian foreign minister said. Zimbabwe Zimbabwe's neighbours endorsed elections overwhelmingly won by President Robert Mugabe's ruling party, brushing aside opposition complaints of fraud and countering criticism from the United States, Britain and other western governments. Thailand Two people were killed and at least 40 wounded when three near-simultaneous bombs exploded at an airport in southern Thailand, outside a Carrefour supermarket and near a hotel, police said.