Vatican A biblical tide of humanity thronged the streets around the Vatican, eager to pay last respects to John Paul II as cardinals convened for a third day to make final arrangements for the funeral. Iraq Iraq's new parliament chose former Kurdish rebel fighter Jalal Talabani as the country's first freely elected president in history and Islamist Adel Abdel Mahdi and Sunni tribal magnate Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar as his two deputies. Monaco Prince Rainier of Monaco died at the age of 81 after weeks in intensive care fighting heart, lung and kidney problems, the royal palace said, ending a life marked by Hollywood glamour after his marriage to Grace Kelly. US Saul Bellow, the Nobel Prize winning legend of US literature who produced award winning novels such as "Herzog" and "Humboldt's Gift" died Tuesday at the age of 89, US media reported. ADB Two million more Asians have joined the ranks of the poor following the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster even though the overall impact on the economies of the affected countries looks small, said the Asian Development Bank. Japan A row over school textbooks escalated as Tokyo accused Beijing of whipping up anti-Japanese sentiment and the South Korean government summoned the Japanese ambassador over the issue. US Michael Jackson's defense against child sex charges took a fresh blow when his former maid told how she caught him in the shower with an Australian boy. Health Bird flu deaths in Asia reached 50 as Vietnamese medical sources reported a 10-year-old girl had died in the capital. Mideast Israel sought to downplay a row with the United States over the planned expansion of a major West Bank settlement by insisting that there was no immediate prospect of its implementation. Saudi Al-Qaeda's suspected chief in Saudi Arabia was among at least 14 militants killed in three days of fierce gunbattles with security forces in the north of the kingdom, the exiled opposition said. HongKong Hong Kong will ask Beijing to step in and avert a looming "constitutional crisis" over the tenure of its next chief executive, the city's caretaker leader said, triggering an angry response from pro-democracy lawmakers in the Chinese enclave. Japan Japan has decided Sudan is too risky to contribute UN peacekeeping troops, ruling against a mission that would have marked a new breakthrough for the officially pacifist country, reports said.