VaticanUS President George W. Bush knelt before the body of John Paul II as authorities sought to stem a vast tide of pilgrims eager to pay homage to the longest-reigning and best loved pope in modern times. Iraq Iraqi MPs chose Kurdish former rebel leader Jalal Talabani as the country's first freely elected president, paving the way for a new government more than two months after landmark polls. Afghanistan A US military helicopter went down in southeastern Afghanistan, killing 16 people and leaving two others missing, in the worst crash suffered by US-led forces since they toppled the Taliban in late 2001. India-Pakistan-Kashmir India's prime minister pledged that the first trans-Kashmir bus service in almost 60 years would go ahead as planned despite a bloody attack by militants on a complex housing passengers. EU Italy ratified the European Union's constitution, becoming the first large country in the 25-nation bloc to do so. Vatican Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian will attend Pope John Paul II's funeral in Rome, a move sure to anger China which regards the island as part of its territory, the foreign ministry said. SAfrica-ICoast Ivory Coast leaders declared an end to a two-and-a-half-year civil war that has left the west African country, once one of the continent's most prosperous and stable nations, divided and ruined. NIreland-Britain Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams urged his party's military wing, the IRA, to take an "historic" decision to abandon the armed struggle and engage in the democratic political process in Northern Ireland. Monaco Monaco was mourning the death of Prince Rainier, the 81-year-old leader who transformed the tiny Mediterranean state into a thriving modern economy and touched the world with his fairy-tale marriage to Grace Kelly. Angola Angola's parliament passed a resolution asking the government of President Eduardo dos Santos for rapid measures to combat the outbreak of the deadly Ebola-like Marburg virus, which has now killed 159 people.